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In 2010, Funny or Die released a fake trailer for a satirical biographical film titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story directed by Eric Appel and starring Aaron Paul as musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. Additional co-stars in the three-minute-long trailer included Olivia Wilde as Madonna, Gary Cole and Mary Steenburgen as Yankovic's parents, and Patton Oswalt as Dr. Demento. Yankovic himself cameoed as a record producer. Yankovic would play the trailer on his concert tours leading some fans to think it was for a real feature film or encourage him to adapt it into one.
Studios passed on the idea of his biography being a spoof of musician biographies, not wanting to produce full on parodies. Yankovic and Appel played on common tropes, mostly amplifying the arbitrary changes to the true life story. They opted to retain the setting of the film within Yankovic's early career between 1979 and 1985, only going off this period for the inclusion of "Amish Paradise" from 1996 at the end of the film.
Yankovic and Appel were aware that Radcliffe was a fan of classic comedic musicians such as Tom Lehrer; for his part, Radcliffe felt that his November 2010 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, during which he sang a rendition of Lehrer's song "The Elements", was the reason for his casting.
As part of his preparation, Radcliffe learned the principles of playing the accordion, Yankovic's signature instrument, through video tutorials Yankovic had made for him. Radcliffe sang the songs live on camera while filming, but his vocals were replaced with pre-recorded ones by Yankovic in the final product. Yankovic and Appel would later express some regret over not letting Radcliffe perform his own vocals, given Radcliffe's Broadway background.
Some events in the film are based on facts from Yankovic's life: he did receive his first accordion from a traveling salesman; "My Bologna" was recorded in a public bathroom, though in real life, this was a bathroom across from the KCPR radio station offices; there has been a "Yankovic effect" in that being parodied by Yankovic helped boost the success of the original songs by other musicians, notably with Nirvana and Yankovic's parody "Smells Like Nirvana"; and Madonna did originally come up with the concept of Yankovic's parody "Like a Surgeon", which Yankovic had heard about and agreed was a good idea.
It was actually "My Bologna" that got 'Weird Al' Yankovic a record deal. In mid-1979, Dr. Demento helped popularize "My Bologna" after receiving a tape from Weird Al, whose music he already knew and promoted due to a 1976 encounter. Dr. Demento played "My Bologna" on his radio show to good response from listeners. So when Yankovic met The Knack after a show at his college and introduced himself as the author of "My Bologna", the band knew what he was talking about. The Knack's lead singer, Doug Fieger, said he liked the song and suggested that Capitol Records vice president Rupert Perry release it as a single. The label gave Yankovic a six-month recording contract and released it as a single.
'Weird Al' Yankovic really did perform "Another One Rides the Bus" for a major audience for the first time in the presence of Dr. Demento. In addition, his percussionist Jon improvising and using an accordion case also happened, just not in the way portrayed in the film with the entire song being improvised on the spot. In reality, on September 14, 1980 Yankovic was a guest on the Dr. Demento Show, where he was to record a new parody live. The song was "Another One Rides the Bus", a parody of Queen's hit "Another One Bites the Dust." While practicing the song outside the sound booth he met Jon Schwartz ("Bermuda"), who told him he was a drummer and agreed to bang on Yankovic's accordion case to help Yankovic keep a steady beat during the song. They rehearsed the song just a few times before the show began.
Al never smoked, drank, or did drugs. One of his college buddies claimed if they had got him to do any of that, he might turn "normal."
Even though Weird is a parody, the filmmakers sought to cast actors known primarily for dramatic roles. Appel believed the humor would then come from the actors playing their roles in a serious, grounded manner, as if they were in a dramatic biopic, despite the absurdity of the scenes.
Yankovic reached out to his "holiday card mailing list" to bring a number of celebrities to cameo in the film, most shown during the Dr. Demento pool party scene. While the script called for Al to be challenged by Freddie Mercury at the pool party, terms of Yankovic's agreement with the band Queen for "Another One Rides the Bus" said that Yankovic could not mention Mercury. They reached out to The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) to appear as the other members of Queen instead, but while Samberg was unavailable, Schaffer and Taccone still wanted to participate in the film, and were cast as Alice Cooper and Pee-wee Herman, respectively. David Dastmalchian was eventually cast as bassist John Deacon. Lin-Manuel Miranda contacted Yankovic within minutes of the announcement of the film's production, requesting a role.
Guests at Dr. Demento's pool party include Devo, Frank Zappa, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Tiny Tim, Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens), David Bowie, Gallagher, Wolfman Jack, John Deacon, John Denver, Divine, Elton John, Elvira (Cassandra Peterson), Alice Cooper, Grace Jones, and Kate Pierson.
Devo is present at Dr. Demento's pool party. Though Al never directly parodied one of their songs, his song 'Dare to be Stupid' is a "style parody" of Devo's sound, and Devo's song "Jocko Homo" is the first song in "Polkas on 45", 'Weird Al' Yankovic's first released polka medley.
During the pool party, Andy Warhol (played by Conan O'Brien) comments on the future of 'Weird Al' Yankovic by saying, "I give him 15 minutes." This is a reference to the famous saying (misattributed to Andy Warhol) that, in the future, everybody will be world-famous for at least 15 minutes.
Patton Oswalt, who played Dr. Demento in the original short, had been set to play this role in the film, but he broke his foot shortly before shooting began, and due to the tight schedule, the production could not afford to wait. They were able to bring in Rainn Wilson to play the role three days before filming commenced. Oswalt was still able to cameo in the film as a heckler in a bar. Aaron Paul, who played Yankovic in the original short, had been set to cameo as the said bar heckler, but he came down with COVID-19 during the filming period and was unable to participate.
Dr. Demento's pool party draws inspiration from a similar scene in the film Boogie Nights (1997), while Al being arrested onstage is based on the 1969 incident with The Doors frontman Jim Morrison during a concert in Miami. The end-credits scene includes a parody of Carrie (1976), in which Madonna comes to visit Al's grave, only to be grabbed at the wrist by a zombified arm.
The film's soundtrack was released the same day as the film's release. Regardless of the lyrics in Weird Al’s original track “Now You Know” for the end credits, the film did not get a full theatrical release, therefore was not eligible for the 95th Academy Awards. It was, however, eligible for the 75th Prime Time Emmy Awards.
When looking at the flyers for band auditions, one flyer is advertising "Kuni's Karate School." Kuni was a character from 'Weird Al' Yankovic's The Vidiot from UHF (1989) who ran a karate school and berated his pupils for being "stupid."
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