The Phibes Philes: Save Our Station – 35 Years of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “UHF”

“Those who laugh at ‘UHF’ should inspire our admiration; in these dreary times, we must treasure the easily amused.” That is a line from Roger Ebert’s review of “UHF,” “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 1989 movie that attempted to translate his brand of parodic humor to the silver screen. As you probably know, Yankovic is the musical jester who takes popular songs and makes them (for lack of a better word) weird. He achieved an unprecedented level of fame when he took Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and gave us “Eat It.” The song itself was pretty funny on its own, but it was the music video that pushed Al over the edge. With all its zany sight gags and attention to detail (it perfectly recreates the look of the original), “Eat It” alone shows that Weird Al’s style was meant for cinema, right? Well, Mr. Ebert didn’t think so, and neither did the general audience. It flopped hard, killing Weird Al’s movie career in the process. It seems like that was the end for “UHF.”

OR WAS IT?!

“UHF” is about an offbeat underdog going up against media titans. Coincidentally, that happened to be the real-life story of “UHF.” The film was released by Orion Pictures and enjoyed the most successful test screenings in the company’s history. The ailing Orion needed a hit, so they sent this $5 million scrapper out in July of 1989 in hopes of gaining a summer blockbuster. Unfortunately, “UHF” had a little competition the month it was released. And by “a little competition,” I mean it was among the most insanely packed months in the history of cinema. The releases included “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” “Ghostbusters II,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Lethal Weapon 2,” “Batman,” “Licence to Kill,” “Dead Poets Society,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “Do the Right Thing,” and “Weekend at Bernie’s.” Suffice to say, “UHF” did not save Orion Pictures.

This was all especially disheartening to Mr. Yankovic. Prior to the release of “UHF,” Weird Al was riding high. In addition to those wonderful test screenings, Orion had positioned Al as a brand-new movie star, even going as far as to call him their “Woody Allen.” With “UHF” ostensibly set to be a comedy smash hit, Al was treated like royalty. When it bombed, he became persona non grata. “Every morning I would wake up to fresh strawberries next to my bed,” said Al. “Then, when the movie bombed, I woke up and…no more strawberries!” While that comment is short and playful, Al expressed his disappointment further in an interview with Yahoo:

“Nobody wanted to establish eye contact. It was really weird and just kind of odd to have the rug pulled out from under me like that because I was getting built up so much, and then, within a couple of days, nothing. So, that was kind of devastating, and it took me kind of a while… I don’t know if I would say I was depressed because I’ve always been a pretty happy, up kind of guy, but it was not pleasant. I probably had a couple of years of licking my wounds before I could kind of come back and be creative again.”

I’m not trying to rub salt in the wound by recounting the less-than-stellar reception “UHF” received. I brought it up because that’s not how we saw “UHF” when I was a kid. Around the age of 12, I was absolutely obsessed with “Weird Al” Yankovic. He was my Elvis and my Groucho Marx in one tropical-patterned package. When I saw a copy of “UHF” at my local video store, I was ecstatic. “Weird Al” Yankovic in a full-length movie? It had to be nothing short of a masterpiece!

And I was right! From the opening, in which Al plays an intrepid adventurer in the Indiana Jones mold, to the stop-motion alien that appeared in the last five minutes, I was enthralled. Even the bone-bare plot, which exists solely as a skeleton on which to hang jokes, had my attention. Eccentric daydreamer George Newman (played by Al) has to save his newly-acquired UHF station from a ruthless rival station head (played by “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” star Kevin McCarthy). What drama! George will lose his station if he and his fellow oddballs can’t raise enough money. I’d never known such suspense!

In addition to being just a very funny movie with a million jokes a minute (I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t at least get a chuckle out of Conan the Librarian), it was a surprisingly sweet movie about misfits creating art their way. Every one of “UHF’s” heroes was a little strange, including its leading man. There’s the child-like Stanley Spadowski, the janitor who accidentally becomes a Pee-wee Herman-like celebrity. We also have Philo (Anthony Geary), a particularly mad mad scientist. The legendary Billy Barty played Noodles, the station’s cameraman. In a film willing to do almost anything for a laugh, Barty’s dwarfism is never the target of mean-spirited jokes. In fact, he seems to be very good at what he does. The same can be said about Fran Drescher’s Pamela Finklestein, a competent reporter played in Drescher’s quirky style.

