'Weird Al' Yankovic’s ‘Mandatory Fun’ takes No. 1 spot on music charts thanks to viral video buzz

'Weird Al' Yankovic’s ‘Mandatory Fun’ takes No. 1 spot on music charts thanks to viral video buzz

CASEY CURRY/CASEY CURRY/INVISION/APWeird Al Yankovic’s new album, ‘Mandatory Fun,’ debuted at No. 1 this week on Billboard’s charts, according to preliminary data.

The King of Song Parodies looks to become this week’s King of Pop — in a typically off-beat way.

"Weird Al" Yankovic will chart his first No. 1 album with “Mandatory Fun,” according to preliminary figures from HitsDailydouble.com. Yankovic’s sales of just over 104,700 will beat numbers for Jason Mraz, a star with a far younger, and seemingly more active, consuming fanbase.

Mraz had been on track to bag his first chart topper as well, but Hits says he will stall at No. 2, based on sales of just under 84,000 for “Yes!”

It’s interesting to note the savvy marketing campaign that gave the 54-year-old Yankovic his coup. Thanks to an onslaught of eight videos released in as many days, his viral presence shot through the roof in the tight period preceding the release of “Fun.” The exposure Yankovic earned via mobile and social networks leaped an astounding 3,391% between the weeks of July 7-13 and July 14-20.

According to Kontera, the Amobee Brand measurement company for web analytics, Yankovic’s video exposure in that period obliterated not just Mraz’s, but that of every other major music star. His closest competition, Beyonce, had roughly half as much exposure as the satirist. Yankovic also dwarfed the viral play of stars as big as Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z in the last week.

More incredibly, the comic received no money to fund his cheeky clips from his record company. Instead he cajoled the funds from onLine brands like Funny or Die, Yahoo and College Humor. They then played his clips nonstop, helping to spread them to social media accounts around the country.

Of the eight videos, the most viewed according to Kontera was Yankovic’s rank on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” (turned into “Word Crimes”), followed by his parody of Pharrell’s “Happy” (“Tacky”), Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (“Handy”), and Lorde’s “Royals” (redone as “Foil”).

KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGESSinger Jason Mraz may be more popular with the kids, but his album ‘Yes!’ is coming in second.

Yankovic, whose career dates back to 1979, had a defining early hit with the spoof of Toni Basil’s Song “Mickey” (twisted into “Ricky”). According to Billboard figures, the comic has racked up two previous Top 10 debuts, all in the last decade. They include his last album, 2011’s “Alpocalypse,” which opened at No. 9.