Movies - TV
Weird's 'Yankovic Bump' Has The Real-Life Numbers To Back It Up
By MICHAEL BOYLE
“Weird,” the Weird Al Yankovic fake biopic, is filled with fictitious accounts of the parody singer’s life as the artist himself has admitted his life wasn’t quite “interesting enough” to “merit a Hollywood biopic.” While the movie creators were uninterested in giving an accurate account of his experience, the film has some authentic moments.
One of the more notable truths in the film, which the movie makes into a major plot point, is the “Yankovic bump,” a boost in sales for the original artists after Weird Al parodies a song. In an interview, Yankovic shared, “I heard from Nirvana’s record label that, when my parody ‘Smells Like Nirvana’ was released, they sold like an extra million units of ‘Nevermind.’”
He continued, “Artists’ record sales spike when the parody comes out, so we kind of took that little nugget and extrapolated it into this whole subplot about Madonna wanting that Yankovic bump!” The two may have never been a real couple, but Al said Madonna had actually “wondered aloud” to a “mutual friend” if he could make a parody song called “Like a Surgeon.”