"Weird Al" Yankovic, a.k.a. Uncle Muscles on Tim And Eric, Awesome Show, is pop music's foremost parodist since the '80s with send-ups of artists like Michael Jackson ("Eat It"), Nirvana ("Smells Like Nirvana"), Green Day ("Canadian Idiot"), and countless others. His thirteenth studio album is expected out sometime next year. Al flipped through his queue to share his Bambi revenge fantasies, his enduring love of the font Times New Roman, and his least favorite Robin Williams flick.

Currently checked out: Man On Wire

The French gentleman who walked on the tightrope between the Twin Towers. I haven't watched it yet, but I notice it's rated PG-13. I thought maybe I'd let my daughter watch this but I don't what it is [that'd earn that rating]. Maybe it's just because they don't want kids to try and emulate the behavior of tightrope walking between towers? I'm not sure. But it does seem like a fascinating documentary. I love crazy French people. Maybe I'll put it in a double feature with, I don't know, anything that's been in a Jerry Lewis film festival.

I like watching documentaries, and it just got extremely good reviews when it came out. I always meant to watch it, and it seems kinda exciting. It's about a guy who's doing something very risky. It's a time when you could get away with something like that. Due to security concerns there's no way someone'd be able to pull off something like that now. But it was in the days when you could, you know, get some friends together and put some tightrope between some towers and amuse people. [Laughs.] It's of another era. But I guess this guy was a tightrope walker and he saw the towers and thought, "I must walk between them." It's just what he does. I guess some of his closest friends got mad at him about it and never talked to him again. It was a big drama going on as well as the risk factor so it seemed like a compelling view.

No. 11: The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

My friend Tom Lennon recommended it to me. Apparently it's a great movie, but it's been on my queue for a long time because it's one of those movies--it's like Hotel Rwanda, a movie that's supposed to be great and you really should watch it, but gosh, when are you in the mood to watch a movie about a stroke victim? [Laughs.] It's one of those things. "Ahh, tonight? I really would like to watch that stroke-victim movie, but it doesn't seem like I'm really in the mood."

What're you usually in the mood for?

I don't know, I like lighter fare. You know, movies about people tightrope-walking. But this was recommended to me quite a long time ago and it's sorta just stayed there in the queue, fairly far down. I will see it one of these days.

No. 5: Bambi: Platinum Edition

Well, I'm a Disney fan so [this is primarily for my daughter but] I would enjoy it as well. I was actually sort of curious to see what exactly the Platinum Edition was, if there was going to be any extras. I was hoping maybe there was a deleted scene where we see Bambi's revenge for the death of his mother, that kind of thing. Who knows what sort of stuff is in the Disney vaults, so I figured that'd be worth it for that alone. I mean, they call it the Platinum Edition, so you figure there's something they've been holding back. It's gotta be juicy.

“gosh, when are you in the mood to watch a movie about a stroke victim?”

No. 6: World's Greatest Dad

I know extremely little about this other than it's supposed to be very dark. It stars Robin Williams and it's directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, who is an old friend of mine. I think he's very funny and he's sort of come into his own as a director. It's an interesting, dark, and funny movie, and all those things together just intrigue me. I mean, this is not Old Dogs. This is a much different sort of skew for Robin Williams.

Are you a big fan of Robin Williams?

Yeah, I can't say that I've enjoyed every movie he's been in, but I think he's very talented and I respect the man. But if you're talking about friendly-robot movies, a lot of people don't like A.I., but I found A.I. to be far superior to Bicentennial Man.

No. 19: Helvetica

Oh, this is another documentary. I just thought it was so awesome that they made a whole movie about a font. Just that alone really won major points with me because I'm sort of a font nerd. It really should've been an $80 million action movie or something, but I guess it's just a documentary. But I'm just such a huge font nerd. I love to collect fonts. I'll be driving down the street with my wife and go, "Oh, look they're using Mistral font for the store title." "Yeah, yeah, honey. You're a nerd."

What's your go-to font on your computer? What do you like to set as your default?

In here, I innocently lose all my font-nerd cred because I still use Times New Roman. I'm just used to it. I like it. It's familiar. I know every other font nerd would immediately just hate me for that, but that's what I do. I'm just kinda used to it and it feels familiar and comfortable. Every now and then when I wanna go strange, I'll go for the Courier.

“I just thought it was so awesome that they made a whole movie about a font.”

No. 20: When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors

I just wanted to watch that because I do a Jim Morrison impression in my show now, and I'm trying to perfect the moves. I thought I'd watch that to glean a little Morrison-ism from that.

What needs the most work with your impression?

[Laughs.] I don't know what specifically needs the most work, but I think I need to be more "lizard"-like. I need to let the Lizard King inhabit my body a little bit more.

Is that pretty typical for you, doing a lot of research and watching documentaries to help capture the visual side of your impressions?

It helps. Already, all summer I was watching YouTube videos to help get the vibe down. I just thought the documentary would have some more footage that I haven't seen before. Every little bit helps.

Who's been the hardest performer for you to absorb and emulate?

James Brown was probably the hardest because that’s just a lot of energy expended. I watched the T.A.M.I. Show, and what he was doing in that is hard work. I can't even begin to approach that level of showmanship. I mean, that's a hard one to emulate in any way.

How about the easiest?

I'm gonna say Madonna in "Like A Surgeon" because I writhe around on the floor a lot just in my everyday life. So that just came very naturally to me.

“I writhe around on the floor a lot just in my everyday life.”

No. 27: Let The Right One In

I've actually seen this before but I watched it with the dubbed-in English. A number of people have told me, "Oh, it's a much better movie if you watch it in the original Swedish with English subtitles." I'm willing to take that chance and do that. I know the vampire movie is sorta overdone at this point, but I thought it was a really, really good movie and I want to see it in the original Swedish.

I like some horror movies, but I can't say I'm a fan of the whole slasher genre. Notwithstanding the fact that I was in Halloween II, the Rob Zombie remake. Some of my favorite movies would be horror movies. I love Stephen King. I loved Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Carrie, the first time I saw that in high school, I literally jumped out of my seat, so that was an experience. But a lot of the slasher stuff, I'm not into it so much. It's just not my favorite form of entertainment. There are probably other things I would watch first.

No. 3: Marty

The old Ernest Borgnine movie. I think I might've seen bits of it on cable, but never the whole thing all the way through. I just ran into Ernest Borgnine at a screening and it just made me realize that I've never seen his seminal work, and I thought it was just about time for me to check it out. I got invited to a screening of Red, and he was actually sitting across the aisle from me so I got to take my picture with him. I tweeted it!

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