Comedian-singer ‘Weird’ Al Yankovic, known for his parodies of popular songs, has recently revealed that he had asked Warner Bros. for permission to do a parody song based on Harry Potter — but was turned down. Yankovic talked to The Hollywood Reporter while promoting the biopic of his life, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (which also happens to be a parody itself). He says that he had asked the production company for their blessing many years ago:

Yankovic doesn’t actually legally need permission to make parodies of other songs. Parody is considered ‘free use’ as long as it’s making fun of the original work rather than borrowing from it. Instead, Yankovic asks for permission anyway to be polite as a sign of good faith with other musicians.

“Whenever it was, about a decade or two ago, I approached the movie company just to get a general blessing like, ‘Hey, I’d like to do a Harry Potter parody.’ And I think they said no, or they never responded or whatever… But sometimes when you’re dealing with franchises, and you ask permission, you know, there’s so many people that can say no, and they usually do.”

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However, this isn’t the first time Weird Al has been turned down. The late pop star Prince had always refused Weird Al’s requests, and so has Rivers Cuomo, the frontman of the rock band Weezer. While Yankovic had gained the blessing of Michael Jackson to satirize his songs many times, Jackson refused to let him parody “Black or White” as he felt the subject matter was too serious.

Similarly, Paul McCartney turned down Yankovic’s request to parody “Live and Let Die” as “Chicken Pot Pie,” since McCartney did not want to spread a message about eating meat, as he is a vegan. Coincidentally, Yankovic doesn’t eat meat either, but he didn’t have a problem writing or performing the song. Sometimes, Yankovic gets permission from the artist, but their record company is the one who puts their foot down. When he got permission from James Blunt to parody “You’re Beautiful” as the much more demeaning “You’re Pitiful,” he had fully recorded the song before Blunt’s record company said no.

Weird Al Says Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is a Harry Potter Parody

     The Roku Channel

Weird Al hints that he’s already done a sort of parody of Harry Potter: “We like to think that that’s the last movie of the Harry Potter franchise,” he says, since Daniel Radcliffe plays the titular character in both films. Radcliffe had also joined in on the joke, saying: “Maybe that’s what this film is… this has been his way of doing a Harry Potter parody.” Yankovic talked earlier about why he chose Radcliffe for the role, although he didn’t mention anything about Radcliffe having starred in the franchise he wanted to parody. ​​​​​​​

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is now streaming on The Roku Channel. A Roku original, it stars Daniel Radcliffe, Evan Rachel Wood, and Rainn Wilson.