( CNN ) -- Alfred Matthew Yankovic has come a long way from the teen chopping up '70s disco hits for the Dr. Demento radio comedy hour . Over the years , he 's taught us everything from where to buy quilts at a discount price to what teen spirit smells like . But now , `` Weird Al '' is no longer just doing funny spoofs of Madonna and Michael Jackson ; he 's educating the Internet on how to properly use the Oxford comma . While he 's sold more than 12 million albums , earned three Grammys and racked up four gold records , Yankovic may be at his artistic peak with the sublime new single , `` Word Crimes . '' Yankovic has turned Robin Thicke 's not so humble brag about his dangling participle into something that could follow in the grand tradition of `` Schoolhouse Rock '' and , he says , `` ostensibly be part of a school curriculum . '' `` I 've taken a song that people had a problem with because it was slightly misogynistic , and I made it into a song about grammar , '' Yankovic said in an interview with CNN 's `` The Lead with Jake Tapper '' on Wednesday . Yankovic molds Thicke 's catchy , but borderline sexist , `` Blurred Lines '' into a linguistic piece de resistance , waxing grammatical about those who confuse irony and coincidence . Though Yankovic insisted that he loves all the songs equally off his new album , `` Mandatory Fun , '' when pressed , Yankovic said his tribute to the fundamentals of style `` might be '' his best track yet . The artist 's dedication to proper English syntax seems to have struck a chord with the Internet at large . As of this writing , more than 2.5 million people took three minutes out of their day to watch Yankovic 's lesson on literally versus figuratively . `` I 'm not alone . I 'm not the only grammar nerd out there , '' Yankovic said about the song 's success . `` There 's a lot of people who share my pain . '' `` Word Crimes '' is the second of eight tracks Yankovic released on YouTube . The singer , rapper and musical virtuoso intends to release eight parodies in eight days to help promote his new record . But Yankovic politely deflects on whether he knows which tracks will connect with his audience . `` I love all the songs equally , '' Yankovic said . `` There 's no lead single on this album because I do n't know what people are going to respond to the most . '' Whereas Yankovic 's previous hits relied more on simple word substitution -- see `` Like a Surgeon '' or `` Fat '' -- his new songs are more textured . The artist partially credits his new freedom to how the music ecosystem has evolved since he emerged on the scene in the 1980s . `` MTV does n't really stand for music television anymore , '' Yankovic said . `` The Internet is the new MTV . '' Less concerned with the relatively rigid formula required to rhyme his way on to the bygone `` Total Request Live , '' Yankovic said taking record and television executives out of the equation has given him more musical latitude . `` It does allow me to try things I would n't have tried before , '' he said . `` Now , it 's basically , 'What do I like ? What do the fans like ? ' '' Watch The Lead with Jake Tapper weekdays at 4pm ET . For the latest on The Lead with Jake Tapper click here .
`` Weird Al '' Yankovic is educating the Internet on how to properly use the Oxford comma . Yankovic may be at his artistic peak with his new single . `` I 'm not alone . I 'm not the only grammar nerd out there , '' Yankovic says .