The following contains spoilers from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, currently streaming on The Roku Channel.
The central joke of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is that it's almost entirely fiction from one end to the other. Deliberate absurdity is the name of the game, with everything from Yankovic putting out a cigarette on a record producer's palm to Madonna being held hostage by Pablo Escobar. Nowhere is that more true than with "Eat It," the 1984 parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" that firmly established Yankovic as rock's resident court jester. The movie goes out of its way to claim that "Eat It" is a 100 percent original song, to the point where Al throws an onscreen fit when he hears that Jackson had made a "rip-off" intended to ride on his coattails.
The truth, of course, is quite different. Yankovic wrote the parody in the wake of the phenomenal success of Jackson's Thriller, transforming "Beat It's" tough guy lyrics into those of an exasperated parent trying to get their kid to eat his dinner. It was a legitimate hit in its own right -- reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and winning Yankovic a Grammy for Best Comedy -- and set the stage for a career that's still going strong 40 years later. The story of how it got there is fascinating in and of itself, though neither Madonna nor Pablo Escobar is involved.
Weird Al's 'Eat It' Came Along at the Ideal Time
"Beat It" was one of seven singles released on the Thriller album, with sales certified 8x platinum. It left its biggest mark on MTV, where the video premiered on March 31, 1983. A brief plot reflecting the song's inspiration -- West Side Story -- depicts Jackson stopping a street rumble before it starts: marrying the lyrics to his signature dance moves and tight choreography. The video became a sensation and helped cement MTV's freshly minted status as a shaper of musical culture.
"Eat It" most definitively came later -- released in late February 1984, after "Beat It" had made its mark. It served as the opening track of Yankovic's second album, "Weird Al" Yankovic in 3D, and as is his tradition, he obtained Jackson's permission to record the song beforehand. But, like "Beat It," it was the video that really took off. For starters, it was spot-on accurate to the Jackson video, with Yankovic aptly mimicking Jackson's moves and comparatively subtle pratfalls marking the only real differences. The close resemblance to one of the cable station's biggest hits was enhanced by the fact that there weren't a lot of other comedy acts on MTV at the time.
'Eat It' Highlights Weird Al's Best Qualities as a Performer
With the boost from "Eat It," Yankovic never looked back. He's since released 12 more albums and made an impressive array of film and television appearances. And the secret to that longevity can be seen in the "Eat It" video. Its place on MTV set the table, but even at that comparatively early stage, it revealed the qualities he's shown for over four decades as a performer.
Yankovic's greatest strength as a musician lies in his versatility. He and his band can credibly recreate the sounds of any other act, from Lady Gaga to Metallica, which lets them nail any hot new performer. The dedication to detail in "Eat It" reflects the work he and his band put in to capture the musical distinctiveness of their subjects. When coupled with his musical flexibility, it transcends the fickle vagaries of the moment, letting him give just about any performer the same treatment.
And Yankovic has never been shy about expressing his gratitude to Jackson. He even finds a clever way to work it into Weird, just as Daniel Radcliffe's version of him is blowing a gasket. The movie's deliberately embellished fictions carry just enough truth to cover the basics of his life, of which "Eat It" plays a key part. It really did make him a star, but it did so in a much less cinematic manner than the movie proclaims.
To see Daniel Radcliffe's take on the story, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is currently streaming on The Roku Channel.