Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - GGACP Rewind: Episode #20: "Weird Al" Yankovic

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

In August of 2014, "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Mandatory Fun" became the first comedy album to top the U.S. Billboard charts in over five decades. Several months later, Al joined Gilbert and Frank at the legendary New York Friars Club to talk about an assortment of fascinating topics, including Dr. Demento's influence on his career, the history of novelty and parody records and the reason he was forbidden to make eye contact with Prince. Also, Gilbert flashes Marge Simpson, prays to a statue of Red Buttons and loses a film role to 3′ 9″ Billy Barty. PLUS: Dueling Crazy Guggenheims! Irving Berlin vs. Mad magazine! “Disco” Art Fleming! And Weird Al’s “Mount Rushmore of Comedy”! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-host, Frank Santopatra. You know, when Frank and I were kids, we used to love to listen to people like Alan Sherman and Stan Freeberg, who are like brilliant at these clever imaginative song parodies. And today, we are joined by the modern day master of the genre, the man with the number one album in the country, the great weird Al Yankovic. Now, this is going to be a very uncharacteristically somber and revealing interview, where it really touches some raw nerves at points.

But be patient and be strong. Who has the biggest album of the year? Not you, Taylor Swift. Not you, Beyonce. Not you, Iggy Azale you. Not you, Ariana Huffington. Not you, Taylor Swift. I think he said that already.

Oh, Anna Grande, Ariana Huffington. She doesn't. Bigger than that, too, though. The Huffington Post. I think, so, you know, fuck you, Ariana Huffington. You can't even sing. And your aggregated website.

Yes. Your website's a piece of shit, and I'm glad your last album, Bob. Fuck you, Ariana Huffington. Ariana Grande, at least, has a record. Anyway, the person with the biggest album of the year,

it's not Ariana Huffington, believe it or not. I thought it was. Well, that's how I tricked you. Oh, switcheroo. Baton switch. It's ladies and gentlemen, weird Al Yankovic. Please just call me ladies and gentlemen. Yes, ladies, we have ladies and gentlemen on the show right now.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is your, we're doing this at the Friars Club in New York. You've never been to the Friars Club. I have never, I've been to one in L.A., not this particular one in New York City, U.S. I think that's because people only think you're a Jew. But you're not. People assume you're a Jew. I've got my honorary Jew card, though. Yes, yes.

I've got nine punches on it, one more. I get into the Friars. Club for free. So people assume you're ugly and annoying, you must be a Jew. What are the odds? I apologize.

The Italian is apologized to the Jews. Now, before we begin, I think we already didn't. We haven't started yet. No, we haven't started. We'll turn the mic on in a minute. All right. Your manager,

said, I couldn't have dinner with you. What? Yeah. He said, I couldn't. You couldn't eat in the same room with me? Yeah, this was, I was being, he never said it. This is news to me. I, look.

What? That we weren't supposed to eat dinner, because then we'd have nothing to talk about. He didn't want the air to come out of the interview. I think it was, I think it was a prudent decision. I've been with my manager for over 30 years, but we are done. That is it. Finished. And I said, look, I have nothing to talk with him whether or not we have dinner.

Right. Well, Letterman doesn't establish eye contact until you're in the chair with him, right? Oh, yes, yes. Yeah. So probably the same kind of thing. We're setting up that kind of thing where we'd have a moment like right now and not waste that moment over creme brule. Yeah. See, now it's a lecture.

Oh, I feel it. I feel the buzz in my underwear. See, I and I was saying, like, look, I'm not fucking Oprah Winfrey. I heard you were. Yes. No, I went down on Oprah Winfrey. That's the mistake a lot of people made. Easy mistake to make.

Actual penetration, what you're saying. No actual penetration. She one time blew me. Yeah. Can we get back on track? Oprah Winfrey. No, Oprah Winfrey one time blew me. Yes.

Yes. As legend has it. While Stedman held a cheap movie camera. They could afford a better movie camera after all this time. That's what's really offensive to me. She makes all that money. She gives Stedman a cheap movie camera. What are they thinking?

What are they doing with all that money? It's a type with the little handle on the box. The Bell and Howl model. Oh, yes. Oh, that's disgusting. And to show it on a projector. That's offensive to me. Yeah, it kills the whole reason for going down on Oprah Winfrey

that they couldn't get a good camera. I mean, you don't film Citizen Kane on your little phone. You don't do that. You don't click the video. You would not do that. That's not something you would do normally. Let me, since we're talking about Oprah Winfrey, I'll tell you one story. Oprah Winfrey goes to a doctor for a checkup.

Yes. Ah, the doctor says, okay, remove all your clothes. She takes off all her clothes. He goes, get on your hands and knees. She gets on her hands and knees. He looks at her and he goes, okay, now crawl to the middle of the room. She crawls to the middle of the room. And he goes, now crawl over to that wall.

She crawls over that wall. He's looking at her. And then she crawls to the other. He tells a crawl to that wall. He's looking at her. And she goes, doctor, what's wrong? He said nothing. I just bought a black couch.

I can't decide where to put it. You know I knew where that one was going. Yes. I heard it with Al Roker. See, see, this is the time I wish we were filled. Yeah. Because there's a black person in the room with us. That makes it okay.

That makes it okay. If this was on TV, if he was on TV, they'd immediately zoom it. His reaction, his horrified reaction. You could say the most racist thing, but you find the one black guy in the audience, even if he works there, and you zoom it. Oh, he's okay. He's okay. Everything's all right.

You see, he didn't get it. It couldn't possibly be erased. Can it possibly be racist? Why were you thinking he was racist? What's wrong with you? Obviously, clearly. For his entire race. This one black guy,

that's the way those people are. One of them speaks for the entire black race. They have just stock footage saying, we're cool, we're cool. Mark, I'd like to apologize to you now. I'd like to apologize to you now. That would I've apologized to Al. We'd like to apologize.

to anything bad we said about Oprah Winfrey because we know you worship her. That wasn't a true story, was it? As a black man, you go to a church that has a statue of Oprah and free

that you pray to every week. I pray to a statue of red buttons but that are hard to find. I've been looking on eBay every week. My search term are red buttons. buttons and statue. I don't know if there's anything else I should be searching for.

So you're in song parody. Are we back on track? Oh my goodness. Wow. That was a nice ride. No, like I spent 90%... They said Juno's? What did you say? What? Yeah, yeah, Juneos. See, now, see, it would be easier to find the Jew at the Friest called the Zoom the camera. At these events, it's easy to find a Jew in the audience. A black guy sitting there is the hard one. It's harder. I have heard that they will find, before a special,

they will find where a black guy is sitting in the audience ahead of time. To do a cutaway later? Yeah, so they'll know they could zoom in. Like when Don Rickles said, oh, and the black guy in the third row, and they'll zoom to the back, and there's one black guy there. Or the Republican Convention, yeah. That's right. That's right.

