Before They Were Stars: Weird Al Yankovic on “The Tomorrow Show”

Since it’s Weird Al Yankovic’s birthday today, I knew I had to post the earliest possible footage of him I could find. Weird Al spent his early years as a performer doing comedy sketches and song parodies on Dr. Demento’s radio show, but his first official television appearance came in 1981 when he was invited to perform on Tom Snyder’s The Tomorrow Show. Witness Weird Al wearing some cheap thrift store clothes with his hair at his all-time frizziest as he plays “Another One Rides the Bus”, a parody of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”, on the accordion. This gave him the national exposure that helped launch his career as a stage performer and the rest is history. I can’t imagine how weird it must have been in 1981 to see a guy like this performing on national television.