Musical funnyman “Weird Al” Yankovic has finally achieved his first No. 1 album, just 31 short years after he released his debut self-titled LP in 1983. According to Billboard, Nielsen SoundScan reports that Yankovic’s 14th full length Mandatory Fun sold over 104,700 copies in the week that ended July 20, which is the highest sales week for a comedy album since 1994.
Furthermore, as Buzzfeed pointed out, the success of this record constitutes best sales week of Al’s career, and the first No. 1 debut for a comedy album since The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart hit shelves in 1960.
The man’s victory can be traced in part to last week’s extensive promotional campaign, which found Yankovic releasing eight music videos spoofing artists like Pharrell and Iggy Azalea across eight consecutive days. Taken together, the parody clips collected more than 20 million views in that week alone. Those new clips joined some 40 others in Al’s music video catalog (now ranked for your ease of enjoyment).
Sadly, it looks like “Weird Al” may take this opportunity to exit on a high note. In an interview with Associated Press, Yankovic said Mandatory Fun might be his final album. Instead of creating LPs, he hopes to strike new trends and hits while they’re hot by cranking out singles instead of full-length records.
