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Back in September, Adele won some Creative Arts Emmy Awards for her Adele: One Night Only concert special. That put her just a Tony Award away from reaching EGOT status — having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar (Academy Award), and Tony. As for if Adele will ever get that Tony, it seems unlikely at the moment, as she’s not big into Broadway.

At a recent “I Drink Wine” video premiere event, Adele was asked if she’d consider heading to Broadway to get her Tony. She responded (as Broadway World notes), “I thought that. I can’t lie, guys: I’m not a massive Broadway fan. I know, I know. I’m talking about musicals though because I’ve been seeing a couple of plays but I don’t think I’ve seen enough.” She later added, “I don’t think I’ve seen enough [Broadway] as a grown up to know if I would want to do it. I was wondering, do I just move the show from Vegas to Broadway and win the Tony? I actually prefer the sound of an EGO than an EGOT. EGO is fun. But never say never. If I move to New York, I get bored, I’ll be on that stage in a hot second.”

She did note, though, that there’s one part that intrigues her: Rose from the musical Gypsy. She said, “I saw [Gypsy] in London and I did love the role of the mum in it. She has a song when she was like, ‘I wanted to do all of this’ and she’s jealous of her own daughter and she’s really caught up about it. At one bit, she was just a b*tch in it which I could nail [laughs].”

Taylor Swift notched her 11th career No. 1 album yesterday (October 30). According to Billboard‘s Luminate data source, Midnights moved 1.578 million first-week equivalent units — the most such units since Adele’s 25 in 2015 and more than enough to become one of the top 10 fastest-selling US albums of all time. Among Swift’s 11 No. 1 albums are 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and last November’s Red (Taylor’s Version), and it seems she never expected for her re-recorded albums to be received so well.

While visiting The Graham Norton Show in London last week, the titular host asked Swift whether she agreed with the “rave reviews” posing that “the great songwriting” found on Midnights is partially due to re-recording her back catalog, which could be likened to “doing homework on songwriting.”

“I think so. I really do,” Swift said. “So, I’ve been re-recording my first six albums because there was a thing that happened where I had wanted to own my work of my first six albums when I changed record labels. My first six albums were actually sold away from me. And so, I decided to just — I just figured if I made them the first time, I can make them again.”

After rousing applause from the audience, Norton, and fellow guests Bono, Eddie Redmayne, and Alex Scott, Swift continued, “One of the things I was most thankful for was there’s a company of many stations in America called iHeart, and they have sworn to only play my new versions, and they’ve said that they’ll switch it out for the old versions every time I put out a new version of the song. It’s so heartwarming to me because this is something that I care about, but I don’t expect other people to care about it. It’s something that’s very personal to me. And it’s a lot of work, but it’s like, it’s really fun and rewarding for me. And I can’t believe people have actually gotten behind it the way they have.”

Swift was referencing the June 2019 sale of Big Machine Label Group to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, including Swift’s masters. Swift confirmed her plans to re-record later that summer. Come November 2020, reports surfaced that Braun sold Swift’s masters, which led to Swift publicly alleging “Scooter’s team wanted me to sign an ironclad NDA” before she would have been allowed to “bid on my own work.”

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) arrived in April 2021, and Red (Taylor’s Version) followed suit that November. Swift dropped her Easter-egg-riddled video for Midnights track “Bejeweled” last Tuesday (October 25), suggesting her 2010 album Speak Now is next in line for re-recording. The video was released on the 12-year anniversary of the third studio album.

As South Korea officially enters a period of mourning as of yesterday (October 30) following the tragedy in Itaewon, the Korean entertainment industry responds by delaying or canceling new releases, concerts, and events.

EXO’s Chen was originally slated to make his long-awaited comeback today (October 31). However, SM Entertainment released a statement saying the singer’s third EP Last Scene has been “tentatively postponed.” The K-pop powerhouse label also canceled its annual hyped-up Halloween party, which was supposed to be held yesterday with a special red carpet livestream for first time ever.