Same thing. See? See, we're cool. We're cool. We're good. Everything's fine. Everything's good. We're...

You must have been an Alan German fan. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, this has been weird out. We should point out that your new album is the first comedy album. Do I have this right? To chart.

I don't know yet. To chart. since Alan Sherman. To be number one since Alan Sherman. Excuse me. To be number one since my son the nut. That's correct, yes. For those who don't, I mean, hello mudder, hello fodder.

That was it. Yeah, that was the album. Yeah, and Harvey and Sheila. Uh-huh. John to Havana Aguilla was a great one. I had the other album. I had my son the folk singer. And my son to celebrity and songs for swinging livers.

Yep. And then he was so amazingly popular for an 18-month period. Yes. He had literally, he had three number one albums in a row, within 18 months. He was playing sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl. And then his fourth album was like, yeah, I've done all this funny stuff.

I want to show people on my serious side now. And the fourth album was just like, kind of like him doing serious songs. Oh, no. Oh, he had the biggest crash and burn maybe in, you know, pop culture history. Since Vaughn Mater. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Since the year before, yeah. Yeah, the year before. Wow. And I heard with Alan Sherman once at the first taste of success, real fame. His life started falling apart. I just read his biography, overweight sensation.

Yeah. And it talks about, it's really kind of a real cautionary tale about how he just made a bunch of really horrible decisions in his career and his family, and he cheated on his wife and, you know, his family turned against him, and he wound up a very sad, sad man.

Yeah. And he... Thank you. Good night. Did he die having heart surgery or something? He died at like 49, but he had a heart problem. Yeah, and they said everything that was bad about him before,

like being fat and everything, he became really obese. Yeah, it's what you call exacerbating the problem. He was a constant exacerbator. Yes. I do that every night. Now, this is very weird. I'll talk to you. Okay.

Okay. No, it's funny because I spent 90% of my life in comedy clubs. and the funny thing is, like with comedians, they'll, like, look at a comedian who does song parodies, and it's always very snide. Oh, I'm, like, the second lowest on the totem pole is, like, me and then carrot top. Yeah. So it's not a revered occupation.

Yeah, it's kind of like you're a few notches below Gallagher. But above Gallagher, too. Oh, yeah. I'm right between Gallagher and. Gallagher 2. Do you think they'll ever do a movie about Gallagher and Gallagher 2 is a fascinating story? That would be like a 3D movie with the watermelon flying onto the audience. Of course, he let his brother do his act under the agreement that he's Gallagher 2. And that he's horribly racist.

Yeah, he would travel with a black guy that the camera would zoom in on. It was the end of Scatman Kruthers' career. Really? How sad to end his career? How sad to end his career on Bing Gallagher 2's go-to black guy? He had such a fabulous career up until that point. And it's just one bad career decision, and that kind of, like, painted his legacy, you know?

Al, before we go completely off the rest. Yes. Gilbert's established that we're here at the Friars Club. You were having dinner with your manager, Jayley. Yeah, who wouldn't I mean? Ex-Manager, thank you. And our friend John Ficarra, the editor-in-chief of Mad Magazine, who's here with us tonight. And as John and I were just talking about, it's the 50th anniversary this month, October, of a landmark copyright case. That's true.

Yes. Tell us about it. Oh. And how it affected your career. Well, it's the copyright case where they had a book of song parodies, written song parodies, as one would have any book. and Irving Berlin got very upset because they parodied some of his copyrighted work and it got all the way to the Supreme Court. And it was sort of a ridiculous case looking back on it

because they weren't publishing music. They literally were publishing song lyrics, which were parody lyrics. And the Supreme Court rightly found that they didn't want to be the brain police and says, no, you can't be thinking of this music in your head while reading these lyrics. and song parody, that was a major precedent in the Supreme Court for song parody,

which of course affects me today. It was Larry Siegel and Frank Jacobs. And Frank Jacobs must have been an influence. He was on me, and I didn't even go into Song Parity. No, huge, huge influence. In fact, I just wrote the preface to a book that Matt is putting out about Frank Jacobs. And he was the main guy at Mad that would do song parodies and, you know, a huge, huge inspiration. Sure.

And Mad itself, aside from Frank Jacobs. of course. I mean, you know. An inspiration for this day. You know, at that, you know, at that age, like 11, 12 years old, I found that, find that that that's where my most hardcore fans are. There's something that happens in your brain at that age where you appreciate that kind of a reverent humor a little bit more. And that was me with Mad Magazine. I would force my parents to drive me around all the used magazine shops and find the back issues. And that was just a... Those great Norman Mingo covers? Oh, my goodness, so great. And when you'd find one that you

didn't have, it was such a great feeling. It was. I remember the first time Mort Drucker drew a picture of me. What an honor. Yeah. Wasn't very good. He was the end of his career. Anyway. I like to apologize to more trucker, too.

Can Al shut the fuck up so I can talk? I don't know. He thinks because he's a guest. That allows him to speak. I have the number one. Please continue. You were saying somewhere how your parents were totally possessive of you as a kid. Was I saying that?

Yeah. No. They're like, yes, he's our son. He's our son. Do not take him away from us. They were totally protective. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was the kind of thing where if anybody wanted to hang out with me,

they had to come to my house because my mother wasn't sure if, like, somebody would try to poison me somewhere else. You know, and, you know, as a parent, now I understand that impulse. But, yeah, I've also learned to get to let it go a little bit, you know, now and then let them cross the street by themselves on occasion. And you said that your school was right across from. your house. Yes.

And so, yeah. So my mother would watch me through binoculars during PE class to make sure the other boys

weren't playing too rough with me. So we've got our binoculars now when we're following our daughter around and, you know. So I guess that

didn't make you too popular in school. When I write a song like white and nerdy, that comes from a lot of personal experience. I was not, yeah,

I was not the big man on campus, no. Yeah, white and nerdy was the one with Donny Osmond. That's real. Donny Osmond. Amazing.

He was so great. We called him up. And he flew out from Salt Lake City to do that video. And I don't know. You've probably not seen it, but there's something I uploaded to YouTube called White and Nerdy First Take, which is me and Donnie Osmond, just kind of going through the whole song. The first time we ever did, Donnie says, what do you want me to do in the background? I was like, whatever you want, just go nuts, have fun, and we'll take a look at it and see what works. And Donny Osmond just went crazy for like three and a half minutes.

minutes. It's on YouTube and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Well, he's so into it in the video. He's totally committed. He's so committed to it. I wrote for him years ago. I wrote for a talk show. Great guy. Jay Levy's wife produced. Yeah. Donnie and Marie talk show. Karen Glass. Yes, indeed. We will

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And I wanted to ask you, we'll jumping around a lot, so I apologize. But about your process. My process. Yes. if I may use a zyphoid process. My pretentious a word. These lyrics of all of my action figure, all my action figures are Cherry,

Stephen Hawking's in my library. How do you approach... Let's look at these lyrics. Writing a song like this. I try to think what rhymes with Cherry. And I could go for like Crazy Larry or Harry or Library. And library in this case seem to work better. I get my rhyming dictionary out.

