“Weird Al” Yankovic released a new album today. Bearing the oxymoronic title Mandatory Fun, the album is Yankovic’s last on his current contract with RCA, making him an independent artist for the time being. He’s been doing the rounds on podcasts – Comedy Bang Bang, Doug Loves Movies, and more – to promote the album. More notably, though, Weird Al is releasing eight music videos in eight days.

For the first one, the “Happy”-aping “Tacky,” Weird Al enlisted Jack Black, Kristen Schaal, Eric Stonestreet, Margaret Cho, and Aisha Tyler to get gaudy and dance. That dropped yesterday; today we get the “Blurred Lines”-skewering “Word Crimes.” If you have any friends who are English majors or enthusiasts, you’ve likely seen this all over Facebook, complete with a “YES” or a “FINALLY!!!”

In creating composition teachers’ new favorite thing, the punctuation-conscious and usage-minded Weird Al takes lazy texters, bad spellers, and anyone who spells with a number and isn’t Prince to task for their poor choices. Most of us haven’t diagrammed a sentence in years – Al’s self-appointed mandate is to change that. This song is way more fun when it’s taken away from a guy who sounds like a sexual predator and reworked by a grammar nerd, so pull out the latest edition of Webster’s and get friendly with the spell check. To catch the next six videos as they come, stay tuned to Weird Al’s website. If you don’t like Weird Al, remember to properly posit your disdain with “I couldn’t care less” in your tweets and Facebook comments.

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Tyler Hanan

Tyler raves about movies on the Let The Right Films In podcast. Listen to him make jokes over his beleaguered cohost Kayla St. Onge and their more qualified guests who deserve so much better at soundcloud.com/ltrfipod. Find him on Twitter @tylerhanan.

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