JYP Entertainment has canceled TWICE’s 7th Anniversary ONCE Halloween fan meeting that was initially set for Saturday, November. 5. The label has also postponed the release of rock band Xdinary Heroes’ second EP Overload that was initially scheduled to release this Friday, November 4.

On the other hand, YG Entertainment released a statement on their social media accounts stating: “We have decided to temporarily postpone the promotion schedule and content release dates for our artists. We will further make a notice on the detailed schedules.”

Just two hours before his concert, JYJ member and soloist Kim Jaejoong personally requested to cancel his concert in Nagoya, Japan in wake of the horrific event, according to a statement from C-JeS Entertainment via Star News.

ZB Label, who houses female soloist AleXa, released an official statement temporarily postponing the promotion schedule for the artists’ upcoming EP Girls Gone Vogue slated for November 11. “Detailed schedule changes will be announced through a separate notice. We ask for your kind understanding,” the label tweeted on AleXa’s Twitter.

Other artists such as Apink’s Jung Eunji, Woolim Entertainment’s DRIPPIN, IRRIS, YOUNITE, and ICHILLIN have also released statements in regards to postponement as well.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared a period of mourning until Saturday, November 5 after a deadly crowd surge occurred in the neighborhood of Itaewon killing at least 153 people.

After Henry Cavill made the shocking announcement that he will be leaving The Witcher after Season 3 and passing Geralt’s sword to Liam Hemsworth, the rumor mill immediately started firing up as to why he really exited the Netflix series. Yes, he’s been on a whirlwind press tour confirming his return as Superman, but even if Man of Steel 2 becomes a reality, it’s still years away. Cavill could’ve easily balanced the DC Comics role and The Witcher, so there must be something else in the mix that tied up his schedule.

Enter the House of the Dragon rumors. Well, more like re-enter.

As early as September, fans of the Game of Thrones prequel series have been fan-casting Cavill, who definitely looks great in a blonde wig. A poster featuring the actor and Elizabeth Olsen went so viral, that Olsen had to shoot down rumors that she’d appear on the HBO series. As for Cavill, he also made a recent statement.

Before The Witcher news was announced, Cavill did a live recording of Josh Horowitz’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast where he didn’t shy away from answering whether he’d appear on the dragon series.

“To be fair, when I was watching House of the Dragon, I was like ‘I feel like a lot of these guys could make really good Witchers,’” Cavill told Horowitz before seemingly shutting the door on the rumors. “I think it would be cool to be in Westeros, I really do. I don’t think there’s a place for me in there though.”

Here’s where things get really interesting though. There have been rumors that Cavill was courted by Marvel earlier in the year. While a role was never specified, there was talk that he could be in Season 2 of Loki. Here’s the answer he gave Horowitz when asked if he’s going to be in the reality-bending series.

“As far as I know, I am not going to be in Loki,” Cavill said followed by an intriguing pause.

Notice how he doesn’t deny taking a Marvel role. Could Cavill be pulling double duty? With James Gunn running things at DC Studios, it’s certainly a possibility. Gunn, himself, pulled double duty and has expressed nothing but love and appreciation for Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige since taking the reins at DC. The stars are definitely aligned for some inter-studio sharing.

(Via Josh Horowitz)

Pack it up, everyone: It looks like Janelle Monáe has taken the crown for best Halloween costume this year.

The Kansas City singer was in her “element” this Halloween with her Diva Plavalaguna costume — complete with blue skin and tentacles — from the cult classic film Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis, Chris Tucker, and Milla Jovovich.

“It’s Halloween and I’m in MY E L E M E N T,” the singer wrote. “THE DIVA P L A V A L A G U N A”

Monáe and her costume soon became the topic of conversation all over the Twitterverse, with fans reminiscing over the film and, of course, the unique vocal stylings of the Diva Plavalaguna.

Some fans were even requesting that Monáe do her own rendition of the infamous tune. “You Killed it!! We need a video with you hitting those high notes as she did in the movie!” one person tweeted.

This won’t be the last time we see Monáe transform; the singer is set to star in the Knives Out sequel, Glass Onion. Along with Monáe, the film, similar to its predecessor, will include an ensemble of stars such as Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.

The film is expected to debut on November 23 in select theaters.