Do you really? I look at... Well, now it's like... online. Got the online dictionary. Rimezone.com, thank you very much. But it's a deeper process than just rhyming. No, no, that's pretty much it. I think the only good part

of the movie Spyheart with Leslie Nielsen, that's when Leslie Nielsen was making all those horrible satires that would... The Zucker Brother knockoff. Yeah, yeah. And this was where he was a spy and you did...

The opening credits, the SpyHard. Yeah, and it had like instead of like beautiful girls they'd be like a fat girl floating around. We just like to say plus size, but yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, fat. That was the weirdest audition process ever. It was like we literally had a call in Los Angeles

where we need a lot of large women that can swim underwater. Like we had those looks at things they had to do and they showed up. They were like, you know, 40 people like, where do we go? Jump in the pool. And I remember because this wasn't so much

a different, it was a different kind of parody. It was a takeoff on like, what is it, the Thunder. Yeah, like Goldfinger and Thunderball. It was basically the feel of Olos. Right, pastiche, as it were. Yes. And the line, the lyric I remember there is, you know, just like Olos, where they keep going, you know,

Goldfinger and they start yelling the name out at the end. And you kept yelling out Spyheart. The name of this movie is Spy Heart. My heart, they call it Spy Heart! And it goes on for like two minutes, and my head explodes. And then you say something else. After my head explodes? No, no, no.

Before your head explodes. I said, yes, the whole song, Gilbert. Okay. You were doing Olo Spy Hard, like you just did. And then you said, and if you came in late, do you remember your own list? No, I don't. Oh. Yeah, the last, yeah, the last, yeah, the,

You said, and if you came in late, allow me to reiterate. Rhyming Dictionary, thank you. Thank you. So you weren't kidding. And I was very happy in your current takeoff on the Robin Thick song. Uh-huh. Oh, we were talking about word crimes before you got here. It's just great.

Thank you, man. Because the one that I hate, and I was so glad it was there, were people who said, I could care less. Yeah, does that a pet peeve of yours? Yeah, that annoys me. I'm sorry. It could be sarcastic, like, I could care less. Yeah.

I'll be it, I shan't. That's part of my question, Al. Did you want to write a song about abuse of the English language? I did. And then it just happened to be a happy marriage that flirt. It was just one of those things I always kind of had in the back of my mind because I done some videos on YouTube where I basically was a guerrilla

grammar person where my wife and I would drive around town and I would correct road signs you know, change it from drive slow to drive slowly and signs in the supermarket that say 12 items or less to 12 items or fewer. So we did a few things like that. So I was sort of known for being the grammar Nazi and when I came up with the idea for blurred lines,

I thought, oh, this completely plays into that sensibility and all the grammar nerds everywhere will rejoice. And you are, attacking, and I was so happy about it. All the people who use the term literally. Oh, I hate... Drives me crazy. You know what?

There's a dictionary that supposedly is changing the definition of literally to... Well, kind of figuratively. Oh. Like, no! No! I mean, common usage... I don't understand the languages change, but common usage doesn't make it right. It means there's a lot of stupid people.

Yeah, when they say I literally exploded. It's like, no, you didn't. I take their word for it. You know, I believe them. I believe them when they say that. Or I blame myself for being so gullible. Or every time Alanis Morris said, use an example of irony. Yes.

Yeah, it was. Well, that's a long of the song, irony is not coincidence. Yeah. Very few things actually fall into the narrow definition of irony. And I think nothing in that song does. No, it was like something like if a like great. on your wedding day. Well, it's bad.

Yeah, like a fire truck on fire. Anyway, where were we? Have we started yet? Yeah, no. Now we talk to ladies and gentlemen. I did your show once. You did, the Weird Al show.

Yes. Back in the late 90s. Which was a very funny episode because you were teaching, it was supposed to be like a kid show. Right. And you were teaching. It was supposed to be.

It wasn't back. the kid show and it was in fact also supposed to be like a kid show and you were saying to the kids you were saying now it's perfectly normal and okay to have an imaginary friend that only you can see and here

and you said I have a totally imaginary friend Gilbert and then you walk in next to me and I say no I'm right here and you're going see you can't see you're right here I'm right here I'm right here. That's very good.

Speaking of your Saturday morning show, another one of your heroes, Stan Freeberg. Stan Freeberg, absolutely. Start on the show as J.B. Toppers. Yes, he was the network executive who had to give me all sorts of horrible network notes, which Stan relish doing because he would always get horrible network notes on his shows.

It was just such a joy because I got to work with him and his son Donovan. They also did the puppets. I did a fake puppet show. I remember. And they did Papa Booley and Baby Booley, and they did their puppets. just like Stan used to do for a Beanie and Cecil back in the day.

That's right. And so Stan was an influence, too. Well, absolutely. He's one of my all-time heroes. Absolutely. I was listening to Elderly Man River. Oh, yes. Speaking of a network interference, it's great. Yeah, just smart. Early comment on political correctness.

Yeah, so smart. And like you, he gathered musicians, the best musicians that he could get his hands on at the time and to parody those songs, like Billy May. Yeah, I mean, he had an amazing group of people that he put together the actors and the musicians. and, you know, like I said, but my own band, I mean, just because their comedy doesn't mean that they're any less skilled than another band. I mean, the fact that they can do everything from gangster rap to Zytoco and Polka music and everything in between, I mean, shows their range, certainly. Right, you've been with those guys forever. Since early, not literally forever.

Figuratively forever. Good catch. See, now he's a pain, yes. I was willing to go along with the literally thing, but now, okay, we're wrapping it up. with queer al because he's a... Queerd Al. Queer Al. Oh, queer Al.

Sorry. My mistake. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, queer Al. That's a different act. So now we would have to... Have to zoom in on old footage of Paul Lynn. And you go, see?

Let's go with Alan Seuss. Why not? Tell Al your Paul Lynn story. Oh, yes. Let me hear this. Oh, okay. Is this the one that he hates the juice? No, when he walks into the bar.

Oh, okay. Oh, well, I heard it was when he walked into some kind of like a barn or something where a show was going to take place. And he walks in and it was like some bad dinner theater place and it was all run down. And he goes, this place smells like cunt, I think. And he was also, Paul Lynn was also viciously anti-semen. He did not know that. Yes.

