Weird Al was a college student in 1979 when he recorded his first hit, “My Bologna” — a parody of “My Sharona” by the Knack. Then an architecture student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, he remembers thinking: Well, this is as good as it’s going to get.
“I never thought that I’d make a living being Weird Al,” the 54-year-old Al Yankovic tells The Post. (He got the architecture degree, but has only used it for his own home.) “I thought I’d have to grow up and be an adult. That hasn’t happened yet.”
His career may seem unlikely, but his 14th album, “Mandatory Fun,” drops Tuesday. Even more unlikely is that the master parodist, having seemingly stitched himself into the cultural fabric of the 1980s as much as Max Headroom or Alf, is in the prime of his career.
After all, if someone had told you in 1984 that in 30 years Michael Jackson would be dead and Weird Al would still be on the Billboard charts, would you have believed them?
It’s true: Yankovic’s “White & Nerdy,” the pocket-protector parody of the Chamillionaire song “Ridin’,” was his first song to break the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, in 2006. His next album, 2011’s “Alpocalypse,” debuted at No. 9 on the album list, his highest-charting record to date.
“I’m not a nostalgia act,” says Yankovic, who lives in his native Los Angeles with his wife and 11-year-old daughter. “At live shows, people are more interested in hearing the new stuff.”
Meanwhile, he’s outlasted many musicians he’s parodied: MC Hammer, Billy Ray Cyrus and Oingo Boingo, to name just a few.
“It’s ironic. When I first started out, nobody wanted to sign me to a record deal,” Yankovic says. “They said, ‘That’s not going to be around for very long.’ ”
But that isn’t stopping music blogs from speculation based on the released track list: the song “Handy” is probably a riff on Pharrell’s hit “Happy”; “Foil” might be a parody of Lorde’s “Royals”; “Tacky” could be a satire of Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” — and “Word Crimes” is most likely lampooning the biggest target: Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.”
It’s a different world than when Yankovic started: The rise of YouTube created a thousand imitators who throw up parodies of pop songs as soon as they’re released.
So while in the 1980s and ’90s he got laughs with schoolyard humor — replacing “Bad” with “Fat” for a Michael Jackson spoof, or “Lasagna” for “La Bamba” — his comedy brain has to reach further now.
“I don’t have the luxury of going for the most obvious idea,” he says. “Someone’s already thought of that and it’s already up on YouTube. With the new album, there’s some songs that have been parodied to death already. I think I’ve taken a new tack with them. That just helps me step up my game.”
“It’s great that there is a level playing field,” Yankovic says. “[Anyone] can now get exposure. They don’t have to be beholden to some executive in a glass tower.”
He’s putting a lot of faith in viral success: Instead of pushing a breakout single from “Mandatory Fun,” he’s releasing eight videos over eight straight days on YouTube, starting Monday. The Internet is his biggest sales tool these days.
“I wanted to make it an event,” he says. “Because what I do is comedy, it burns more quickly than a traditional album … I like the idea of every single one of my videos going viral for a day.”
The new record is the last under Yankovic’s contract with RCA, and he says he’ll then most likely pursue digital self-distribution, a format that’s worked for artists like Louis C.K. and Radiohead.
“The album format doesn’t seem to be the best for my stuff,” he says.
July 21 marks the 25th anniversary of “UHF,” the oddball movie about a low-budget TV station that Yankovic stars in and co-wrote. It was a commercial flop, but found a cult following. He’s got something in the works for the anniversary, but is staying mum.
“Look for something special” is all he would say.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t look like the “Weird” fan base is going anywhere.
“With every album I put out it feels like it reaches a new generation,” Yankovic says. “Kids will say, ‘Hey Dad, have you heard of this Weird Al guy? He’s really funny.’ ”
Weird Al’s best sellers
The musician has written hundreds of parodies over his 30-year career. These five are the highest-charting on the Billboard Hot 100 … so far.
2006: “White & Nerdy” went to No. 9
1984: “Eat It” went to No. 12
1992: “Smells Like Nirvana” went to No. 35
1985: “Like a Surgeon” went to No. 47
1996: “Amish Paradise” went to No. 53