"Weird Al" Yankovic Shares Video of Rian Johnson Doing 'Star Wars' Karaoke

Rian Johnson gave fans a new side of a galaxy far, far away with last weekend's Star Wars The Last [...]

By Jenna Anderson

Rian Johnson gave fans a new side of a galaxy far, far away with last weekend's Star Wars The Last Jedi. But as a delightful throwback video proves, his love for the Star Wars universe has been around for quite some time.

Spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi below!

A video has resurfaced of Johnson at a party in 2012, singing a rousing karaoke version of Weird Al Yankovic's "Yoda" with film critic Aaron Hillis. In a delightful twist, the video was shared by Yankovic himself, in a tweet congratulating Johnson on The Last Jedi's success.

Johnson soon responded to Yankovic on Twitter, saying that this acknowledgment was the "highlight of [his] year."

For those unfamiliar with the Weird Al song, it debuted on his 1985 album Dare to Be Stupid. The song, which parodies The Kink's "Lola", recounts Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) occasionally-frustrating training under Master Yoda (Frank Oz).

As those who have seen The Last Jedi know, the lyrics of "Yoda" prove to be pretty telling. The song jokes that Hamill's "long-term contract" will make him play Luke until he's "old and grey" - something that ended up being 100% true.

And even then, the event of Yoda training Luke ends up playing a role in The Last Jedi, making Johnson singing about it years before a bit of awesome kismet. In The Last Jedi's second act, Yoda makes a return appearance, ultimately motivating Luke to join the resistance's fight.

"When I was thinking about what Luke's arc is going to be, and realized that someone coming back and kicking his butt would be his final beat on the island, Yoda just made the most sense," Johnson told Entertainment Weekly.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of