Oh, my God. He's famous for it. He would just, like, I heard from the producers, some of the producers of Hollywood Squares when I did it, I really did do it. I'm not bragging to get late. Were you the secret square? Ever?

So one of the producers worked on the original, or two of them, and I'd like that really matters. It could have been too. And he said that during lunch, like the other acts there would be like joking and telling stories and being very nice. Paul Lynn would be bombed out of his skull

and he'd be there going, those fucking Jews, they're the reason I don't have a career. And yeah, it was very, it was very, uncomfortable. Yeah. I thought there was a funny ending to that. No, no.

It's about as uncomfortable as Al is now. But my autobiography is going to be called. I thought there'd be a funny ending. And then it'll be followed by a book going, I don't know, I always heard he was funny. Yeah. And then a third book called, how does he keep working? Now, where were we? I don't know.

You do song parody. I've heard that. I've heard about that. Tell us about, speaking of influence in your life, tell us about your relationship with Dr. Demento. It's purely platonic. Those polarites mean nothing. They've made it out of the internet now,

and it's all photoshopped. That never actually happened. I want to make that clear. They were hacked. They were hacked. I got it. You know, Dr. Domeno obviously gave me my start when I was a teenager. He played myself on the radio when no right-thinking person in the universe would have given... How old were you when you started sending songs?

13, 14, 15 years old. And it was horrible, horrible stuff. But he thought it was unique that a teenage kid playing the accordion was thinking he was cool enough to submit material. So he played it on the radio and on his national show. And over the years, I built up a small cult following. And at one time, to... to make it more professional sounding, you recorded one in the men's room. Yes, because, you know, you have the bathroom wall of sound like Phil Spector used to use all the time. And, yeah, that nice warm reverb

that adds that little professional touch you don't otherwise have. So I moved from the bedroom to the bathroom for that very reason to get that little extra oomph that I knew I needed to make it into the big time. Was that my balonia? We call it My balona. My balona.

But you can add the enne on it if you want to have a little... My balona. Yeah. I like balonia, though. Yeah. I'm in good company because I went back and watched your clip on the Tom Snyder show. Oh. And he says, this is a page that a weird Al has made a name for himself parading the NAC song, My Shuroma.

Shuroma, yes. I was thinking about the tomorrow show because I just did a late night with Seth Myers, and that was the same studio that Tom did the tomorrow show out of. And I just remember, I was nobody, I guess before a record deal, like nobody knew who I was. And I was on with two other people. One person did the Space Shuttle Shuffle, which was a very topical song. and I forget what the third one was. But, I mean, Tomlman was introducing me,

like straight out of, like a 1960s roastmaster book, like, yes, his mother said, what a picture, his dad tried to hang him. And anyway, hey, once he sucked all the air out of attire. Here's Weird All Yeager, ladies and gentlemen. They sucked the all out of the air out of its hire. There was the strangest intro. Your first time on television.

Yeah, my first time on national television. 1981. Yeah. And he's like, what song you're playing here, Weird Al? Well, I'm sorry, it's not in your note. but we're playing another one rides the bus, Tom. Sorry, sorry you weren't prepped

by your crack team. And I think at one point, young in your career, you became very big and then it sort of seemed to stop. Like with this interview? No, like,

I think you were talking about that one time. Well, every album that I do is a comeback album. Like I get very, very big for like a week. And then people forget about me. A couple years later, come back.

Oh, Al's back. Oh. Isn't it a nice? And you were applying for jobs outside of show business. Well, this is before I had a record deal. This is like the early 80s. Yeah, I mean, I graduated. I got my degree in architecture.

But I decided my third year in college, that wasn't really it for me. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life, you know, hovering over a drawing board. So I applied for work at the phone company, for janitorial work. And they're like, you got a degree.

What do you do? No, you can't work here. And I just, you know, worked in a mailroom for a couple years to pay for, pay for the macaroni and cheese. But meanwhile, I was getting airplane at the Dr. Domeno show. And I finally did get a record deal. But, you know, they don't give you like a big bag of money when you sign a record deal. They say, yeah, well, you'll get your royalties in a couple of years.

Yeah, trust it's. It'll be great. Was this the Scotty Brothers? Scotty Brothers, yeah. And it was a 10-album deal. Like, it was crazy. Like, you know, like, yeah, like, I'll, like, I'll, like, yeah, like, I'll, ever have 10 albums. So yeah, of course I'll sign

this because I'm getting minimum wage in the mailroom right now. And so I put out my first album, still working in the mail room because, you know, I had no money. But I remember going to the post office and picking up the mail one day and there's a billboard magazine sticking out of the top of the bag. And I opened it up and I was on the Hot 100 chart. And I thought, maybe I should give notice. Maybe you should think about this weird out thing full time.

There might be something here. I better give a shot. And your first album, and I found this out today, was produced by Rick Derringer. Well, my first six albums were, actually. Yeah, your first six albums. Yeah, the connection there was through his manager, Jake Hooker, who was the co-writer of the song that Joan Jed had a hit with I Love Rock and Roll. And I did a parody called I Love Rocky Road.

So when he went to Jake to get permission, he was like, well, that sounds great. And by the way, I managed Rick Derringer, you know, rock legend. Hang on Sloopy. Hang on Sloopy. And the McCoys. And maybe he'd be interested in producing your album. And he was, and worked out great. I love the birthday song on that album.

It's so dark. Thank you. It's a little bit of Tom Lerrer. There's a lot of dark stuff on there. You know, my stuff is family-friendly. I don't use obscenities. But it's some of my stuff gets kind of dark. Well, it's a different weird Al Yankovic

because you're talking about somebody putting their finger on the button. Yeah. Yeah, I've done a lot of stuff like that. I had a song called A Christmas of Ground Zero. Not about 9-11 at all. It's written in the 80s, but it's a song about basically nuclear annihilation

during the holidays. And I was really pushing for that to be a single. And my record label was like, Yeah, not so much. Not so much. Now, Frank and I were talking that Prince had a special order. Oh, yeah. This is crazy.

Yeah, I forget what year of this was. I guess late 80s, early 90s, but I was going to be at the American Music Awards. And apparently Prince was going to be in the same row that I was because the night before the awards, we get a telegram. saying that Prince requests that I not establish eye contact with him. I literally got a telegram that from Prince saying, please don't look at me during the show. Well, this was after you to ask for permission to do it.

I found out after the fact that he sent the same telegram to everybody in his row. So at the time I was a little offended. I admittedly sent him back at telegram saying, yeah, you don't look at me either. It goes both ways. But he sent that to Night Ranger. he sent that to everybody. That was hanging around at the time.

