Weird Al's New Lorde Parody Celebrates "Foil," Goes Hilariously Off the Rails

The "Weird Al" Yankovic farewell tour is really going strong. After releasing two well-received viral music videos over the past two days from his (possibly) final conventional album, Mandatory Fun, the parody mastermind continues his eight videos in eight days offensive with "Foil," a sneakily uproarious parody of Lorde's "Royals."

"Weird Al" Yankovic and the 60s girl group blondes extol the virtues of "Foil"

"Foil" starts out as a somewhat ho-hum ode to the joys of wrapping up leftovers in the titular kitchen commodity, with Yankovic as a public access television cooking show host and a trio of 60s girl group blondes singing the arresting harmonies that first made "Royals" stand out to me. There's a nice pre-chorus that will tickle the fancy of the scientifically inclined:

But then I deal with fungal rot, bacterial formation,
Microbes, enzymes, mold and oxidation
I don't care -
I've got a secret trick up my sleeve!

But beyond that it doesn't seem like much of note is going to come of a joke that seems played out by the end of the first chorus, where he sips "a nice herbal tea." Then shit goes hilariously off the rails.

Much to the chagrin of the cooking show's director (played by Patton Oswalt), Yankovic launches into a paranoid rant about the Illuminati, space aliens, and a moon landing-faking government conspiracy. Of course, he is able to inform us about all of this because he's protected from danger (he thinks) by the hat he's made out of...you guessed it, foil! (Cue the 60s blondes!) Unfortunately, his aluminum head covering isn't able to prevent a pair of secret service-looking guys from knocking him out with an injection and dragging him away on the orders of the director, who turns out to be some sort of extraterrestrial lizard creature in Patton Oswalt clothing.

Yankovic told Grantland he got "zero money" from his label for his video campaign, which is funny because they're clearly making a big splash and likely driving most of the sales of the album, which is currently #2 on iTunes and #1 on Amazon. Instead, the veteran comic partnered up with various humor websites for his eight video campaign, in this instance CollegeHumor.com.

The "Foil" video already has about 100k views, and yesterday's release, "Word Crimes," trended on Twitter literally all day. While "Foil" is certainly a lesser creature than "Word Crimes" or the leadoff hit, "Tacky," it is certain to keep interest and buzz up heading toward the halfway point tomorrow. "Weird Al" is proving, at 54 years old and more than 30 years after his debut, to be as relevant and admired as ever.


Further Reading:

Get More of Your Weird Al Fix With the Iggy Azalea Parody "Handy"

Rejoice and Sing, Grammar Nazis, for Weird Al's "Word Crimes" Is Here

All Your Favorite People Are In the New Weird Al Yankovic Video, "Tacky"