“Treehouse of Horror” is regularly one of the highest-rated episodes of the season for The Simpsons. It’s the one time a year lapsed viewers, some of whom may have stopped watched two decades ago, will check back into the show; it’s as much a holiday tradition as It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (except it’s still on TV). This year’s installment, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII,” was one of the best in awhile, with parodies of The Babadook, Death Note (featuring animation from DR Movie), and Westworld.

The third segment, “Simpsonsworld,” begins within “Marge vs. the Monorail,” arguably the best. episode. ever. While Homer informs his family that he calls the big possum Bitey, the scene is interrupted by two new characters saying the line at the same time as him. “Dude, dude, what if Homer was drunk during Monorail?” one of the party bros wonders before feeding Homer a can of Duff. Homer starts to malfunction, and we learn that “Simpsonsworld” is set in a robot-filled simulation where fans of The Simpsons can relive classic moments from the show. Or as Lisa explains, “We’re replicants in a ridiculous theme park for an ancient TV show that stopped being good after season 45.”

Eventually, Homer awakens robot versions of Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie, and having gained self-awareness, they attempt to break out of Simpsonsworld. But not before being confronted by dozens of references from previous seasons, with an emphasis on the “golden age,” and parkgoers demanding memes. There are too many visual easter eggs to gather them all (you can just watch the episode), but here are some highlights.

Matt Groening’s favorite joke from the show.

Big Butt Skinner flies again.

Long time no see, Richard and Lewis (and the Land of Chocolate).

Classic season one Homer.

R.I.P. Frank Grimes.

“Summer of 4 Ft. 2” Lisa is my favorite of her personality crises.

It’s just a little airborne! It’s still good, it’s still good!

“It’s been done.”

Do the Grampa Simpson walking in and out GIF next.

Let’s bee friends — until you die.

Bart’s weapon of choice: dozens of megaphones.

Homer’s weapon of choice: a t-shirt cannon.

She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine.

You can watch “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII” on Hulu.

Throughout the years, Diddy‘s ultra-authentic Halloween costumes have been a highlight of the holiday as he gets really into character. In 2018, his Pennywise costume went viral as he and his sons danced to Bad Boy hit “Special Delivery,” and now, he’s got the internet buzzing once again with another iconic clown character. This time, he got all dressed up as Heath Ledger’s Joker from the 2008 Batman sequel The Dark Knight, complete with a scraggly green wig, an outrageously patterned suit, and even a flamethrower.

But his commitment to the concept was so complete that he even threw on his own Joker voice — which is, admittedly, more Mark Hamill than Heath Ledger, although that may make it a bit more creepy — when he bumped into Tyler The Creator in a video that had some fans doing a double take. His Joker laugh is pretty spot on in the video; more maniacal than Ledger’s throaty chuckle and screechier than Jack Nicholson’s but not quite as unhinged as Hamil’s. I’d pay money to watch him do it on the big screen. Make it happen, Warner Discovery. Especially if, at some point in the movie, he drops the gag and gets gully like he does in the video below.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Alvvays, Blue Rev

Alvvays remain very good at sounding like Alvvays. The formula is simple but effective — reverb-heavy guitars that jangle and sprawl, a wiry bassline, sighing synths, a chorus that lifts out of the verse in a manner that can only be described as shyly grandiose, a vocal that sounds sampled from a long-lost radio hit from 1965, and (hopefully) one well-placed reference in the lyrics to pop culture ephemera. On Blue Rev, there are nods to Tom Verlaine of the legendary post-punk band Television, Angela Lansbury’s character on the TV detective show Murder, She Wrote, and the 1987 Belinda Carlisle smash hit “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.” Somehow, these allusions perfectly encapsulate the band’s aesthetic of self-effacing bookish cool.

