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Weird Al Yankovic in his new video, Tacky

In possibly the most colourful video since Around the World, Weird Al Yankovic has launched a comeback with Tacky, a spoof of Pharrell's wildly and disproportionately popular song Happy.

There is very likely a generation or two who will need an explanation of Weird Al. (No generation is likely to have escaped Happy, the vid that launched a thousand clips.)

Weird Al was an odd fella with long curly hair who spoofed hits back when I was in elementary school. He never looked cool, never dressed cool, and seemed to be from an uncool age category, but still, my cool older brother and his friends had his tapes.

Some of his most iconic takes include Eat It ("Just eat it, eat it, eat it, eat it/Get yourself an egg and beat it"); Like A Surgeon ("Like a surgeon/Cuttin' for the very first time"); and Smells Like Nirvana ("Here we are now, we're Nirvana/Sing distinctly? We don't wanna").

Tacky, released on Monday, is the first of eight videos to drop from his 14th album, Mandatory Fun, due out today. The Tacky video features a string of comedian-types lip syncing in some awfully tacky clothes: Aisha Tyler, Jack Black, Eric Stonestreet, Margaret Cho, and Kristen Schaal. For fans this comeback is welcome because a) it means Weird Al is still alive (and actually not very old) and b) Tacky brilliantly describes people you love to hate using people you can't help but love.

Here are a few of our favourite lyrics (in order of least to most tacky), with a few notes from us:

It might seem crazy, wearing stripes and plaid (or fashion-forward – who can ever tell?)

Bring along my coupon book whenever I'm on a date (now that's just smart – all the more money to spend on a ring)

I Instagram every meal I've had ( always makes us hungry and jealous)

I meet some chick, ask her this and that/ Like are you pregnant girl, or just really fat? (apparently not everyone's gotten the memo - do not ever do this, people)

Got some new glitter Uggs and lovely pink sequined Crocs (unforgivable)

Yankovic will release songs from Mandatory Fun over eight days (#8videos8days), including Word Crimes, parodying Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. He cheekily mentioned to NPR that fans suspected the album's title had at least something to do with his 32-year-long record contract, saying "I can't really comment on that." He did comment on the release plan though: "I wanted to really do what is ostensibly my last album with a big splash."

And splash it did. Both he and nerdist.com (which premiered the song) have deemed it his best yet.

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