"Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic, born Alfred Matthew Yankovic on October 23, 1959, is an American comedy musician, known for his humorous parodies of popular songs and pastiches, comedic music videos and films, and accordion-playing.
Yankovic is a long-professed fan and supporter of They Might Be Giants dating back to the '80s, who notably released a style pastiche of them in 1996 called "Everything You Know Is Wrong." Though they have not collaborated as musicians, the Johns have expressed mutual admiration for Yankovic.
On March 17, 2026, Yankovic showed up as a surprise guest in an episode of the video podcast Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker, participating alongside the Johns for the majority of the episode.
Contents
History[edit]
Early overlap and first meeting[edit]
Though Yankovic's music career began in the late '70s a few years ahead of They Might Be Giants, both artists were featured on many of the same alternative programs in the early years of their careers, including receiving radio exposure on The Dr. Demento Show and television appearances on The Joe Franklin Show.
Yankovic's first exposure to TMBG came in the mid-80s via MTV. In a 2024 interview with Don't Let's Start: A Podcast About They Might Be Giants, Yankovic recalled seeing "Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head" on 120 Minutes early on:
I thought, oh, this is great. I like these guys. I like the music. I like their sensibility, I like their style, their sense of humor; I think I dig these guys. And then shortly after that, I got the Pink Album and checked it out and thought, I really do in fact like these guys! I just kind of kept up with them and their albums got better and better.
Shortly thereafter, Yankovic met the Johns for the first time. On their shared appearance on Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker in 2026, the Johns recalled meeting Yankovic at a They Might Be Giants show at Club Lingerie in Los Angeles, CA, at the band's first performance in LA on March 25, 1988. John Flansburgh referred to it as "the least happening, most happening club of all time" and noted that the cast of Cheers was also in attendance at the show.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Yankovic featured music videos by They Might Be Giants in three episodes of his Al TV music television blocks: "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head," "Don't Let's Start" and "The Statue Got Me High." Yankovic later said, "It gives me joy to hear that a lot of people—at least people that come to my shows—tell me, oh yeah, I got turned onto They Might Be Giants because you played their videos on MTV. So I'm glad to kind of share the love there."
"Everything You Know Is Wrong"[edit]
On his 1996 album Bad Hair Day, Yankovic wrote the original song "Everything You Know Is Wrong" as an homage to They Might Be Giants, with many musical and lyrical references to the band. In the interview with TMBG fan podcast Don't Let's Start, Yankovic said:
I'm probably most familiar with their body of work before 1996 because I had to study their entire oeuvre to write that song. And you know, I was a fan already, but then I had to study every single one of their songs and make very careful notes to figure out all their little idiosyncrasies. Like, oh, that seems like a very They Might Be Giants chord change or a little hook. And it was challenging because I wanted to basically write a They Might Be Giants song without, you know, really plagiarizing from them; I didn't want to have a copyright infringement. I wanted it to be like, this is a real pastiche, this is a song they would have written if they were maybe—well, I was going to say even a little bit more demented, but their stuff was pretty crazy to begin with, which was one of the reasons I loved them so much. They have such a great sense of humor, and I don't know if they enjoy this comparison, but I feel like I'm on their wavelength a lot.
The Don't Let's Start podcast released a YouTube video essay in 2021 attempting to track all of Al's homages to TMBG in the song. They noted among other findings that "Turn Around" seemed to be a particular inspiration for "Everything You Know Is Wrong", which Yankovic confirmed in his conversation with them: "There was a song where I basically used their song structure: 'Turn Around.' I said, that's a great structure, I can tell like three different stories and use that as the idea. I'm telling three different stories and it's going to be very random and bizarre, and I'm going to use arcane references to a bunch of different They Might Be Giants songs, and kind of pull it all together in a melody and arrangement that feels very appropriate to the band."
On the same album, the song "I Remember Larry," a style parody of Hilly Michaels, is widely thought to contain a musical homage to TMBG's "See The Constellation". Later in the same interview, Yankovic acknowledged this as likely due to the amount of TMBG he was listening to at the time.
