From The Sunday Read Archive: ‘Weird Al Yankovic’s Weirdly Enduring Appeal’
Print/DownloadThe Daily|From The Sunday Read Archive: ‘Weird Al Yankovic’s Weirdly Enduring Appeal’
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/podcasts/the-daily/weird-al-yankovic.html
National economies collapse; species go extinct; coronavirus upends our world. But — through it all — Weird Al keeps rocking.
Produced by Kelly Prime; edited by Mike Benoist; written and introduced by Sam Anderson; and narrated by Edoardo Ballerini.
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On this episode of The Sunday Read, staff writer Sam Anderson claims Weird Al Yankovic is not just a parody singer — he’s “a full-on rock star, a legitimate performance monster and a spiritual technician doing important work down in the engine room of the American soul.” In these absurd times, Sam reaches into his childhood to explain the enduring appeal of an absurd artist.
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Additional production for The Sunday Read was contributed by Emma Kehlbeck, Parin Behrooz, Carson Leigh Brown, Anna Diamond, Elena Hecht, Desiree Ibekwe, Tanya Perez, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Margaret Willison and Kate Winslett. Special thanks to Mike Benoist, Sam Dolnick, Laura Kim, Julia Simon, Lisa Tobin, Blake Wilson and Ryan Wegner.
