Ben Folds Five Lyrics

“Weird Al” Yankovic

In Set List , we talk to veteran musicians about some of their most famous songs, learning about their lives and careers (and maybe hearing a good backstage anecdote or two) in the process. 

The Musician: “Weird Al” Yankovic crawled his way out of the novelty music ghetto to become a pop icon and one of our most consistent and least likely hitmakers. Few would have pegged the Dr. Demento Show breakout star for longevity when he released his 1983 self-titled debut, but 28 years later, Yankovic is still at the top of his game, artistically and commercially. For nearly three decades, Yankovic has served as a human funhouse mirror that reflects our pop culture’s obsessions and compulsions back to us in agreeably twisted and contorted forms. In a remarkable act of pop-art ventriloquism, Yankovic has been able to slip inside the skins of everyone from Michael Jackson and Madonna to Lady Gaga and Chamillionaire without losing his identity, winning three Grammys (from nine nominations) and scoring six platinum records in the process. He also co-wrote and starred in the cult comedy UHF and created the terrific but under-watched kids program The Weird Al Show. Yankovic recently made headlines when Lady Gaga’s camp first denied, then ultimately granted Yankovic permission to parody “Born This Way” as “Perform This Way,” the first single for Alpocalypse , the pop icon’s first album in five years.  

“Skipper Dan” (from 2011’s Alpocalypse )

“Weird Al” Yankovic: “Skipper Dan” is a bit more poignant than what I usually write. I still think it would qualify as a comedy song, but it’s definitely a little more bittersweet. It’s kind of a character study. I was inspired one time when my family and I actually did go on the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland, and the skipper that we had just offhandedly referred to his failed acting career. Immediately, the bells went off in my head, and I thought, “Well, here’s a song right here.” So I created a whole backstory for this guy, and made him a very bitter failed actor who once had a promising career, and now his life has devolved into basically doing a seven-minute bad comedy routine 34 times a day. 

AVC: Do you ever think, “That could have been a path that I may have taken had things not worked out?