"Eat It" is a 1984 song by American

comedy music Comedy music or musical comedy is a genre of music that is comical, comedic 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 Middle Ages, Medieval Period, Class ...

artist

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

. It is a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

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 Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

's 1983 single "

Beat It "Beat It" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson from his sixth studio album, ''Thriller (album), Thriller'' (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones, and co-produced by Jackson. Jones encouraged Jackson to ...

", 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, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

. 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.

Production

The famous guitar solo, performed by

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

on "Beat It", was reproduced by Yankovic's producer,

Rick Derringer Richard Dean Zehringer (August 5, 1947 – May 26, 2025), known professionally as Rick Derringer, was an American musician, producer and songwriter. He gained success in the 1960s with his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, " Hang On Sloopy", ...

. 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/o ...

certified "Eat It" as a

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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" 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 ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' reviewed the single, saying "

’s production 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" – 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, slitted-pupil eyes, referencing the end of Jackson's video for " Thriller". Jackson received

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

from Yankovic for rights to cover the video so closely. On June 20, 2022, Yankovic uploaded an alternative version of the music video on his

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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 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

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) with a 16:9 asp ...

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. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...

's face digitally superimposed on Yankovic's.

Legacy

In 2019, Yankovic had pulled "Eat It" and his other Jackson song parody, "

Fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

", from the setlist of his Strings Attached Tour in the wake of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, 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 based a ...

documentary ''

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

'', 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and director. Cross is best known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'' (1995–1998), his role as Ian Hawk ...

and

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, screenwriter, comedian, and producer. He started his career as a comedian and comedy writer before expanding his career by acting in dramatic works. His List of awards and no ...

held a '' Mr. Show'' 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 and other celebrities had done for COVID-19 awareness but which had been taken as ineffectual.

Personnel

According to the liner notes of The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic: *

– lead & background vocals * Jim West – guitar *

– guitar solo, producer * Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz – drums * Pat Regan – synthesizers * "Musical Mike" Kieffer – hand music

Chart history

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Works cited

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