Weird Al Nabs His First No. 1 Album

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ETONLINE

A lot of people bought Weird Al Yankovic's new album.

The comedian nabbed his first No. 1 album with Mandatory Fun selling 104,000 copies in its first week. The parody album far exceeded initial expectations: according to Billboard, industry forecasters had predicted that Fun and Jason Mraz's Yes! would each sell around 70,000 to 75,000 copies. Mraz's latest opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 81,000 units sold and is the singer-songwriter's fourth top 10 album.

Perhaps it was Weird Al's buzzed about eight-day video rollout, featuring parodies of Pharrell's "Happy" ("Tacky"), Lorde's "Royals" ("Foil"), Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" ("Word Crimes") and Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" ("Handy"), that boosted sales, or perhaps it was his massive media blitz. Whatever it was, Mandatory Fun has become the first comedy album to reach No. 1 in more than 50 years.

The last comedy album to rule the chart was Allan Sherman's My Son, the Nut in 1963. Steve Martin came close back in 1978 with A Wild and Crazy Guy peaking at No. 2, while Cheech & Chong posted a pair of No. 2 albums in the early 1970s.

Until now, Weird Al's highest charting album was 2011's Apocalypse, which reached No. 9.

Yankovic also sets the U.S. record for having the most tracks from one album in the viral top 10 at one time on Spotify, which is tracks occupying the top 4 spots. He saw an increase of 785 percent in streams across all of his albums, totaling 3.2 million streams. (Mandatory Fun had 2.1 million streams.)

If you're surprised by this news, Weird Al is right there with you. He tweeted on Wednesday: "If you'd told me 30 years ago this would happen, I never would've believed it. If you'd told me 2 WEEKS ago, I never would've believed it."

But that doesn't mean he's not grateful.

"I'm so pleased everybody is enjoying the album, and I'm enormously grateful for everyone's support. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU," he posted.

In a recent interview with Radio.com, Weird Al opened up about his complicated relationship with Prince and revealed which video was "the most fun I've ever had on set." Read it here.

Congrats to Weird Al! What do you think of his latest spoofs?

Follow Sophie on Twitter: @SophieSchillaci