In recent years, both Johns have praised "Everything You Know is Wrong." Flansburgh called it "flattering" in 2011 on Twitter[1] and stated in 2014 on TMBG's Tumblr, "I heard it years back and it was fantastically accurate. Weird Al is the king of his genre."[2]
Linnell spoke about "Everything You Know is Wrong" in 2023 to Creative Loafing:
It took me years to get around to hearing it, but at some point in the last ten years or so, I finally checked it out. And I feel sort of dumb saying this, but it really appealed to me as a piece of songwriting, and I realized that's because Weird Al is copying our style, and I just automatically liked it. I suppose you can hear somebody imitate you and then be annoyed by it, but I thought the song was great. I really liked it.
In 2025, Yankovic played "Everything You Know is Wrong" live for the first time on his Bigger & Weirder Tour, which featured additional members to his touring band who enabled more complex songs to enter the setlist.
Comedy associations[edit]
Though They Might Be Giants and "Weird Al" Yankovic both employ humor in their lyrics, TMBG notably does not consider themselves to be a comedic act, and has stated such during numerous interviews over the years. In 2021, John Flansburgh told Stereogum, "I think we did invest a lot early on in aesthetic decisions, stylistic considerations about how to blend humor into songwriting in a way that would hold up to repeated listening. I think we always were very afraid of being misunderstood as a comedy band."[3] As such, and potentially under the pressure of their major label record deal with Elektra, the Johns seemed to publicly distance themselves from Yankovic in the '90s.
In a preview from former TMBG drummer Brian Doherty's canceled book Memoirs of a Rock Drummer, Doherty wrote about a time that Yankovic came to a TMBG show in 1994:
"Listen up people! Weird Al is coming to our show tonight." I was behind my drum kit at sound check, just a few hours before show time. It was 1994, and I had been with this band for a little over a year. John Flansburgh raised his voice and continued, "Do not—I repeat—DO NOT take any photos with Weird Al, or invite him backstage." I turned to John Linnell to ask why Flansburgh had given strict orders about something so insignificant. "We're trying to shake the yoke of geek rockers," Linnell explained. "Having a picture taken with Weird Al wouldn't help our image any. Really, it's the last thing we need right now, especially at this show."
On the Ask Al feature on his website, a fan in September 1998 asked if Yankovic had ever met They Might Be Giants and he replied with:
TMBG is one of my favorite groups, and I've met the Johns on one or two occasions. I even asked them several years ago if they'd be interested in co-headlining a concert tour with me, but they weren't into it at the time. They were also too busy to do the Weird Al Show last year. What, is it my breath?[4]
Continued admiration[edit]
Despite the initially unreciprocated public fondness, Yankovic has continued making his appreciation for They Might Be Giants known over the years. A winter 1996 advertisement for music store Sam Goody featured "Weird Al's Holiday Wishlist", which was full of gag gifts including "a shoehorn (the kind with teeth)."
In a 2005 iTunes playlist compiled by Yankovic in which he included "Put Your Hand Inside the Puppet Head", he said, "TMBG... prolific, smart, funny, great guys. One of my all-time favorite bands." According to the audio commentary on the Weird Al Show DVD box set released in 2006, TMBG was his daughter Nina's second favorite artist at the time of recording, with the first being Ben Folds. Yankovic was also on an episode of the Amoeba Records series What's In My Bag? in 2008 where he was seen purchasing the CD/DVD set of Here Come The 123s for his daughter.[5]
On April 21, 2018 in Austin TX, Yankovic covered "Particle Man" live during his Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour, in which he covered one song by another artist each night during the encore.
Yankovic has been spotted attending many TMBG shows over the years, including the band's July 2023 appearance at the Hollywood Bowl where They Might Be Giants opened for Sparks. Sparks, a band known to also employ humorous lyrics in their music, is another notable connection between TMBG and Yankovic: as one of the Johns' favorite bands in high school in the '70s, one of very few bands They Might Be Giants opened for in the 21st century, the inspiration for a "Weird Al" style parody called "Virus Alert" in 2006, and Yankovic also joined them on stage as a surprise at a 2018 Sparks concert in Los Angeles.
In a 2022 Reddit AMA to promote the film WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story, Yankovic was asked what his favorite songs by TMBG and Sparks were, to which he replied:
I really don't have a favorite song by ANY band... it's not a contest! But [...] for TMBG I'll say "Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head." But honestly, I like pretty much ALL their songs.[6]