In July 2014, “Weird Al” Yankovic released his #1 — and final — album, Mandatory Fun. So to mark the 10-year anniversary, he’s put out a four-minute polka medley, “Polkamania!,” which incorporates some of the pop hits that have become ubiquitous since he last released music.
There are 12 songs in the medley in all: “bad guy,” “Hello,” “Flowers,” “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” “vampire,” “Old Town Road,” “Despacito,” “Shape of You,” “Uptown Funk,” “WAP,” “thank u, next” and “Shake It Off.” The Taylor Swift hit is the oldest one, having come out the same years as Mandatory Fun, but Al tells Vulture why he chose that one instead of something more current from Taylor.
“That was the toughest decision, because I obviously really wanted a Taylor Swift song. I almost went with ‘Anti-Hero,’” Al says. “But if you were to pick one Taylor Swift song based on which is probably the most iconic, the one that gets quoted the most, the one that’s most identified with her, I would say that’s probably ‘Shake it Off.’ So I just thought to go with that, even though it is the oldest song in the medley.”
“Shake It Off” is the last song in the medley, and in the accompanying music video, there’s an animated sequence that shows Taylor rejecting Al’s romantic offerings of flowers and heart-shaped balloons. Eventually he grabs onto her leg, which requires her to, yes, shake him off.
The video ends with Travis Kelce, wearing Taylor’s Eras Tour-opening bodysuit, holding Taylor aloft. Then she and Travis join Al, who’s on accordion. She plays the trumpet and Travis plays clarinet, while dressed in traditional German lederhosen. You’ve got to see it to believe it.
(The Taylor animation starts at 3:31 into the video.)
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