12 Questions for Weird Al Yankovic
For the first time in its 63-year history, MAD Magazine has allowed an outsider to co-edit an issue—and they went for a guy who could plausibly be the mag’s mascot. Weird Al Yankovic, actor, singer/songwriter, parodist, satirist, author, and grammar nerd can now add “guest editor-in-chief” to his resume. He visited Barnes & Noble on Monday to sign copies of issue #533, along with MAD Magazine’s permanent editor-in-chief, John Ficarra. Also in attendance was Al Jaffee, a regular contributor to MAD for sixty years and the guy who created the famous MAD Fold-in. We grabbed a few minutes with Al before the signing frenzy began.
How did you and John meet?
In 1993 I contributed my first piece to MAD Magazine, a Jurassic Park clay animation. We became friends, and in September we went to dinner and talked about [me being a guest editor].
Were your parents cool with the fact you read MAD Magazine when you were a kid?
I’m not sure they were cool with it. They subscribed for awhile, and would leaf through and say to me, “Do you understand what this means?” For me, MAD Magazine was the forbidden fruit.
Who would you like to see guest edit MAD Magazine?
Me again.
John: Al did a little too good of a job—those are going to be hard clown shoes to fill. The next guest editor would have to be someone completely different from Al.
Did John say no to any of your ideas?
I don’t think so. I brought on a bunch of friends as contributors, and I said, “If you have any problems, you can edit them.”
You go into a big, beautiful Barnes & Noble. Which section do you run to?
I would go to humor and music first, then the art section. Anything about movies, television, and pop culture.
What shows did you watch when you were a little kid?
I definitely watched Time Tunnel. But TV shows were so formulaic. And MAD was so different, with its irreverence and not trusting authority. It made me look at the world in a different way.
What did you read as a teen, besides MAD magazine?
I didn’t do a lot of extracurricular reading. I read what was assigned to me in school.
But you read the assigned reading?
Yes. I was a good student.
Did you know at the time that you wanted to do this?
When I was twelve a counselor talked me out of wanting to write for MAD magazine and talked me into studying architecture.
What song has been the hardest to parody?
The songs have their own challenges, but the new ones have their own samples. In the old days it was easier. You’d say, “That’s a drum, that’s a piano,” and it’d be easy to emulate.
When do you come up with your best ideas?
In the middle of the night, when my family is asleep and my Twitter feed has died down. That’s when I come up with the loopy ideas.
You’ve been creating and producing work for so long. How do you get out of creative slumps? Does it happen?
Yes, all the time. I’m always starting from a blank slate. But I have the confidence I’ll get out of it. I tell myself, “You’ve been at this place before.”