So he sounds like a douche. You know, he speaks highly of you. You have to understand. I mean, there are so many print stories. You have to understand, this is the guy. I don't know if you remember this. He used to take his bodyguard. I'm going to say literally, even though it's not literally,

but literally everywhere. Go for it. Like, you know, he'd be at the award show, and if you want an award, he would walk up on stage with his bodyguard, like Kenny Rogers is going to cold cock him, you know? Yeah. On stage, like, you know? I don't know.

It was a strange guy. Yeah. But we're close personal friends. And I hate to speak ill of him. But you are calling him a dude. The total fucking duse. I don't think I said that in those exact words. Well, literally.

Literally. Literally. Does he remain the one artist that has flat refused? Yeah, I mean, there have been a couple of rare instances. He's the only one. that is just blanket said, no, it never gives a reason. And we approached him maybe a half a dozen times. And I haven't contacted him for maybe 20 years.

So maybe he's developed a great sense of humor by now. Hard to say. We should call him up right now. He's got two new records out this week. Let's find out. Good timing. We could jump on it. If we could do it in sync with this podcast,

we could make a whole event out of it. Now, most of the people... It could be like you... getting together Martin and Lewis. It'll be great. Imagine. Imagine. Imagine that. We could be hugging on stage.

Me and Prince. It's a thought. Now. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Thank you. We have.

We are not giving. We don't. Just make some syllables. I'll answer to it. Yeah. Hanging thingy. I want to ask you about the I lost on Jeopardy video, and you worked with Art Fleming.

I did. And the late Don Pardo. And Don Pardo. We just lost. Yes. What were they like? They were great. You know, Art Fleming came to the set,

kind of out of character, because I mean, I was each of seeing him, like, very dapper. He was kind of discoed out. I think he was like wearing a gold chain and had the shirt on button to about here. And it was just sort of like the, hey, Art Fleming on the set.

I loved me some Art Fleming. Yeah. I was a kid. Love the old Jeopardy. Yeah. I mean, when I did, I lost in Jeopardy. Nowadays people assume it's referring to the Alex Treveck version of the show. But when I wrote that song, it was totally a nostalgia piece

because Jeopardy had been off the air for several years. And it was about the show in the 60s that I remember as a child. The old one with the wooden, the hand-pulled cards. The horrible, like, yeah, the primitive little scorekeepers. Right. And I don't know if he was being facetious, but Merv Griffin credited me for helping to bring Jeopardy back on the air because people got so interested in the parody that I guess he repitched.

it and I haven't seen any royalties. But no, it was nice to know that, you know, he didn't sue me and, in fact, he probably made a lot money off of it. Did they get the joke? I mean, Pardo was, of course, doing Saturday Night Live by that time, but did Art Fleming have a sense of humor and understand what you were going for? If you look at the video, I mean, you know, in fact, Don Pardo's like, I can't believe you got, like,

Art Fleming to, like, stick his tongue out and, like, make a funny face, and, yeah, they were totally into kind of goofing on themselves. Oh! Oh, that was a nice break in the action. Oh, I feel relaxed now. Oh, that was, oh. Let me just stretch a little more.

Oh, yeah, that was good. I feel much better. Oh, I think I can go on now. I think I can continue. You know, I'm glad we didn't talk beforehand. No. It would have ruined the momentum that we've now established. That would have just ruined everything.

Can you imagine how awkward that would have been? Crazy. It would have been such an uncomfortable interview had I talked to you beforehand. You know, I think you should resign with your manager. I really should. I think that was a brilliant idea. Yeah, you're probably right.

In retrospect, I'm thinking back on it. Because if he had not said that, this interview would have sucked the high heaven. I'm going to hire him back. You're absolutely right. We'll patch things up. Oh, see, he's got the vision. He's a visionary. He's prescient.

You know, and you just have to trust his gut, you know? I just never, I should just never question anything he says from now on. Now, so you must have been close friends with Boris Pickett. Carloff? Yeah, no. What was his name? Bobby Boris Pickett. Yeah.

I met him once. You did. Yeah, I met him at the Dr. Meadows 20th anniversary show at the country club in Reseda, California. which was an amazing show. It had a Doodles Weaver was there. Oh, wow. One of our favorites. Benny Bell was there.

Yeah. Andy Kaufman was there not to perform, but he was like hanging out and just like digging on the show. It was a tiny Tim was there. I mean, it was an amazing lineup of people. Yeah. Yeah.

Doodles Weaver is the uncle of Sagarnay Weaver. That's true, right. And he shot himself, Dudles Weaver. He did. Yes, I believe he did. Yeah. Yeah. So, I see, I'm glad.

This show comes to this. at dinner beforehand. That would have made things awkward. I just want to say to your manager right now, God bless you. For the fine work that you have done because this interview could have sucked a high heaven, but now, be...

We've got the pedal to the floor now. I think the first time I ever heard you was listening to Dr. Demento, because I used to listen for Benny Bell and shaving cream. And I think that's the first time I heard Weird Al Yankovic. Well, that was the first time I was ever anywhere, so that's very likely. In the 70s.

Yeah, you know, the late 70s. Yeah, my balona would, came out at the very end of the 70s, and I had a bunch of unreleased, horrible stuff before that. But yeah, that was the beginning, beginning of it from the 70s. And the doctor's still with us, isn't he? He is. He is not on terrestrial radio anymore, but he still does a show every week. It's on Dr. Demento.com.

It's a subscription service, but he's still out there doing it. Now, who exactly was the guy who called himself, you know, Napoleon Bonaparte. Oh, Napoleon the 14th? Yeah. Oh, they're coming to take me away. Yes. Jerry Samuels. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Are you amazed by that? Yes, I am amazed. He knew you would know the answer. Yeah. He works for a talent agency, and he books a lot of acts in, like, retirement homes and things like that. In fact, I just made an appearance at one of his retirement homes just to kind of hang out and meet the people. and really super sweet guy.

He lives in Philadelphia. I remember because that became a big hit, and then it was forced off the air. That's right. It was like a number two song in 1966, and then they got a lot of grief from people that thought he was making fun of the mentally ill. So they basically pulled it off the air,

and he became the new Von Meader slash Alan Sherman. Oh, yeah. But he didn't have that kind of downfall, but that kind of took the wind out of. of the sales when, you know, that song was taken off the radio. Oh, yeah. No, I remember that. I was, like, kind of scandalous at the time when they took it off.

Before that, it was a very funny song. Yeah. It's one of my daughter's favorite songs. I mean, I remember one trip, she listened to it nonstop for about two weeks. Alternated between that and Wichita Lineman by Glenn Campbell. And I remember it had that hypnotic, you know, drumbeat. Bump, Bum, Bump, yeah. Do you remember the flip side of that where they had the song backwards?

Oh, yes. That was even better. Like, and then Satan would appear in your living room? It was awesome. I miss novelty records. Yeah. I should make one. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. Then there were those records. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Right. Remember they were round? Oh, the hole in the circle. Some were big holes. Some were little holes.

