Weird Al Yankovic jokes that Netflix's new Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story miniseries is another biopic of his life amid the hype for the similarly-titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Ryan Murphy's Dahmer began streaming on Netflix on September 21, starring Evan Peters as American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The limited series portrays the events leading up to his murders and eventual incarceration in the early 1990s. The series is a new collaboration between Murphy and Peters, who have previously worked together in multiple seasons of the American Horror Story anthology.
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Dahmer comes a few weeks after the world premiere of Weird Al's actual biopic. The film, appropriately titled Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 with Daniel Radcliffe leading a star-studded cast as a young Weird Al. The comedy, produced and co-written by Yankovic himself, is an absurd and loose retelling of the eccentric musician's life that also satirizes the biopic genre.
Yankovic took to Twitter on September 21 to teasingly speculate that the new Dahmer series Monster must be another film about his own life story, only much "DARKER." Attached to his tweet was a short seven-second snippet of Peters as the infamous serial killer telling Niecy Nash's character to "eat it." The joke is a reference to Yankovic's 1984 hit song "Eat it", itself a playful spoof of Michael Jackson's classic song "Beat it". "Wait, they’re already making ANOTHER Weird Al biopic??" Yankovic joked.
Yankovic's tweet is sure to ride the wave of media attention surrounding Dahmer as a way to further publicity for his own film. While the singer never really left the limelight, the peak of his career in the 1980s may be a little far back in the memories of an older generation. So far, both Monster and Weird have received generally positive reviews, but the latter still has a ways to go before its official debut in November 2022. By using Twitter to draw more attention to both his previous work and his new film, Yankovic has found the perfect way to drum up interest in his forthcoming ventures.
Making light of a show depicting Dahmer's gruesome murders could be seen as a bold, or worse, tasteless move. However, Yankovic's tweet is a classic display of his signature spoofing style, by putting his own spin on and infusing himself into current cultural moments. Weird Al's famous brand of satire is alive and well, and it clearly isn't going away any time soon. Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is currently streaming on Netflix, while Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is only a couple of months away from streaming.