Why I'm Overjoyed at the Response Weird: The Al Yankovic Story has Received
Mondo print
Comedies tend not to do very well at the Academy Awards and when it is represented on the Oscar stage it is often in a perplexing and pandering way.
For example the script for Groundhog Day was not nominated for an Academy Award despite being one of the greatest screenplays of all time, the comedy equivalent of Chinatown but Crocodile Dundee and My Big Fat Greek Wedding both snagged Oscar nods.
The Academy’s snobby indifference, apathy and hostility towards comedy is a reflection of the way we as a culture do not adequately value or appreciate comedy.
It is the unfortunate fate of many a beloved cult comedy to go misunderstood and underrated during their initial run, only to pick up a dedicated cult following on home video and through repertory screenings.
That is particularly true of comedies that are conceptual, crazy, weird or pitched squarely at comedy writers and comedy nerds.
Think of The Big Lebowski. It’s one of the most revered films of the past half century. An entire subculture has sprung up around it. But at the time of its release in 1998 it was received in some quarters less as a kooky comic masterpiece than as a weird prank the Coen Brothers were pulling on the moviegoing public after the Academy Award-winning triumph of Fargo.
Or contemplate the curious arc of Wet Hot American Summer. David Wain and Michael Showalter’s glorious riff on summer camp movies of the 1980s was a flop that was eviscerated by critics. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of thirty eight. It didn’t do much better on Metacritic, where it scored a meager forty-two while Roger Ebert gave it one star out of four.
I could go on and on. And I will! When MacGruber was released in 2010 it was received not as one of the best Saturday Night Live movies ever, right up there with Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World but rather as just another egregiously unnecessary piece of cynical product from Lorne Michaels’ prolific comedy factory.
2007’s Hot Rod, which we can all agree represents an unassailable apogee of cinematic comedy, was similarly underrated and misunderstood. Its Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores are nearly identical to those of Wet Hot American Summer.
When an ambitious, conceptual musical comedy was appropriately appreciated by critics it often failed to connect with audiences. Walk Hard and Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping were critically acclaimed box office flops that found their audience on home video.
2022’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is very much in the mold-breaking mold of the aforementioned cult classics, as well as UHF, which famously bombed at the box office and was hated by critics like Roger Ebert, who seemed to have a weird grudge against its star and cowriter.
It consequently stands to reason that it would get a similar response as the aforementioned movies: being under-appreciated and dismissed at the time of its release before developing a sizable and devoted cult following on home video.
That did not happen, thankfully. Though it was not released to universal acclaim Weird: The Al Yankovic Story got overwhelmingly positive reviews despite being the kind of crazy conceptual comedy that film critics can be relied upon to not get.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story did not have to wait years, or decades, to be understood and appreciated. It was understood and appreciated right off the bat.
Movies as crazy and audacious and just plain weird as Weird: The Al Yankovic Story generally aren’t supposed to be the type to get critical raves or win awards or make a big cultural impact no matter how funny or smart or clever they are.
Yet, in an unlikely and wonderful development, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story did get critical raves and HAS been winning awards and has made a big cultural impact.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story triumphed at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. It’s been nominated for prestigious awards from the likes of the Writers Guild of America and Director’s Guild of America.
Last night Weird: The Al Yankovic Story picked up huge wins at the Critic’s Choice Awards for Best Movie Made for Television and Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie Made for Television, where Daniel Radcliffe beat out the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Andrew Garfield and Ben Foster.
Why is Weird: The Al Yankovic Story getting the warm initial reception its peers did not? There are a few reasons. For starters, “Weird Al” Yankovic has amassed more goodwill than just about any living American this side of Dolly Parton, Jimmy Carter or Tom Hanks.
This is one of Al’s best original songs.
We’ve learned to trust Al and his instincts. So if he does something really crazy and out there, like making a movie ostensibly about himself that deviates wildly from the historical record at every turn, we know that he knows what he’s doing and that it will turn out well.
We’ve also learned from the way previous cult comedy masterpieces were treated unfairly and not given a chance and don’t want to repeat our mistakes.
And of course it does not hurt that Weird: The Al Yankovic Story was marketed and promoted in a very smart, effective way and debuted on television, where all of the movies I’m talking about went from being commercial and/or critical failures to big cult successes.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story skipped the whole “failing at the box-office and being misunderstood in the theaters” part and went straight to being a widely beloved instant cult classic.
That is a fate it very much deserves and will hopefully also greet other comedies that take huge chances and go to crazy places and should be lauded rather than dismissed or disparaged for doing so.
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