Hey, my name is Sam Anderson. I'm a staff writer for the New York Times magazine.

And today I would like to tell you about a story I wrote about someone I think is

one of the great defining geniuses of our time. And that is Weird Al Yankovic.

I know they're all thinking I'm so wide and nerdy. And I'm not joking.

For anyone who doesn't know who Weird Al is, he is the most celebrated comedy musician of all time.

He is a, quote unquote, novelty artist who makes ridiculous parody songs of popular music.

He has been around since the late 70s and first hit it big with song parodies of super hits by

Michael Jackson and Madonna. He turned Michael Jackson's beat it into a song called Eat It.

And it's just like this is food to eat.

And for me, certainly as a child in the 1980s, you know, I grew up like a lot of kids do

feeling insecure, feeling anxious about various things. And Weird Al leaped out of the radio to

me in a way that Michael Jackson and Nirvana and Madonna never did. And he touched something deeper.

Something that made that insecure, lonely little kid feel like he had a friend, feel like he had

company in the world. But even as an adult, I keep listening. And I find that when I'm really,

really stressed out, I can put on Weird Al very loud in my house. And it instantly makes me feel

better. I think part of that is like these, you know, harkening back to childhood and it's kind

of nostalgic soothing. But I think a bigger part of it is in some ways comedy represents our moment

better than any kind of serious art could. We live in absurd times. And so we need an absurd

artist. So I have always wanted to write a profile of Weird Al. My entire writing career. And I was

finally able to do it. And I hope that it makes you feel a little bit better today in this crazy

world. So here's my story. It's a weird, weird, weird world read by Eduardo Ballerini.

That sounded like real New York Times podcast stuff.

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