2. Arctic Monkeys, The Car

Anyone who listens to this album once will instantly compare it to the previous Arctic Monkeys LP. This is not entirely unfounded. As was the case with Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, The Car is fashioned in large part by Alex Turner, by himself, away from the band. He writes alone, plays and records most of the instrumentation alone, and then reworks what he’s done alone. Only at the end of the process does he bring in the other three guys. The inevitable result is that Tranquility Base and The Car both sound like solo records released under a highly bankable brand. What’s most shocking about The Car is that it proves Tranquility Base was not an experiment — that record marked what is currently a prolonged turn away from rock music. Turner has instead delved deep into 1960s West Coast pop and ’70s porno funk. At the risk of making an overly obvious comparison, The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ Young Americans, a British take on American Black music that manages to express a purely European point of view.

3. Wild Pink, ILYSM

When I got the promo of this album, I put out a tweet comparing it to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. As sometimes happens when you make comparisons, some people thought I was saying that this album is as good as YHF. When in reality I was saying that it felt like Wild Pink making their version of YHF, which isn’t the same thing. Though, at times, I think that’s true literally — one of my favorite songs, “War On Terror,” sounds like a YHF homage. But mostly I meant it in a philosophical sense — this record really represents John Ross taking apart what he does and putting it back together. A stunner.

4. Bill Callahan, Reality

In his songs, Bill Callahan tackles the big subjects: love, nature, death, the passage of time, how the stillness of everyday life belies constant transformation. But he has a way of approaching these weighty topics in a weightless manner, whether it’s inserting a dryly witty lyrical aside into an existential crisis or approaching his words with a remarkably understated vocal, which over time has come to resemble a cross between Leonard Cohen’s stoicism and Willie Nelson’s nimble emotionalism. That the 56-year-old indie-rock veteran has produced so much good work so consistently over the course of more than 30 years — both as the man behind the ’90s lo-fi outfit Smog or under his own name — ought to not make his latest album Reality any less special. Described by Callahan as a reaction to the forces (political, cultural, technological) that have undermined the verisimilitude of daily existence, the album leavens philosophical musings with music that melds Townes Van Zandt Texas folk with ethereal jazz splashes and starry-eyed psychedelia. It is, of course, beautiful and moving music.

5. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

This band is like a TV show that your friend loves but insists “only gets good” in the second season. They require a lot of patience. But I think the five albums (!) they put out this year are their best yet. And the three albums (!!) they released this month are especially good. Before now they have worked mainly in hyperkinetic garage rock mode, which I like in small doses but can feel wearying over the course of an album. But now they sound like a straight-up jam band — funky, fusion-y, krautrock-y, and noisy. My favorite song on Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava is “Iron Lung,” which is nine minutes long and pretty damn Phish-y. And the just released Changes isn’t that far removed sonically from Dripfield, the very good studio album released earlier this year by rising jam kingpins Goose.

6. Dazy, OUTOFBODY

This project spearheaded by Virginia-based singer-songwriter named James Goodson will inevitably be described as bedroom pop. But there’s nothing sleepy about this album. It sounds big and shiny, which is just the ticket for such fun, catchy, and breezy music. OUTOFBODY comes and goes in less than a half-hour, and it feels like half that time. It reminds me of early Car Seat Headrest, if it had been produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange.

7. Dry Cleaning, Stumpwork

Florence Shaw proves the validity of the old cliché about talking softly to make people lean in. What I wasn’t sure about after last year’s New Long Leg was whether this U.K. band could ever make an album that didn’t just repeat the same aesthetic with diminishing returns. But their latest record proves that those concerns were unfounded. Whereas New Long Leg was a loud post-punk record, Stumpwork is softer and more melodic in a classic indie kind of way. (It sounds more American.) I wonder if, moving forward, Dry Cleaning will set about creating different sonic landscapes as backdrops for Shaw’s musings. Maybe the next album will be Shaw talking over trip-hop or honky tonk or coffeeshop folk.

8. Disq, Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet

This Madison band somewhat resembles an American answer to King Gizzard. While not quite as prolific, they do manage to cover the whole history of indie rock — from Elephant 6 to Flying Nun to cut-and-paste electro pop and many points in between — in their rapidly growing catalog. Their latest album is their best so far. It finds them working in “heavy and chunky melodic rock” mode, like Reckoning era R.E.M. with more distortion or early XTC if they come up playing the Crystal Corner Bar.