All of these characters are obviously weird (Al’s brand), and the humor can come from their quirks, but “UHF” has clear affection for all of them. All the qualities that make the U-62 crew (U-62 being Al’s station) odd are the exact qualities that later turn them into television sensations. To a child such as myself, who sometimes felt like a weirdo, it was kinda neat to see a movie that celebrated the outsider. You could be tall or short, fat or thin, neurotypical or neurodivergent. As long as you weren’t a jerk, you could be a star at U-62.

I immediately felt a sort of kinship with this movie, so I’d naturally talk people’s ears off about it. A surprising number of my peers had seen and adored it. If they hadn’t, I’d show it to them in a manner not unlike the brainwashing in “A Clockwork Orange.” They generally laughed their heads off. In my eyes and the eyes of my friends, “UHF” was a bonafide comedy classic. Gedde Watanabe’s proclamation of “You’re so stupid!” became part of our vernacular. Al’s culinary creation, the Twinkie Wiener Sandwich, was a legendary dish. It really wasn’t until I discovered Ebert’s review that I realized that “UHF” landed with a thud.

Roger Ebert was almost as important to me as Weird Al at that age. His reviews really helped with my film education and were just fun to read. When he loved a movie, he wrote with eloquence and great insight. When he hated a movie, he absolutely demolished it. That devastating wit was unfortunately targeted at “UHF.” He gave “UHF” a one-star rating. That’s only half a star higher than “Battlefield Earth.” Not only did he ravage “UHF,” he went after Weird Al himself. While he doesn’t fully denigrate Al’s music, he does start his review by saying he goes after “easy targets.” He’s much harsher on Al as an actor, critiquing his voice, posture, and perceived lack of confidence. I couldn’t believe how harsh he was towards something that seemed so special to me. It was like watching my parents fight.

Through that review, I found other reviews from the time “UHF” was released. Ebert’s partner Gene Siskel wrote, “Never has a comedy tried so hard and failed so often to be funny.” Ebert was at least kind enough to give it a single star; Siskel gave it zero. Others were gentler, but the consensus was the same: “UHF” was a misfire. I learned of its box office failure, its failure to connect with audiences at the time, and how it basically derailed Weird Al’s career for a few years. This wonderful, silly film that celebrated the outcast was an outcast itself. That’s when it finally dawned on me: no piece of art is going to be appreciated by everyone. There’s an audience for everything; it just might not come till later. “UHF” taught me about cult movies. My buddies, peers, and I had no idea that “UHF” was ever considered a failure when we discovered it. “UHF” was just another comedy classic like “Ghostbusters” or “The Producers.”

“UHF” did find its audience. What had happened in my community was a microcosm of the reevaluation the film had undergone. With cable and home video, the folks who missed “UHF” the first time got their chance to discover it. When the VHS went out of print, the demand for “UHF” caused the price to skyrocket to the hundreds. When it arrived on DVD in 2002, it debuted in the top ten, according to Variety. “You’re so stupid!” became an internet meme. Official t-shirts have been produced and have sold out. Many TV shows reference it just as they would reference “Star Wars.” Just recently, a character on “Reservation Dogs” called it an “American classic.”

A few days before writing this, I attended a 35th anniversary screening of “UHF” at the Alamo Drafthouse. The tickets had been sold out for over a month prior, so I was lucky to snag some. An enthusiastic crowd was invited to cheer, clap, and shout some of their favorite lines. The woman next to me was quietly reciting the entire film. I took two friends who had never seen “UHF” before, and they loved it as much as the long-time fans. “UHF” wasn’t a hit in ’89, but it certainly didn’t die. Like its underdog heroes, it overcame the odds and succeeded because it was just too weird to ignore. As its theme song states, they got it all on “UHF.”