‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Is Rightfully Concerned About ‘Paper Girls’ Being The Second TV Show With The Episode Title ‘Weird Al Is Dead’

Thanks to social media, it’s a pretty regular occurrence for celebrity deaths to trend on Twitter, even if they aren’t real. But for some reason, it seems like the world is trying to tell us that America’s sweetheart Weird Al Yankovic is dead, despite the fact that he is very much alive.

In the second episode of Amazon’s new sci-fi show Paper Girls, one of the characters mentions that Weird Al is “dead,” to which her friend says “What? He’s probably just old.” Of course, we quickly learn that she is talking about her pet hampster, Weird Al. The episode is aptly titled, “Weird Al Is Dead.” The exchange is a silly moment, followed by the group of paper girls talking about their pets. But…it gets weirder.

As it turns out, this isn’t the first episode of a TV show to be named “Weird Al Is Dead.” Y: The Last Man released an episode in October with the same exact title. Understandably, Weird Al himself is concerned.

So what’s the deal with this?

Both Paper Girls and Y: The Last Man are based on comics written by Brian K. Vaughan, who is known for being one of the writers on Under The Dome and Lost, where he coincidentally also wrote the season five episode “Dead Is Dead.” At least he didn’t bring Weird Al into that smoke monster-infected world.

While Vaughan hasn’t explained the connection, the official Paper Girls Twitter pointed out, “No Weird Al’s were harmed in the making of Paper Girls.” Good!