Weird Al Yankovic lands the first No. 1 album of his career with Mandatory Fun


Before last week, the world had pretty much forgotten about popular music parodist Weird Al Yankovic. But after the mastermind behind songs like "Another One Rides the Bus" and "Amish Paradise" re-emerged with a viral video campaign designed to take the internet by storm, he's finally hit his biggest career milestone yet.
Yankovic's 14th studio effort, Mandatory Fun, which was released July 15, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts this week, marking the first time in Yankovic's nearly four-decade career that he's topped the charts (Yankovic has landed two albums in the Top 10 before, 2006's Straight Outta Lynwood and 2011's Apocalypse, but neither ever ascended to No. 1).
Mandatory Fun's chart success also marks the first time a comedy album has debuted at No. 1 since 1960, BuzzFeed notes, a pretty impressive feat considering the way we consume comedy in 2014. Yankovic announced his achievement on Twitter with humble surprise:
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
If this is really Weird Al Yankovic's last album, at least he's going out with a bang.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
-
Cider farms to visit this autumn
The Week Recommends With harvest season fast approaching, spend an afternoon at one of these idyllic orchards
-
Endangered shark meat is being mislabeled and sold in the US
Under the radar It could cause both health and ecological problems
-
Crossword: September 15, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play