| "Headline News" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by "Weird Al" Yankovic | ||||
| from the album Permanent Record: Al in the Box | ||||
| B-side | Christmas at Ground Zero" (alternate mix) | |||
| Released | September 27, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | July 27, 1994 | |||
| Length | 3:46 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | "Weird Al" Yankovic | |||
| "Weird Al" Yankovic singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Headline News" on YouTube | ||||
"Headline News" is a parody song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the Crash Test Dummies' 1993 hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". It was released as the lead-off single for the compilation box set Permanent Record: Al in the Box on September 27, 1994. The song was written after Yankovic's label insisted he craft a new song to promote the album; Yankovic in turn combined the music of the Crash Test Dummies' song with three news stories that were popular in late 1993 and early 1994.
To help promote the song and album, Yankovic directed a music video that was a direct parody of the Crash Test Dummies' original. In it, the three news stories are presented as if they are one-act plays to an audience. The song's video took two days to film and ended up running over the allotted time that had been scheduled for production, costing the record label a considerable amount of money. Several notable individuals made cameos in the video, including Doug Llewelyn, Dr. Demento, and Judy Tenuta.
The song and video were met with mostly positive reviews from critics, although at least one critic for The Commercial Appeal felt that the source material was already dated upon the single's release. Crash Test Dummies themselves were pleased with the final result and even performed the song with Yankovic in concert twice. "Headline News" charted at number four on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, making it Yankovic's first single to chart domestically since 1992's "Smells Like Nirvana".