Novelty musicians tend to have short careers, achieving one-hit-wonder status and then disappearing back into the ether. And then there’s “Weird Al” Yankovic. The parodist and accordion enthusiast is on his fifth decade of relevance, perhaps partly because his lampoons come from love, not hate. Take his 2018 song “The Hamilton Polka” — a five-minute mash-up devoted to the instant classic Broadway sensation. Yankovic so clearly adores the source that, after the movie version dropped on Disney+ last weekend, he was quick to give the song a new music video.
Mind you, this isn’t some slick montage starring Yankovic himself. It looks like it was made by Yankovic himself on iMovie. All the images are from the movie version itself — which was filmed on stage with the original cast at peak powers — with Yankovic (or whoever was doing the editing) trying to make it look like the performers are singing along to his loving parody.
Again, the song itself came out two years ago, included on the comp Hamildrops, comprised of covers and originals inspired by the show, Yankovic included. Most (though not all!) of the artists Yankovic has parodied consider it an honor to get the “Weird Al” treatment, and Hamilton creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda is no exception. When you’re done watching the new “Hamilton Polka” video, watch Miranda appearing to wipe away tears as he listens to the song in a slightly happier era.
(Via The A.V. Club)