Yes. But there were those records. that was considered comedy back then where, you know, we'll say Dickie Goodman, are you thinking of it? Oh, yeah, you're thinking of the news clips where they were then answering with Mr. Jaws. Oh, yes, yes.

Are you going to different directions? I'm reading your mind. I'm trying to figure out. And the president said, we did the mash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the cut-in record, Dickie Goodman was the king of that. Yeah, those were pretty awful.

I like them. I did my own. when I was 13 years old. They were passable as comedy back then. Oh, I love those. You did one with an old tape recorder? Yeah, my friends and I would like, you know, I was like, we're here in Elton John's living room.

Elton? How long until your next album comes out? I think it's going to be a long, long time. Oh, Ellen, you're so funny. You're so funny, Elton. You're like really that level of comedy. I had those records. Was it one guy?

Was it just Dickie Goodman? Well, other people try to, you know, bite of style. Yeah. But he was the main guy. You had the streak back then. Yeah. I think he was always on a different label because he would always get sued because I don't

think he cleared any of those. Oh, really? What would not be called samples, but back then it was like stealing outright music. And he just put those together and put them out and sold a bunch of records and then left town. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Now, how much can you play someone else's music? it seems like so many times I'll hear so obviously

someone else's song, but one note gets changed. Oh, like the vanilla ice tried to do like, oh yes. No, it's not ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding it. It's, listen carefully, ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. See what I did there? I flipped it on you. I flipped it.

A totally new song. Totally different composition, original composition, Vanilla Ice, Copyright, 1992, Copyright. I always see that on TV shows and movies where they'll have like a character running down the street and they'll play something that is obviously the Rocky theme. Right. But it'll, you know, it'll be da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah. You can get away with that.

You know, I don't think there's an actual formula for that necessarily. I mean, because you can get sued for anything, basically. So you try to change it enough so that they won't take you to court. But, you know, it's called a pastiche. It's basically evoking another song without doing literally every note. You see? You learned something there, Godfreyed. You know, I should have just had lunch.

I would have had a free lunch. Which comedy albums did you listen to when you were a kid? Because we always talk about Bob Newhart. We always talk about Red Fox albums. Yeah, well, my folks have bought a bunch of the yellows. Sherman Records for 25 cents at Pick and Save. So we had those. It's true. It's true. I love

the old David Frye albums where he would do all the Nixon impersonations. We were talking about David Frye with David Steinberg. Right. And how he did the best Nixon in the world. Yeah, great. He also kind of like didn't have a happy... A sour guy. No. Yeah. Yeah. He... I think to begin with,

he was like... I mean, I think they could really make an argument the fact that he was only comfortable and other people's characters. Because they, yeah, they said he was pretty screwed up. Yeah, it wasn't like Von Meeter, though, because Nixon was still around. Oh, yeah. Von Meeter got a raw deal.

Yeah. And then Gary Owens had a comedy album out called Put Your Head on My Finger. Do you remember that at all? I don't know if it got a wide release, but it was a really funny album, Gary Owens. And what else? Of course, all the old George Carlin stuff and Monty Pievon. Yeah. And the Toledo Window Box and all those records. When I was a kid, I had an album, Frank Fontaine's songs I sing on the Jackie Galise show.

I've seen the cover. I've never actually listened to the album. Is it a comedy album or is it a song? No. It's got this really goofy face on the cover, right? He's there with the teeth. Because I was thinking about Bonnie that and was like, well, I don't think he sings funny songs. Yeah, that's the thing.

It was like, see, Frank Fontaine has crazy googan. That's Oprah. Sorry, that was Oprah. Forgive me. That was my Oprah. That was when I go down on Oprah. She makes that sound. When I went down on...

She sounds like Crazy Guggen. Yeah. When I went down on Oprah, she... I drove it an orgasm and she said... A master of imitation. But I remember, like, they were both around the same time. Frank Fontaine is Crazy Guggenheim and Jim Neighbors. What was the music?

Is he named after him, by the way? I wasn't sure about that. It was like a collection of Frank Fontaine's work at the Guggenheim. Yes. And they both, like, talk wacky voices. And then when they'd sing, it wasn't a wacky voice. It was like the whole Jim neighbor saying, oh, yes. And, you know, and Crazy Guggenheim, you know, Gleason, you know, he'd go,

Hey, you, Joe. Hi, Mr. Daly. And Gleason would go, So why don't you sing for us, crazy? And then it would be like, In my Easter bonnet. And people back then, Oh, God.

People back then assume that Jim Neighbors and Frank Fontaine were extraordinary singers just because they didn't sound like the characters. You know, it's a great thing. You lower people's expectations. Yeah. Which is how I skate by Because I keep my expectation

Super, super low So anytime I'm on stage, people are like, He's not bad. That's actually pretty good. I thought he'd suck, frankly. And I think Guggenheim also got away With some vaguely suggestive things.

Really? Yeah, like when Gleeson went to go, So what did you do last night? Crazy? And he'd go, I went out with the fuckwash And Farkle... I see. That was risque.

Yeah. That was pretty... It's sort of like the Farkle family. Yes, yes, yes. But he's borderline mentally ill, so you can't make fun. Really? It's so weird. That crazy Guggenheim was both like... Like, both mentally unhinged and drunk at the same time.

It's a perfect storm. Really? Yeah. Why didn't the people who stopped Napoleon, Bonaparte? Stop Crazy Guggenheim. I know. There was a double standard. Because he drank, too.

Oh, I see. So because he drank, you could question whether he was crazy. Even though they, in fact, called him crazy. That was his name, Crazy Guggenheim. That's why I call myself weird so I can get away with all that kind of stuff. Like, oh, what you're going to do? Weird Al, you know. Oh, he's got an adjective in front of his name.

Let him do anything he wants. Now tell us about that movie you did A movie I did? UHF. Oh, UHF. What would you like that? It was 92 minutes long. Okay.

That's all right. It wants to know. It's in color. It's a talkie. We were arguing how long the movie was. And we had money. I'm kidding. It was 105 minutes.

I wanted to make it seem like it went by quicker. I think Gilbert wants to ask you about working with Billy Barty. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Billy was great. He was the cameraman who got all the low angle shots. And he was a real trooper. He had a great attitude. Ludi Washington, who was the big African-American gentleman who would lift.

Oh, quick, zoom in. Let's zoom in on the black guy in the room. But he was the guy in the fat video that was like offering me the ding-dongs. Oh, yes, yes. We got him in the movie. And he was the cameraman in UHF. And he was also the guy that would hoist Billy Barty up on his shoulders so he could take the higher-angle shot. Do you know one of the many low points in my career? One of them that stands out, I once auditioned for a movie and lost out to Billy Barty. You never told me that. Yeah.