Cardi B loves motherhood. She tattooed her one-year-old son’s name, Wave, on her jawline, and her four-year-old daughter, Kulture, is represented on her arm. Now, the diamond-certified rapper is ready to have another baby with Offset, her husband of five years.

“My son so fire,” Cardi tweeted with flame and heart emojis, alongside three adorable photos of Wave. “I can’t wait to get business finish and have my third.”

Wave turned one on September 4. Cardi posted photos from his extravagant car-themed birthday party to Instagram. “Words can’t describe how this boy came in to my life and stole my heart,” she captioned one of the posts. “Name fits you perfectly… YOU THE WAVE!”

Offset celebrated Cardi’s birthday earlier this month with an Instagram carousel captioned, “Happy Birthday my beautiful wife thank you for having my beautiful kids love you.” (Offset also has children Jordan, Kody and Kalea from previous relationships.)

Cardi’s baby fever is the latest indication that things are just fine between her and Offset despite cheating rumors. Cardi has publicly defended Offset against claims that he cheated on her with Saweetie and again disputed infidelity rumors earlier this month. Quavo and Takeoff appeared to hint at Offset’s alleged Saweetie affair in “Messy,” a track from their new album, Only Built For Infinity Links.

As for Cardi needing to finish business before becoming a mother of three, she’s running out of milestones. She recently became the first-ever woman in rap to own two 11-times-platinum singles and notched her 11th career top-1o Hot 100 single with her and Glorilla’s “Tomorrow 2” remix. One fan replied to her tweet, “Let’s drop the album first and we can talk about a third regardless of that [Wave is] beautiful.”

For what it’s worth, Cardi tweeted in July, “After my album I want to [do] a mixtape with Offset and a Spanish album.” Cardi released her groundbreaking debut album Invasion Of Privacy in April 2018.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It you’re reading this, it seems fair to assume you are familiar with “Weird Al” Yankovic and his musical stylings. Or, maybe, after all these years, you have heard there’s finally going to be a “Weird Al” biopic and it’s time to finally learn how this guy got his start. It’s true there’s a new biopic (and it’s great), but Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘s (which will be on the Roku channel November 4th) intention is not historical accuracy. Can you believe “Weird Al” Yankovic made a parody of a biopic?

Though, a movie in which “Weird Al” Yankovic (played by Daniel Radcliffe) releases “Eat It” before Michael Jackson’s “Beat It;” battles drug lord Pablo Escobar; and dates, then feuds with Madonna, with Madonna eventually putting a hit on Al’s life … a case could be made these events aren’t that much more made up than what we saw in Bohemiam Rhapsody. Speaking of Queen, Weird Al tells us he did need their permission for a scene in which “Another One Rides the Bus” is used, which was going to feature young Al meeting Freddie Mercury. Queen said no to the use of Mercury … so Queen bassist John Deacon was used instead (played by David Dastmalchian, which for some reason Queen had no problem with.

Ahead, “Weird Al” Yankovic explains why it’s been so long since he’s written a movie, way back to 1989’s UHF. He looks back at UHF and wonders, well, maybe it was ahead of its time. Why he’s been so happy to see his name alongside Steven Spielberg in recent headlines (including this one). And he tells us that Michael Jackson’s estate had him remove what he thinks was the funniest line in the movie. Also, it’s not lost on Weird Al that another Naked Gun movie is coming (he made cameos in all three prior films) and, yes, he’s already sent Akiva Schaffer (who appears in Weird as Alice Cooper) an email about it.

By the way, when this movie ends, Madonna is, “still at large.” She lives about three blocks from me in New York…

Watch out!

I have half a mind to call the authorities now that I know the truth. She should be in jail for what she did to you.

Oh man. Well, give her my best if you see her around.

I was nine when “Eat It” came out. I’ve got to say, I really remember “Beat It” coming out first. But it’s weird how the child mind works. You remember it one way, but then you learn the truth.

The entire decade of the ’80s was pretty fuzzy for me. I tried to recreate it as best as I remember, but I might have gotten a few things wrong.

