“Weird Al” Yankovic - “Lame Claim To Fame” (Official Video)

Today’s Weird Al fix is the video for “Lame Claim To Fame.” It’s a parody in the style Southern Culture On the Skids, which is a band that I didn’t think was big enough to justify a parody. The song sees Weird Al recounting his chance encounters with celebrities, including Steve Buscemi, Steven Segal, Jonah Hill, and more.

“Weird Al” Yankovic - “Sports Song” (Official Video)

On the back of his new album Mandatory Fun, “Weird Al” Yankovic recently promised eight videos in eight days, and thus far, he’s actually overdelivered. Earlier this week, we saw his videos for “Tacky,” “Foil,” and “Handy,” as well as his lyric video for “Word Crimes.” Last night, he was on Conan, and his performance was honestly great enough that it should qualify as his video for the day. But that’s not good enough for him! So now he’s also made a video for “Sports Song,” which isn’t a parody of anything but which is instead Yankovic’s take on the entire idea of the sporting fight song. In the video, we see Yankovic leading a marching band across a football field and singing about all the ways in which his team will beat your team, with a few qualifying asides thrown in there. As with everything this guy does, it’s both so dumb and so brilliant.

“Weird Al” Yankovic - “Foil” Video (Lorde Parody)

The latest in Weird Al Yankovic’s eight-videos-in-eight-days Mandatory Fun rollout plan is “Foil,” his parody of Lorde’s “Royals.” What begins as a celebration of preserving leftover food spirals into a conspiracy theory anthem — tin foil hats, see? Patton Oswalt guests as a video director with a secret and The State/Reno 911! guys Tom Lennon and Ben Garant have cameos as shadow government operatives.

“Weird Al” Yankovic - “Word Crimes” Video (Robin Thicke Parody)

National treasure “Weird Al” Yankovic, in a clear effort to dominate this week’s 5 Best Videos Of The Week countdown, is in the midst of releasing eight new videos in eight days, all to promote his new album Mandatory Fun. Things started yesterday, with his amazing and cameo-heavy video for the Pharrell parody “Tacky.” Today, he follows it up with a masterfully assembled lyric video for “Word Crimes,” which transforms Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” into a slightly priggish grammar lesson. Yankovic, you see, is taking a stand against Twitter English. He’s also doing a nice take on Thicke’s smarmy falsetto and credibly delivering his version of T.I.’s verse, as well. The end result is, as you can probably imagine, a lot of fun. Lyric videos don’t generally appear on the 5 Best Videos countdown, but when the anthropomorphic Microsoft paperclip showed up, my stance began to weaken.

Weird Al - “Tacky” Video (Pharrell Parody)

In the YouTube era, Weird Al’s shtick isn’t so novel anymore. The songs he spoofs on his 14th album Mandatory Fun — “Happy,” “Royals,” “Fancy,” “Blurred Lines,” etc — have already been parodied on the Web. But Yankovic realizes that he’d be better off with a more timely release strategy, not beholden to the LP format. The new album is the last under his RCA contract and he tells NY Post he’ll likely pursue digital self-distribution, Louis CK-style. “The album format doesn’t seem to be the best for my stuff,” he admits. Still, Mandatory Fun is enjoyable, especially on the first listen, and “Tacky” (his remake of Pharrell’s chart-topper “Happy”) is a highlight. The video features Yankovic along with comedians Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, and Jack Black all dancing in garish outfits. Not sure why there is no #PharrellHat cameo. But watch it below via Nerdist, who point out that it was filmed in the space that was Julianne Moore’s apartment in The Big Lebowski.

Watch Taiwanese Animators’ Dramatization Of Daft Punk’s Grammy Victory

TomoNews has done a funny little feature on Daft Punk’s big Grammy wins for their impeccably crafted Random Access Memories. And if there’s one thing that network is known for it’s animated dramatizations of news stories that rest (un)comfortably in the uncanny valley. That’s Daft Punk above, after deciding to go “all live” with the new album, burning their laptops and turntables in a garbage can before high-fiving over it. Pharrell’s hat gets animated, too. Watch below.

Watch South Park Parody Kanye Again

Back in 2009, South Park aired an episode based around the idea that Kanye West is actually a gay fish, or that he’s so insecure that a joke about him being a gay fish would be enough to plunge him into an identity crisis. That episode, one of the most famous in the show’s history, led to a shockingly honest and non-pissed blog response from Kanye, though he did later threaten to “choke a South Park writer with a fish stick” on record. (This was the same album where Kanye said “Fuck SNL and they whole staff.” Bill Hader: twice dissed!) Well, Kanye now has more reason to get weirdly, conflictedly upset. Last night’s South Park season finale, titled “The Hobbit,” featured the return of Kanye, now a “recovering gay fish” engaged to Kim Kardashian. This one, built around ideas of Photoshop and body-image issues, is more targeted at Kim than at Kanye, but there’s still plenty of stuff in there, including a “Bound 2” parody. (If that response time strikes you as impressive, there’s also a bit about Time naming Pope Francis as its Man Of The Year. That happened yesterday.) Watch all of cartoon Kanye’s appearances below.

Cello Wars (Star Wars Parody) Lightsaber Duel - Steven Sharp Nelson

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away...

from videosift.com

Ray Stevens - The Mississippi Squirrel Revival

A comedic song about a squirrel that gets loose at church and the chaos that ensues. By American singer Ray Stevens.

Shaun of the Dead, in 60-Seconds Scott Pilgrim-Style!

Phil Askin created this fantastic 60-second video clip of Shaun of the Dead, in the style of Brian Lee O’Malley of Scott Pilgrim fame. Phil entered this clip to the Jameson/Empire Done in 60 Seconds competition (so go there and check out the rest of the clips after you see this one).

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