Yes. What was the movie, Prattell? The movie was actually, you know, a terrible Mel Brooks movie. It was when Mel Brooks was it. Life stinks? Life stinks. Oh, okay. Life stinks.

Yeah. Not his finest hour. I auditioned for that and lost out to Billy Barney. What was the part? As an angry midget, I guess. An old angry midget. You're my favorite angry midget. Also, you worked with Kevin McCarthy.

Oh, so great. Age of the Body Snatchers, Kevin McCrary. It was kind of fun because he did an old twilight zone, like, I guess on the late 50s, early 60s, where he like ages 20 or 30 years. Yes, yes. And he looked, and that Twilight Zone, like, he looked at our movie because the time had actually left. He was so great. I love Kevin McCarthy.

He would just go be so over the top. He was like, yo, yeah. And then the director would yell cut, and then he'd start laughing. And he was having the best time. I remember around the time the aristocrats came out, in one part, I did an extra version of the aristocrat. And I started, you know, talking about four. fucking and sucking and blowing the dog. As one does.

So often does. As one so often does. And Oprah and Oprah's. Usually. When hanging out with Stedman. Oh, God. So I'm talking talking about blowing a dog

and brother and sister fucking each other. Yes. And I say, I'm with you. I'm with you. And I said at one point I go, this is a common practice at the home of beloved character actor

Kevin McCarthy. You couldn't say Dean Jagger. No, you had to say Kevin McCart. So one of the guys who worked on the film actually knew Kevin McCarthy. He was friends with him and he said, oh, you know, you know, Gilbert Gottfried, he talks about, you know,

fucking family. fucking and sucking and blowing a dog. And then he goes, and then he said, this is a common practice at the house of character actor Kevin McCarthy. And Kevin McCarthy goes, well, that's offensive. And he goes, yeah, well, Gilbert is kind of, and he goes. When you're right, you're right. Yeah, yeah, no, he goes, you know, that's offensive.

And he goes, well, you know, Gilbert tends to take things. and he goes, I'm not a character actor, I'm a lead. Hey, good for him. Good for him. Good for him. Speaking of U.S.F.

No, we're talking about Kevin McCarthy. The only reason we have Al here is because he's worked with Kevin McCoy. He would do Shakespeare at the drop of a hat. He would do like, any excuse me, on St. Crispon's Day! You're going to the whole speech. Amazing.

I loved him. He's great. He's right in Twilight Zone the movie. Oh, yes. He's just great. Great with comedy. Who knew? Speaking of UHF, a special anniversary of this show.

Coming. Am I right about that? You are correct, yeah. Coming in November, there will be the Blu-ray, along the way to Blu-ray edition of UHF. UHF in HD. Because people have been clamoring for that. You know, there's so many jokes that you don't really appreciate

unless you can see it in the full 1080 progressive resolution. I mean... It's the best work of Victoria Jackson's career. By far, I mean, I love her right-wing rants, but... They're almost as funny. What happened to her? I don't know. I don't know.

I remember when she was on Saturday Night Live, that's where everyone first saw her. She was this cute little blonde... Do it handstands? Yeah. And everything was cute and adorable, and then all of a sudden she's this weird, you know, fascist.

She's like the Von Meter of Saturday Night. I'm the Billy Barney. Mel Brooks movies. Al, tell us about the petition that's circulating. To get me out of the country? Yes, that one.

But also the one that's where your fans are trying to get the NFL to hire you to be the halftime action. I don't think I could afford to play the Super Bowl because it's a paid-to-play thing now. That's right. That's right. So they're asking the performers

to actually pay for the honor of playing the Super Bowl because apparently it increases their album sales and blah, blah, blah. That's a real thing. Wow. So, yeah. I don't think I'm really NFL material.

I think maybe Chris Brown would be a better choice for the half-time show. I think if you're going to go down that road. You could do a nip-slip. I think you had to? I could. I do it all the time for fun anyway. And tell us about what you did recently.

you performed at the Hollywood Bowl bringing back your Simpsons song. Yes, they did The Simpsons take the bowl, they did three nights it was really fun. A lot of the voice actors from the Simpsons, Conan O'Brien, John Levitts, Beverly DeAngelo and myself, we all performed.

I did the Ballad of Homer and Marjorie, which was a priority of John Mellencamp's Jack and Diane. Great, great, now. We had a wonderful time. The Hollywood Bowl is just an amazing venue. It feels intimate, but it's like 17,000 people. It's it was crazy. I did a movie

with, what's her name from the Simpsons? Julie Cavner. Julie Cavner. Who? People don't realize that's not a put-on voice. You know, and actually she talks that way. It's pretty close. When she does the sisters, she does a voice a little bit.

When she does Patty and Selma, it gets a little raspy. Yeah, a little smoky. Now, I remember being in a movie with her, We had like one truck there that had a bathroom for everybody. And the truck, the door, would never have a working lock. And so it would constantly be you'd be in there, and the door would open up 100 times if you go, oh, oh, sorry, oh, oh.

And then one time I was peeing, so my back was to the door. And I remember, I heard, mm-hmm. It sounds like Karloff when they put the... Oh, the fire up in front of. So Julie Kavanaugh saw my dick. Well, that's right. Now you do parody. I'm sure you've been asked things like this.

But does it, do you pinch yourself to you stop sometimes and say, I was a kid, I was making these little recordings on my tape recorder. I was sending things into Dr. Demento. And now I'm playing the Hollywood Bowl. It's pretty crazy. And I got the number one record. I wish, I still can't wrap my head around that. I mean, I, you know, I wish I could go back and talk to the 12-year-old version of myself and tell them all the crazy stuff that was going to happen. I mean, this year alone, I've done so many things, which I never even dreamed that I do last year.

You know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you can't have a sentimental moment. Yeah. Okay. Oh, boy, God bless you. You can't be serious around here, though. You can't, you can't have a sentimental moment. No. It's true.

It's all about Julie Kavner. That's all about Julie Kavner singing his dick. I tried to go there for a Barbara Walters moment. Didn't take. You know, it was an offensive interview, but it also had some heart. So that's really what saved it. That's really saved it. You know, I was going to hate Al for being insensitive, but no.

I saw something there that night when I listened to the podcast. There's something deep inside him. that I like. What musical comedy acts do you like now? I heard you talking about Reggie Watson. Yeah, Lonely Island. I'm, of a flight of the concords, Tenacious D, Garfunkel on Oates.

Garfunkel notes are great. Roy's Ehrman, Bo Burnham. I could give you a whole laundry list someday. I think you did. Okay. Who sang does your chewing gum lose its flavor? Donnie Lonnigan. Skiffle.

Is that right? Did I get it right? Ding, ding. That's right. Donnie Lonigan. Thank you. Hey. What do we win?