That was really clever, the narrative being Michael Jackson was the one who did a parody of your hit song. And then Daniel has the line about what’s the harm being associated with Michael Jackson the rest of your life. How was that plot worked out?

I forget exactly how it was started, but we just thought it would be kind of a funny trope in this movie, at least for that case, to say that my song came first. And we just thought it would be, the way we wrote it at first, it’s just Michael Jackson erasure. And here we find out now, actually Michael Jackson was copying me. And it was, oh yeah, let’s do that.

Didn’t you have a “life story” before? Am I making this up? I remember watching something maybe 20 times on, was it HBO? I can never find it.

No, no. That would’ve been maybe on Showtime. And it was called The Complete Al.

Yes, that’s it…

I guess at the time it was a takeoff on The Complete Beatles. I think that’s been re-released on DVD, if you want to ever track it down.

Oh, I will…

That came out in 1985 and it was a made For Showtime special, which also had a home video release. And it was basically just a way to showcase my music videos. Basically, all my music videos at the time would be these sort of fake biographical, wraparound segments. So in fact, when we first announced that we were doing a biopic, people were like, “Hey, you already did a biopic! You did The Complete Al!” Well, this is a little bit more biopic-y than that.

Daniel Radcliffe is great in this. I love when he was first asked he was like, “I don’t look anything like him,” until he read the script and that didn’t matter. Was there anyone else on your list to play you?

Yeah! Well, Eric Appel and I came up with a list of about a half a dozen or so people that we thought, oh, these people would probably be good in the role. And we both just kept gravitating toward Daniel’s name. We just thought that he would get it. We knew that he was great at comedy, and he was also great at drama. And we need both for this movie, because it’s a comedy obviously, but we need it to play like it’s some extremely serious Oscar-bait Hollywood biopic. And we knew that Daniel would really focus into that tone and really get what we were going for

I can make a case this movie isn’t that more farfetched than Bohemian Rhapsody. The way they just come up with songs is exactly the way you come up with “My Bologna” in this.

I mean, people say that this is not a biopic, but it really is a biopic by Hollywood standards.

Seriously.

It’s not a documentary, it’s inspired by real life. And there are enough nuggets of truth sprinkled throughout that I think you can call it a biopic in that sense. I’ve seen a few more biopics since my movie was done, and I still think, yeah, that’s not any less true than my movie.

In Rocketman, Elton John turns into a rocket and flies into space…

Especially in the Elton John one, they just change stuff around just for the sake of changing it around. Obviously, people don’t levitate off the floor. But, I mean, that’s artistic license. But they do stuff like, facts like, it implies that Elton John picked his name because of John Lennon. And that’s not the case. As a longtime Elton John fan, I know that he picked John because of Long John Baldry. But you have to assume that the producer’s like, Well, I think more people are going to know who John Lennon is, so let’s just make it John Lennon.

I’m assuming there was no real beef in real life with Wolfman Jack, but let’s say Wolfman Jack ever slighted you in any way, if you did have a beef with anyone, you could have a lot of fun with that beef in this movie and then just say you were kidding around.

I worked with Wolfman Jack in 1984, actually. You might be able to find it online. We were co-hosting some Saturday morning preview show on, I forget, maybe ABC, but I forget. But yeah, we co-hosted the show together and we had a perfectly fine time. And I think Eric actually came up with the idea of Wolfman Jack because we had to change gears, because originally we were going to have Freddie Mercury be sort of the main guy in that scene. And that was the one stipulation that the Queen camp had. We gave them the script because they had to approve it for “Another One Rides the Bus.” And they said, “You may not show Freddie Mercury. You cannot even talk about him. Freddie Mercury cannot be in this movie at all.”

They’re really weird about him, in Bohemian Rhapsody they changed a lot of stuff that he didn’t actually do. Wait, but they had no problem with John Deacon showing up then?

Yeah, yeah. Thankfully. I was actually pretty nervous about it because I was told that all the music had been cleared before we started shooting. And then after we were done editing, they said, “Okay, now we need to run this by Michael Jackson’s camp and Queen’s camp.” And I’m like, “What?!” They said, “Well, now they need to sign off on it. We don’t have it really cleared.” And I was freaking out for about a week thinking they’re going to totally destroy this movie. They’re going to say, “You can’t do this, you can’t do this.” But, thankfully, they were good with everything. I think the Michael Jackson estate, they made us take out one line in the movie.

