It seems simple, doesn’t it? His name is “Weird Al” Yankovic. That’s Yank-oh-vick. This man has been famous for my entire life, and I have never once heard anyone pronounce his last name any other way. Apparently, though, some people do! Some people think it’s Yank-oh-vitch! And “Weird Al” Yankovic does not appreciate this.
On Thursday night, our greatest comedy-rock icon was a guest on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show. That at least sheds some light on the moment that he got together with Portugal. The Man and the Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone to cover Rage Against The Machine in Brooklyn. Yankovic was in New York, see? The rest is a mystery, but that’s why he was there. Yankovic’s enormous Bigger & Weirder tour is already underway, and he was perfectly charming while chatting with Colbert. He also did the impossible: He pulled off a late-night comedy bit that was actually funny.
In a special Christmas message, Yankovic told the world to stop pronouncing his name with the ch sound at the end: “The Yankovichs didn’t come to this country with just an accordion on their backs and the wrong words to other people’s songs in their hearts just to have their names mangled and butchered!” He then took that line of conversation to some unpredictable places. Watch it all happen below.
By the way, it’s Tom Breihan, and the “Breihan” sounds like “Bryan.” It’s not “Tom Bree-han”! Stop saying “Tom Bree-han!”
