Weird Al Took His Own Headstone Home With Him From Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Contains spoilers for "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" has been available on The Roku Channel for a few weeks now, and if the film's Rotten Tomatoes scores are any indication, it continues to delight critics and viewers in equal measure. It's likely blowing a few of their minds too, as the comedic biopic hardly takes a traditional approach to the genre. In fact, it's hard to call "Weird" a biopic at all, as it positively delights in playing fast and loose with the facts of Al Yankovic's actual life.
That's not an issue as "Weird Al" himself co-wrote the film's screenplay (via The New York Times). While there are no doubt plenty of factual nuggets from Yankovic's life and career in the film, "Weird" essentially finds Yankovic doing what he does best, turning a formula on its head in service of a good laugh. And there are laughs aplenty in the satirical saga, particularly when Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe) embarks on a crazed and, according to the musician's comments on The Tonight Show, totally fictional relationship with Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood).
In the film, that torrid romance proves fatal as the pop superstar eventually has Yankovic gunned down on stage after he wins a prestigious award. And in a post-credits scene, the mournful Madonna even visits Al's gravestone. It seems that Yankovic loved the prop so much, he actually took it home with him after the film wrapped.
Yankovic will forever commemorate his fictional on-screen death with the hilariously morbid prop
Just for the sake of clarity, "Weird Al" Yankovic is still very much alive in the real world. And at the age of 63, the funnyman musician has not lost a bit of his comedic edge. He clearly hasn't gotten any less, ahem, weird either. If that weren't evident enough in the highly fictionalized movie about his life, it surely is by the fact that the fake tombstone bearing his name in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" is apparently the only prop he kept from the film.
Yankovic is apparently quite proud of it too, recently taking to Twitter to show it off to his legions of adoring fans. That Tweet fronted two pictures of the artifact in question — the first with Yankovic admiring it on the set of "Weird," and the second with the tombstone proudly displayed in, presumably, a backyard garden on Yankovic's property. Those pictures are accompanied by Yankovic's caption, reading, "This is the only prop that I got to keep from the shoot. I took it home from the set and planted it in my backyard, and my wife didn't discover it until two weeks later."
We can only imagine the shock the item likely gave Yankovic's wife when she happened upon it. But given the artist's penchant for such shenanigans, it's just as possible she wasn't surprised at all. In any case, it seems the tombstone is now forever entombed in "Weird Al" Yankovic's own backyard. And somehow that just feels right.