When "Weird Al" Yankovic first hit the national airwaves in 1984 with Eat It, his parody of Michael Jackson?s Beat It, the Internet was barely an idea in Al Gore?s mind, MTV still played music, and song parodies were few.

These days, anyone can create comedy takeoffs on popular songs and put them on the video site YouTube.

Yankovic is still lampooning hot music. His latest album ? Straight Outta Lynwood, released in September ? is his highestcharting album (it made its debut at No. 10) and has given him his first top-10 single: White and Nerdy, a parody of Chamillionaire?s hit Ridin?.

Yankovic conceded recently that the Internet "sort of levels the playing field. It allows pretty much anybody to get their material out there."

"But," the 47-year-old said, "to coin a phrase, cream rises to the top. So if your stuff is good, a lot of people will hear it."

Rather than diluting his audience, Yankovic said, the Internet has helped him by making his music even more accessible. He pointed out that the video for White and Nerdy, which had 6 million hits in the first three weeks on YouTube, broke several Internet records.

"That was a huge hit," he said. "I think it?s gotten, like, 20 or 30 million hits so far, if you?re adding up all the YouTube and My-Space hits.

"It was quite a phenomenon. So I?d have to say that that was in a large way responsible for the high chart debut."

Then again, "Maybe people are finally catching up with me."

Actually, people have been in Yankovic?s corner all along. He has sold more comedy recordings ? 12 million and counting ? than any other singer. He has six platinum and four gold albums and seven gold or platinum long-form videos. He has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and won three.

Yankovic might be correct about the boost the Internet has given his music ? White and Nerdy gave him his second gold single, 22 years after Eat It.

But he said cyberspace can also hurt a singer.

On his Web site, he lists a half-dozen Web videos he says are wrongly attributed to him and urges users to check his catalog if they?re not sure.

"One of my pet peeves about the information superhighway is there is a lot of misinformation," he said.

"If you were to do a search for my name on a lot of the peer-to-peer sites, half the songs that come up are not by me."

And while Yankovic strives to keep his songs family-friendly, many Internet imitators don?t.

"The reason I had to point out the fact that I didn?t do a lot of those songs is . . . a lot of these songs are vulgar or just not very good," he said. "It certainly doesn?t do me any favors to have my name attached to them."

But he also has used the Web to his advantage. When Atlantic Records had him pull You?re Pitiful from the new disc, Yankovic released the parody of James Blunt?s You?re Beautiful as a free-for-download single on the Web. (He also performs it in concert.)

These days, his 4-year-old daughter, Nina, is his biggest critic.

"She likes my stuff from early on," Yankovic said. "I was neck and neck with a Blue?s Clues soundtrack for a while, but I?m proud to say that my daughter is still a fan of my work ? although, for some reason, she doesn?t like me singing to her in person.

"I?ll start singing lullabies to her or making up silly songs, and she?ll say: ?No, Daddy, don?t sing. Put on the CD.? She likes the recorded material better."