Roku has finally released the first trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, its biopic about “Weird Al” Yankovic, and—at the risk of shocking you so hard that your heart may legitimately stop for a second—the whole thing is… kind of a joke. Whaaat? The biopic being made by Roku about “Weird Al”? A joke?!
Yes, we can hardly believe it either, but it’s true. The main gag of the trailer is that it’s trying to trick you into thinking it’s a Madonna movie, showing a screaming concert audience as impressive achievements flash on the screen, followed by an opening riff that is definitely “Like A Virgin” (because what else could it be?), and then the big reveal that it’s not a topless Madonna onstage but a shirtless rockstar version of “Weird Al,” as played by Daniel Radcliffe for some reason.
That casting makes slightly more sense now that we’ve seen this trailer, which is pretty explicit about the fact that this will be a heightened comedy version of Yankovic’s life, rather than the grim and gritty Funny Or Die version that Aaron Paul starred in years ago. Speaking of, that video was called “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” which is the same title that Roku is actually going with, and save for a subplot about an alcoholic Yankovic getting arrested and his dad being played by Gary Cole, the two trailers are weirdly similar. (Weirdly, get it?)
Of course, that’s because they’re both working in the same biopic parody space, so it’ll be interesting to see these jokes stretched out into a feature-length film. Weird will be available to stream on the Roku Channel this fall, giving those of us with an Apple TV or a Fire Stick or regular cable a few months to figure out how to get the Roku Channel.