As Hirsch writes, the word “still” pops up in headline after headline on stories about Yankovic, such as this one from the Chicago Tribune: “Yankovic Still Weird, Still a Master of Parody.” “The ‘still’ seems to betray a certain insult, as if Yankovic’s career was in doubt from the start,” she writes.

And yet here he is, 60 years old and still singing silly and twisted tunes. To quote Homer Simpson, “He who is tired of ‘Weird Al’ is tired of life.”

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Yankovic’s work — along with that of others dismissed as “novelty” performers — is often treated as if it will fade from relevance at any moment. As Dr. Demento writes in the book’s foreword, the music created by people who write and sing funny songs is “dismissed as ephemeral by serious music fans and as trivial by connoisseurs of spoken comedy.”

Hirsch insists that it is high time that we look at, listen to and talk “about the various aspects of Yankovic’s art that merit serious attention,” to move the reader to revisit Yankovic’s music and listen with fresh ears. She’s joking, right? We’re talking about the creator of such songs as “I Love Rocky Road,” “Like a Surgeon” and “Another One Rides the Bus.” Whose signature look is Hawaiian shirts.

But she has a point: Yankovic has released 14 studio albums and won five Grammys, most recently in 2014 for “Mandatory Fun,” which was not only the first comedy album ever to debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart but was also the first such album to reach that lofty position since parodist Allan Sherman’s “My Son, the Nut” in 1963. “His songs,” she writes, “make us laugh, but also have a point of view, be it on society, popular culture, politics, race, gender, fame or words themselves.”

Analyzing comedy is always a challenge, and Hirsch gets that. She quotes E.B. White’s observation: “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.” Indeed, at times “Seriously” takes on the weighty tone of a dissertation with deep delves into the nature and functions of parody. This will no doubt be the only Weird Al book you’ll read with a quote by Vaclav Havel, the Czech writer and dissident who went on to become Czech president.

But don’t fear for the frog’s well-being. Hirsch manages to make a good case for Yankovic’s artistic bona fides while still keeping things hopping. She begins with a deft replay of Yankovic’s life and career: how his parents rented an accordion for their 7-year-old son from a door-to-door salesman; how he learned how to play rock-and-roll by listening to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”; how he was inspired to write funny songs by, of all things, the Johnny Cash song “Boa Constrictor,” which ended with a man-eating snake’s satisfied burp; how Dr. Demento’s radio show introduced him to Sherman, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones and other musical iconoclasts and encouraged him to submit his homemade recordings to Demento.

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Yankovic always seeks permission to parody other people’s songs. Most consider it an honor. Hirsch relates entertaining stories about who said no (the late Prince remained one who got away) and who said no but had a change of heart (Yankovic released “Amish Paradise” — although “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper Coolio wasn’t happy about it — after the record company gave him the green light. Coolio later told an interviewer: “I should have never been upset about that. Michael Jackson never got mad at him.”)

Hirsch quotes extensively from Yankovic interviews. Her own sit-downs with him affirm that he is as amiable and self-deprecating as fans might hope. On his “outsider” status, he reflects: “I’d like to think I am still an outsider because I’m still poking fun at the elite and other pop cultural icons, but at the same time, I guess I have to count myself among their number because I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Donald Liebenson is an entertainment writer. His work has been published in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, VanityFair.com and New York Magazine’s Vulture website.

Weird Al: Seriously

By Lily E. Hirsch