When Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the MCU’s multiverse collapsing in on itself and reintroduced some familiar faces from previous Spidey franchises, Willem Dafoe was one of the actors tapped to reprise his role from the earlier films. From Dafoe’s frightening performance to the Goblin’s Jekyll-and-Hyde duality to the perfect blend of mustache-twirling villainy and three-dimensional pathos, No Way Home deftly recaptured what made the original Green Goblin so great. But it made one key change that massively improved the character, and that change was foreshadowed nearly two decades earlier in a Spidey-themed song by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Across his prolific discography, Weird Al has thrown pop culture references of all kinds into his beloved parody songs. His spoof of Don McLean’s “American Pie” recaps the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. His spoof of Richard Harris’ “MacArthur Park” recaps the events of Jurassic Park. His spoof of The Presidents of the United States of America’s “Lump” recaps the events of Forrest Gump. And his spoof of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” recaps the events of Sam Raimi’s original 2002 Spider-Man movie (“Sling us a web, you’re the Spider-Man!”). These were all fun takes on the movies they parodied, but only the latter proved to be prescient in predicting the future of its target franchise.
Titled “Ode to a Superhero,” Weird Al’s Spider-Man-themed “Piano Man” homage is a spot-on lampoon of the Raimi movie, capturing everything that made it such a groundbreaking delight while affectionately ribbing its few shortcomings: “With great power comes great responsibility / That’s the catchphrase of old Uncle Ben / If you missed it, don’t worry, they’ll say the line / Again and again and again!” The lyrics make some solid critiques of the film, like the silliness of Spidey’s skintight costume, the bizarreness of the film’s love triangle, and the fact that the sequel will just repeat the same formula, but one line in particular not only highlights a drawback; it offers a solution that No Way Home eventually implemented.
The verse about Norman Osborn succinctly sums up the character as “a billionaire scientist who never had time for his son,” who turned into a homicidal maniac when “something went screwy” in his laboratory. Yankovic sings, “He’s wearin’ that dumb Power Rangers mask / But he’s scarier without it on.” While Raimi’s film characterized Norman perfectly, cast the greatest actor for the part, and made the Goblin a formidable foe for Spidey to face in his first big-screen outing, the mecha, high-tech, immovable mask was heavily criticized by both diehard comic book fans and casual movie audiences.
In Raimi’s sequels, Norman continued to appear from beyond the grave, speaking to an increasingly corrupted Harry through his reflection in the mirror. These brief but unforgettable appearances cemented the undeniable truth that Dafoe’s portrayal of the Spidey supervillain is much more effective when the audience can actually see Dafoe play him. Dafoe’s creepy smile gives audiences more chills than his airborne Goblin action, “ridin’ around on that glider thing and throwin’ that weird pumpkin bomb.”
No Way Home director Jon Watts agreed with Yankovic that Dafoe was more terrifying without the goofy Goblin mask, and mercifully shattered that mask in an early scene to allow Dafoe’s expressive face to shine. When he first appears, the Goblin is seen masked, suited up, and gliding through the smoke of the bridge battle with Doc Ock to join the fight. Moments later, Norman smashes the mask in an alley and heads to F.E.A.S.T., where he meets Aunt May. In all his subsequent appearances, Dafoe gets to display every unnerving emotion that Norman exhibits, from grinning through a relentless beating to laughing off May’s murder. As it turns out, Weird Al was right; he is a lot scarier without that mask on.
Although the involvement of Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx as Electro was already revealed in the months leading up to No Way Home’s release, Marvel and Sony managed to keep Dafoe’s role in the film under wraps until the trailer dropped. But when audiences saw his secret performance, they were blown away. Dafoe had already given standout performances in Nightmare Alley and The Card Counter, but No Way Home gave the actor yet another 2021 knockout to prove he’s still operating at the height of his powers – and, thankfully, he’s not obscured by a ridiculous green mask.
Weird Al has seen a surge in popularity recently as his delightfully absurdist biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, has dropped on The Roku Channel. Starring Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, this biopic is, appropriately, framed as a parody of traditional music biopics. At its TIFF premiere, the film won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. Adapted from the fake trailer of the same name released on Funny or Die, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story uses the brazen inaccuracy that usually drags down conventional musician biopics to enjoy a ZAZ-style creative freedom that makes it a joy to watch.