Is the guy, I think there was a guy named Donnie Lonergan or something Lonegan who was in Son of Frankenstein. Is that true? Not the same guy. He played Basil Rathbone's son. Wow. And I think he's still alive. Let's find out. Let's get him on the line.

I think Donnie Lonegan was what they call a skiffle player. That's right, yeah. Which was going to take over rock and roll. Right. British invasion stuff. Right, right. Skiffle. That's all I got.

Yeah. Could someone look up? Donnie Donaggan. Donnie Donagin. He's another guy in Son of Frankenstein. Oh, okay. Yeah. I could see he'd make that switch.

I thought you were thinking of Murillo Speskaa again. The way you walk is thorny through no fault of your own. You know, I'm canny. I heard. It's so sweet. I heard that Chico from the Marks Brothers and Maria Ospinskaya had lunch together one time. What? They went to a restaurant together.

No. That completely changes my world. He was working it. He was working it. Yeah. It's pronounced Chico? Yeah. That's crazy.

Well, Chico. Chico. What is the chico? Then he started the Chick-fil-A-Restrater restaurant. Whole different things. Okay. We're talking to ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

Now, you say you do song parody. I didn't say that. I think you kept saying that. I don't think I ever brought it up once. Okay. We've been talking to the man who sold more albums than Ariana Huffington

and Ann Coulter combined. Julie Kavner has never seen my private parts. To my knowledge. As Oprah Winfrey. I'm out of cards, Al. We blew through those. We just want to talk quickly about Tom Lerrer. Another influence.

Really? Yeah. Oh, my God. Tom Lerer. Tom Lerr. Absolutely. I'd say that my Mount Rushmore of comedy would be Stan Feberg, Tom Lerer, Alan Sherman, Spike Jones. And Tom Lairer's still around? He's hanging in there. But something of a reckless, isn't he?

Yeah, he's like the J.D. Salinger of Demented music. So he taught at UC Santa Cruz for many years. I don't think he does that anymore. But I still send him a Christmas card. Oh, good. You know, he loved U.HF. Oh. You know, he quotes from that from time to time.

You know, a brilliant guy. He only did, like, I forget, like three dozen songs over the course of his career, but they were all brilliant, brilliant. Poisoning pigeons in the park? Yeah, absolutely. Genius. Now, who was that guy they always used to play on PBS?

Oh, Mark... Russell. Thank you. Yeah, Mark Russell. Thank you. No Tom Ler. What's your opinion on Mark Russell? You know, I wouldn't call him the poor man's Tom Lerer because that would be rude.

I just won't say that. I will not be saying that today. Would you give us a list of all the things you'd like cut out of this episode? Just have Jay submitted to us. I'll take care of me. That's nice. Anyway, we've been talking to a guy who I think the song parrary is. The king of song parrots.

We've been talking with weird Al Yankovic, and I think I didn't slurried the words now. No, that was perfect. Yeah, yeah. Amazing. Yeah, because I thought I needed some practice. You need to warm up a little bit. I was having a stroke before.

Were you smelling toast? I was like Floyd in that last season of the Andy Griffith. Oh, gosh. The post-stroke Floyd. Yeah, and they used to have Floyd sitting in the barbuchar, you know, because he couldn't stand anymore. That was my favorite indie band, Post-stroke Floyd. Yeah. They were great.

You are quick. Okay. So we've been talking, anything you want to. plug one. I don't want to taint any project coming up now. We should say the album is mandatory fun. Yes, it is. And still... It continues

to be mandatory fun. Still high on the charts. It's still number one as far as I know. Nobody tells me anything. It's wonderful. It outsold Joshua Gaborz, last and so we've been talking to... It's me and crazy

Guggenheim battling for the clap of the charts. Like a surgeon. Wow, that is a treat. Crazy Guggenheim does it like a surgeon. It's by hard. When you woke up. He can't help, but he's crazy. Don't, don't get offended.

He's just crazy. He's crazy and drunk. Simultaneously. It's a deadly combination. Speaking of the Andy Griffith show. Yes. Remember when they did the TV movie and they brought back. Oh, return of Mayberry.

Yeah, and Otis. was no longer a drunk. Well, the same thing on the Simpsons, why they cleaned up Barney's act. Oh, my God. Because of complaints. And the cookie monster. For the love of God, will this stop? I think so.

Okay, we've been talking to weird Al Yankoviv. Why don't you sing a song for a shrank? Wait, look how they wound up. The guy who wrote. Oh, Joe Brooks. Oh, my God. I don't think I know this. What has that story?

Oh, this is wonderful. And he won an Oscar, too. We could cut out some of the, you talking about your life in the earlier, just so we could fit this one in there. He had a son. The son was going out with a model who they accused him of killing

his model girlfriend. The son was a kid. His son. Uh-huh. He, on the other hand, was also on trial for like raping these girls that came into audition for him. You lie up. Go ahead.

Yeah. And then he killed himself, the guy who wrote you. Joe Brooks. Yeah. Killed himself in prison. How is that funny? That's what I say about this. That's your fourth book.

How was that funny? How is that funny? That's his closer. You like that? That's it. Joe Brooks. Not to be confused with Joe Brooks, the guy that played Vanderbilt,

the near-sided watchtower guard on F-Droom. Oh, my God. You know, we spoke to Larry Stewart. Larry, yeah. Yeah, it was great. Who we met at that thing. Oh, yes. Yes, we met at that autograph signing thing.

It was quite horrible. Horrible for people to give you money. Yeah, yes. Oh, it feels so, ooh. Yeah, it's gooey. Goody. I mean, I was putting those things off for a while. Oh, me too.

It was our first time for both of them. I never done it in you had no either. Yeah, that's, well, he means the first time we fucked. Yes. Yeah, it was the first time. It was gooey. It was gooey. See, when I was, when me and Weird Al were fucking,

a lot of people thought it was actually Oprah Winfrey. And that's how that room. They get made all the time. You can understand the confusion. You can understand it. And they say, hey, isn't that Oprah Winfrey singing like a surgeon? Have we started yet? I guess I'd like to have a special word of thanks to Weird House Manager.

Jay Levy. Yeah. For saving us by not having left together. Okay. And so we've been talking with Al Yankovic. And I'm Gilbert Gottfried. And this is Gilbert. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast.

I know what you think? I don't know. I'm Gilbert Gottfried. This has been amazing. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast with my co-ho. Frank Santo Padre, who I knew for about five years before I could pronounce his name. In fact, that includes the first seven episodes in a podcast. I feel better now.

Yeah. Okay, and you do song fair. I used to. I'm not just doing podcasts. I should do a podcast, Al. So I guess that's it. Thanks, Al. Thank you.

Thanks for doing it. No, no, thank you.