"Eat It" is a 1984 song by American

comedy music Comedy music or musical comedy is a genre of music that is comic or humorous in nature. Its history can be traced back to the first century in ancient Greece and Rome, moving forward in time to the Medieval Period, Classical and Romantic eras, ...

artist

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

. It is a

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its su ...

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's 1983 single "

Beat It "Beat It" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson from his sixth studio album, ''Thriller'' (1982). It was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. Jones encouraged Jackson to include a rock song on the album. Jackson l ...

", with the contents changed to be about an exasperated parent attempting to get their picky child to eat anything at all, much less to eat properly. The track was both a commercial and critical success, earning Yankovic a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

. It peaked at number twelve in the United States, making it his first top 40 hit in that country, and reached number one in Australia.

History

The famous guitar solo, originally performed by

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

, was reproduced by Yankovic's producer,

Rick Derringer Rick Derringer (born Richard Dean Zehringer; August 5, 1947) is an American guitarist, vocalist, producer and songwriter. He came to prominence in the 1960s as founding member of his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, " Hang on Sloopy", was ...

. According to Yankovic, when he presented his lyrics to Jackson for review, he did not know how Jackson would react. Jackson allegedly thought it was amusing and agreed to allow the parody. On October 19, 1989, the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...

certified "Eat It" as a

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

single.

Reception

The single reached number 1 in Australia, and it was his highest-charting US single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at number 12 until "

White & Nerdy "White & Nerdy" is the second single from "Weird Al" Yankovic's album ''Straight Outta Lynwood'', which was released on September 26, 2006. It parodies the song "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone. The song both satirizes and celebrates n ...

" peaked at number 9 in October 2006. "Eat It" earned Yankovic a 1984

in the Best Comedy Recording category. "Eat It" also outranked "Beat It" in overall highest position on the Australian singles chart, with its highest rank being number 1, while "Beat It"'s highest was third. '' Cash Box'' reviewed the single, saying "

’s

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

has remained true to the energy and appeal of Michael Jackson’s original version, and the lyrics...are actually very funny."

Track listing

1984 release

# "Eat It" – 3:19 # "That Boy Could Dance" – 3:32

1985/1993 re-release

# "Eat It" – 3:19 # "

I Lost on Jeopardy "I Lost on Jeopardy" is a song by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic from his second album, ''"Weird Al" Yankovic in 3-D'', released in 1984. The song is a parody of "Jeopardy (song), Jeopardy" by The Greg Kihn Band, released in 1983, and its ...

" – 3:26

Music video

The video for "Eat It" is styled as a shot-for-shot remake of Jackson's video for "

", but with elements being parodied in various silly ways and Yankovic dressed as Jackson. The video also features a few of the same dancers from Jackson's video and Yankovic clumsily mimicking the dance moves from the original video. The video ends with Yankovic looking into the camera with yellow eyes, referencing the end of Jackson's video for "

Thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

". Jackson received royalties from Yankovic for rights to cover the video so closely. In June 20, 2022, Yankovic uploaded an alternative version of the music video on his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

channel, which consists of a single "coverage take". The alternate take of Yankovic singing, dancing, and writhing on the bed in the bedroom was intended to be used as a backup if other shots were unusable or unable to be procured in time, although Yankovic said he believed none of the footage was used in the original 1984 cut. The original

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ed ...

footage of the video was digitized into

4K resolution 4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the domina ...

and re-edited by Yankovic (during the 2022 The Unfortunate Return of the Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour) to recreate the original video frame-for-frame. This remaster was done for a scene in '' Weird: The Al Yankovic Story'', which included a brief glimpse of the "Eat It" video with star

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. He rose to fame at age twelve, when he began portraying Harry Potter in the film series of the same name; and has held various other film and theatre roles. Over his career, Rad ...

's face digitally superimposed on Yankovic's.

Legacy

Yankovic had pulled "Eat It" and his other Jackson song parody, "

Fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple es ...

", from the setlist of his

Strings Attached Tour The Strings Attached Tour was a concert tour by "Weird Al" Yankovic. The tour began on June 5, 2019 at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida and ended on September 1, 2019 at the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Background Th ...

in the wake of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

documentary ''

Leaving Neverland ''Leaving Neverland'' is a 2019 documentary film directed and produced by the British filmmaker Dan Reed. It focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the American singer Michael Ja ...

'', in which two men claimed Jackson had sexually abused them when they were children. "I don't know if that's going to be permanent or not," Yankovic said of the decision. "But we just felt that with what's happened recently with the HBO documentaries, we didn't want anybody to feel uncomfortable." As part of a charity effort during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitc ...

and

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

held a ''

Mr. Show ''Mr. Show with Bob and David'', also known as ''Mr. Show'', is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998. Cross and Odenkirk introduced mo ...

'' online reunion show in May 2020 with many of their former cast members as well as other friends. The show concluded by having Cross, Odenkirk and their cast, as well as Yankovic, sing "Eat It", in a purposely tone-deaf manner that parodied a prior cover performance of " Imagine" that

Gal Gadot Gal Gadot-Varsano ( he, גל גדות ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter she ...

and other celebrities had done for COVID-19 awareness but which had been taken as ineffectual.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control "Weird Al" Yankovic songs Songs written by Michael Jackson 1984 singles Number-one singles in Australia Cultural depictions of Michael Jackson Songs with lyrics by "Weird Al" Yankovic 1984 songs American hard rock songs Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album Scotti Brothers Records singles