AFP
LOS ANGELES
US comedian-singer “Weird Al” Yankovic has scored a career-first number one album following a viral video campaign parodying two of the biggest hits of the past year.
Yankovic, 54, famed for his spoof 1984 version of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” - “Eat It” - finally found chart-topping glory after coming up with comic versions of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Pharrell’s “Happy.”
Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” has become reimagined as “Word Crimes” - a lighthearted rallying cry against poor grammar - while “Happy” is aped as “Tacky,” poking fun at eccentric fashion tastes.
Both parodies were included on the album “Mandatory Fun” which has debuted at number one on Billboard’s 200 chart. It is the first comedy album to reach top spot since 1963 and logged the highest weekly sales of any comedy album for 20 years.