Weird Al Yankovic Is Still Finding Humor in Pop Culture

With pop culture generations turning over about every three weeks, what’s a parodist to do? That was a dilemma played out on the Greek Theatre stage Sunday by Weird Al Yankovic, who has been skewering pop culture for a full 20 years now.

Even “Star Wars” jokes such as his recent “The Saga Begins” (to the tune of “American Pie”) would seem to have a shelf life of mere months. So what of another recent song, “My Baby’s in Love With Eddie Vedder,” whose title figure’s relevance peaked when actor Jake Lloyd (the young Anakin Skywalker in “Phantom Menace”) was in preschool?

Lloyd was in fact on hand Sunday, in full Skywalker garb to join in on the “Saga” encore and the related “Yoda” (to the Kinks’ “Lola”). And he was typical of the audience demographic, with many preteens accompanied by their parents. If they don’t know Vedder, they didn’t have a clue when Al and band changed to yellow jumpsuits for the Devo parody “Dare to Be Stupid.” And did they think the rubber-suited Al singing “Fat” was a play on the “Austin Powers” Fat Bastard?

Apparently it doesn’t matter. Funny is funny. And most of the night the limber Yankovic was very funny. Whether they got the jokes or not, the kids (and adults) laughed throughout, just as they have at ‘40s Looney Tunes or the best of Stan Freberg (who was in the Greek audience) long after they are current.