Weird Al Yankovic is on a bit of a media blitz promoting his new album “Mandatory Fun,” and on top of releasing eight music videos in eight days, he’s also hitting the cable news circuit. On Thursday, he stopped in at Fox Business Channel’s “Varney & Company,” where host Stuart Varney seemed to have no idea how internet content is monetized.
Yankovic seems pretty incredulous throughout the segment as Varney keeps pressing him to explain how exactly he gets paid if he puts out music videos on the web for free. Using the analogy of the internet as the new MTV — which also used to release free music videos, after all — seems to go right over Varney’s head, and so does the explanation of sponsorships from companies like Nerdist and Funny or Die, who back the productions of the videos.
See video: Weird Al’s Iggy Azalea ‘Fancy’ Spoof is Called ‘Handy’ and it is Ridiculous
The videos, Yankovic half-explains, half-mocks, are just an advertisement for the actual album itself, which released on Tuesday, July 15. People buying the album is where he will be compensated. Things haven’t changed that much in 30 years.
“Mandatory Fun,” which contains such parodies as “Tacky” (Pharrell’s “Happy”), “Word Crimes” (Robin Thicke‘s “Blurred Lines”), “Foil” (Lorde’s “Royals”) and “Handy” (Iggy Izalea’s “Fancy”), is the last album to come out of Yankovic’s 32 year long contract with RCA. During “Varney & Company,” he also revealed he will probably only put out singles, rather than full albums, from now on.