You’d think that in the YouTube/social media era, there would be at least one artist who has name recognition for being a parody artist. Maybe not on the same level as Weird Al (no one will ever be at Weird Al’s level), but perhaps on the same level (recognition-wise) as, say Mr. Beast.
Alas, no. At least, not that I can find. However, I’ve found a few parody artists on YouTube that are at least on the spectrum, so to speak.
Skinbone: I can’t tell if he’s an earnest rapper who did a style parody of his own genre (“The Plakette Song”), or if all of his output is parody. And frankly, I haven’t the time or the patience to go through his entire ouvre to find out.
Cletus T. Judd (real name: James Barry Poole): Literally wears the label of “the Weird Al of Country Music,” and his schtick reflects that. He does what Weird Al does: take existing songs and turn them into funny parodies via changing the lyrics, and also does original comedy songs (though not, AFAIK, style parodies, since he only performs Country). IMHO he peaked about two decades ago with “Goodbye Squirrell,” a parody of The Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.” I’ll note that his YouTube channel hasn’t had a new video in six years; do with that information what you will.
There I Ruined it is on YouTube, he does a wide variety of computer aided style changes- 50 cent in the style of Conway Twitty, or Pulp Fiction the musical.
But no, I don’t think anyone but Weird Al is actually selling albums or touring with parody music.
( @ZipperJJ ninjaed me while I took too much time writing. )
Historically, you had people like Tom Lehrer and Allan Sherman, who, like Al, did comedy/“novelty” songs which were either direct parodies of other songs (e.g., Lehrer’s “The Elements,” Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”), or what Al calls “style parodies” (e.g, Lehrer’s “The Vatican Rag.”)
It’s important to, as the OP notes, remember that “parody” songs (which are based on a particular existing song, or the style of another musician or type of music) are different from other comedy and novelty songs. @Joey_P mentioned Ray Stevens, who is known for a number of comedy songs (“Ahab the Arab,” “The Streak,” “Gitarzan” etc.), but his work, from what I can remember, wasn’t parodies, just funny original songs.
I think @Dung_Beetle 's example of Randy Rainbow is the biggest non-Weird-Al parody star right now. He tours, he has a book, he has an album, he has a huge following. The main difference between him and Al is his source material is mostly musicals. He does do mainstream pop songs from time to time (Taylor Swift, Chappel Roan) but it’s not quite the same as Weird Al in that regard. Also he has been doing exclusively political content.
Yea, he was the first one I thought of. I have some of his CDs. Hilarious stuff. I think my favorite is DWI Colorado, written after John Denver got a couple DWIs.
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