＂Weird Al＂ Yankovic - UHF

What this video is

Released in July 1989 as the lead single and promotional video for the Orion Pictures comedy film UHF, this video arrived at the apex of MTV's cultural dominance, when music video literacy was high enough that rapid-fire parodies of recognizable visual styles could function as standalone comedy. The song itself is a pastiche of late-80s hard rock and R&B revue styles. The video's anthology structure — cycling…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of comedy-rock and parody music video production, this video demonstrates how the music video format had become sufficiently codified by 1989 that its conventions could be systematically parodied and still be instantly legible to a mass audience. It influenced subsequent…

The director

Jay Levey is a director and producer best known as 'Weird Al' Yankovic's longtime manager and creative collaborator. He directed the 1989 feature film UHF, which he co-wrote with Yankovic, and directed numerous Weird Al music videos including 'Eat It'…