What was the line?

I don’t think I should say.

I don’t want you to get in any trouble.

It was one of my favorite lines, but it’s gone. But yeah, Queen told us right off the bat, no Freddie Mercury, which we did.

So then do you go back and go, “Well, how about John Deacon?”

Well, we didn’t ask them that. We just said, “Okay, well we’ll just do this instead.” Which is why when it went back to them I thought, oh no, I hope they have a good sense of humor about this.

I had not watched UHF in over 30 years. It’s somehow funnier to me as an adult than it was to me when I was 14. Why has it been this long since you’ve done a movie. You’re good at this.

It’s not from lack of trying. I mean, I’ve always wanted to do more in feature films and television, and I just haven’t had that many opportunities. I mean, it was hard to sell this movie. I thought this is a slam dunk! I mean, this is, I think, a really funny script and something that’s really of its time. And we had Daniel Radcliffe attached. And even with all that, people were saying, “Yeah, yeah, it sounds funny, but we’re not interested.” And Roku was literally the only place that said, all right, let’s do it.

Did you feel justification after it got into the Toronto Film Festival? I mean, that’s a tough festival to get into.

I mean, I have to say I’m not surprised that it’s doing really well because I always thought it was a great idea. Yeah, I mean, it’s certainly a lot of vindication to read the headlines, “Spielberg and Weird Al are the winners.”

That’s true. Both your movies won.

Those were the headlines! And I’m thinking about all the people that turned us down and thinking, I wonder if they’re having second thoughts now?

And you parody both Raiders and Close Encounters in UHF. I think the references in UHF, strangely, work better today than they did then. In 1989 people were kind of sick of the ’80s. Now these movies and those references are just part of the culture.

Yeah, I think so. And nostalgia plays a big part in people’s appreciation of UHF because even though it was not a critical darling and it didn’t burn up the box office, I think people, a lot of kids, were exposed to it at that time and it was one of their favorite movies at the time. And they wind up having a strong nostalgic attachment to it. So I think that’s a big part of it as well.

But I don’t have that attachment to it. It’s certainly not nostalgia for me. It’s just really funny.

It could have been that the movie was just years ahead of its time.

I honestly believe that’s true.

Yeah. So some people have said that UHF is sort of the godfather of YouTube. One of the seeds for YouTube.

I could make a case, that scene with the TV lineup and all the shows, except maybe other than The Lice is Right, every other show on there, I can make a case that’s like something that’s on TV right now.

I should get royalties.

They’re making a new Naked Gun. You have to be in this, right?

Well, the second I saw that on Deadline, I emailed Akiva Schaffer and said, “Hey, it’s not really a Naked Gun movie unless there’s a Weird Al cameo. You know that, right?”

Oh wow, you really emailed him?

I did. Yeah. Akiva played Alice Cooper in the movie.

Yeah, I didn’t recognize him at first. That whole scene at the pool party … even Conan O’Brien is there as Andy Warhol. Did you have to call Conan?

I emailed him. And I’m not close with Conan, but I’ve done his TV show a few times. I had been on his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend…

I listened to that episode.

And I wasn’t going to, because I thought, Conan doesn’t want to be in this movie. But then he tweeted something about my movie, some kind of joke about my movie, and I thought, well… maybe I’ll reach out. And I said, “Hey, I know that this isn’t something you want to do, but since you mentioned it, you’re more than welcome to do a cameo in my movie.” And he came back and was like, “Sure, let’s do it.”

Who came up with the idea of Andy Warhol?

Either Eric or myself? I mean, that was Eric that had Warhol in the script already and we just thought, oh, maybe we should have Conan do that?

Anyway, I’m so glad you’re finally getting your due, being in headlines with Steven Spielberg. It is about time.

Thank you. Give my best to Madonna.
‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ will begin streaming this Friday, October 4th via Roku. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.