"Weird Al" Yankovic Reviews Stranger Things Part 3 Using a Very Specific Standard

Fresh off his heartfelt thoughts on the state of MAD Magazine, Grammy-winning musician 'Weird Al' [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Fresh off his heartfelt thoughts on the state of MAD Magazine, Grammy-winning musician "Weird Al" Yankovic took to twitter to praise Stranger Things Part 3, calling it the best season of the hit series so far -- albeit using a metric that might be difficult for every critic to get on board with. In the season, which is set in 1985, Yankovic's album "Weird Al" In 3-D was new at the time, and Yankovic joked that the presence of the album's cover on a t-shirt, as well as the use of one the songs from his 1983 self-titled album, make the season stand out for him.

"My Balogna," a parody of "My Sharona" by The Knack, was released on "Weird Al" Yankovic, released in 1983 along with songs like "Ricky" and "Another One Rides the Bus." That song appears in an early episode, and presumably Yankovic knew that one was coming, since they would have had to reach out to someone and procure the rights. Maybe less obvious to him? A "Weird Al" in 3-D t-shirt worn by an entirely different character in the next episode.

This is far from Yankovic's first experience with Hollywood, of course; he has provided music for Transformers: The Movie and Spy Hard, among many others, and parodied popular culture too many times to count, with his Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace send-up "The Saga Begins" being one of the most notable instances. July 21 is also the 30th anniversary of the theatrical release of UHF, a feature film that he wrote and starred in from director Jay Levey and Orion Pictures. The film is a cult classic now and had a recent Blu-ray reissue with a commentary track by Yankovic with various guests from the movie making brief appearances -- but at the time, it was considered a failure after failing to capture the attendance of the audience during a summer movie season that also included Ghostbusters II, Batman, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Stranger Things Part 3 is now streaming on Netflix. Yankovic, meanwhile, recently launched his "Strings Attached" tour, bringing his music to a city near you with orchestral accompaniment. You can check out his tour schedule at WeirdAl.com.

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