Does Humour Belong in Music?

[paul_5]

5 hours ago, chris_b said:

There are many good humorous songs.

 

By Monty Python, Charlie Drake, Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Paddy Roberts to name but a few.

Agreed. There are quite a few honkers too!

 

Having been brought up on a heady brew of Queen, the Beach Boys and cassettes of ‘comedy hits of the 70s’ on 5 hour drives to family holidays I’m not averse to light-hearted and witty banter set to appropriate musical accompaniment. 
I drove my son home from youth club tonight accompanied by a selection from Frank Sidebottom’s repertoire and had a good giggle. 
 

FZ gets my vote any day of the week, but I can’t help but think that the music carries a hell of a lot more value than his lyrical efforts.

[BillyBass]

The Damned always have a bit of a laugh live.  This was the B-side to 'Smash it up'. the weird sound at 1.37 was a bit on the 7" that you had to revolve the opposite way to your record player to hear it, which doesn't work without a turntable and stylus, of course.

 

I once saw them play a version of Ballroom Blitz, with Lemmy.  Dave Vanian changed the chorus to: 'Big, big, big big t!ts' whilst pointing at a chesty skinhead girl sat on something to the side of the stage (Electric Ballroom, Camden Town).  The support band for this gig was supposed to be Splodgenessabounds but they got banned as 10 days previously, while supporting the Damned at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park, Max Splodge received a very quick BJ from the girl that used to share singing duties with him-on stage.  Splodgenessabounds were/are a pisstake punk band, famous for the single '2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps please'

[Jonesy]

Chas n Dave have some really funny lyrics/songs and i always think they're underrated as musicians off the back of it, which is a shame.

 

Spinal tap have to be near the top when talking about comedy tunes too. 

 

AC/DC tunes have a lot of humour in them too

[WinterMute]

8 hours ago, BreadBin said:

Leonard Cohen is hilarious. 

 

Edit - I should say was, really...

I've long maintained that Leonard was a p*ss-t*k*ng m*th*rf*ck*r who laughed heartily at the human condition and benefitted greatly from it. Sadly missed.

[Leonard Smalls]

There's quite a lot of difference between a humorous song and a song with humour in it... I tend to prefer the 2nd as the humour is part of the music, as opposed to the whole point of the song.

Bootsy's music is always dribbling with little jokes!

 

 

[Guest]

We have a bit of "humour" in our act. 

 

Our singer has a great singing tone, but a slightly limited range. About halfway through he'll apologise to the audience, saying his voice is a bit tired. 

 

I'll pipe up on my mic, tell him to stop moaning because he has it easy.  We'll then have a pretend argument which ends with me saying "right, if you think you can do better then be my guest", and I hand him the bass. 

 

He's not a bassist at all but I've taught him to play House of the Rising Sun, so I'll blast through the vocals and he does bass for that one song.  We then shake hands and swap back to normality.

 

Invariably earns much-O applause from the audience.

[Mykesbass]

Squeeze would be my favourite example of humour in music.

 

I also do like a lot of comedy music - Peter Sellers 'Balham', Flanders and Swann, Trimmer and Jenkins, and I don't think the profanity filter will allow me to post the wonderful Dilly Keane.

[odysseus]

Of course. Stone-faced ascetism doesn't appeal to me where music is concerned. Normal caveats apply, obviously.

[chris_b]

Don't forget Bob Blackman. . . .

 

 

[T-Bay]

22 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I love Bloodhound Gang's Hooray For Boobies. 

It's extremely purile, which would normally be a big turn off for me, but it's so well written and just so damn catchy!

 

Also Tenacious D. I've always thought Jack Black has too good a voice to be in a comedy band. 

 

One thing I don't like about humourous bands is when they have talky bits between tracks. It soon gets really old after repeated listens. 

I love Bloodhound gangs discovery channel, always makes me smile.

[BreadBin]

Goldie Looking Chain were good too.

 

One important rule is that if you are going to be funny it helps if you are musically adept. 

Edited March 12, 2022 by BreadBin
Spleling

[Newfoundfreedom]

1 hour ago, T-Bay said:

I love Bloodhound gangs discovery channel, always makes me smile.

 

That's probably the tamest song on the album. 😆

[peteb]

33 minutes ago, BreadBin said:

Goldie Looking Chain were good too.

 

One important rule is that if you are going to be funny it helps if you are musically adept. 

 

And actually funny as well

 

[BreadBin]

2 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

And actually funny as well

 

Quite. 

 

[T-Bay]

3 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

That's probably the tamest song on the album. 😆

It’s a great album and so different from so much of the stuff around when it was released, a real breath of fresh air.

[Nail Soup]

Having said that I prefer the subtle use of humor, I must admit to recently watching about 10 vids on Youtube by The Chats:

 

[TrevorR]

Love the Barenaked Ladies… Brian Wilson, If I Had $1,000,000, Be My Yoko Ono and Grade 9 spring to mind.

 

Or what about Mayor of Simpleton by XTC… humour in music doesn’t just need to be Flanders & Swan or Bernard Cribbins (though both are great)…

 

….and who couldn’t love…

 

 

 

 

 

[tauzero]

Well, I was going to mention Flanders and Swann (two mentions so far) and Tom Lehrer (just beaten to it). Another couple of names - Allan Sherman, Ivor Biggun. And I've written a fair few comedy songs too.

[SumOne]

23 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

There's quite a lot of difference between a humorous song and a song with humour in it... I tend to prefer the 2nd as the humour is part of the music, as opposed to the whole point of the song.

Bootsy's music is always dribbling with little jokes!

 

 

Yeah, I agree. Comedy songs (as in lyrics telling a a joke story) are different to songs that contain humour, and I prefer the latter.

 

 

 

[phil.c60]

 

From 1956....... personally I love this!

[paul_5]

I’ve also got a massive soft spot for one George Formby. Great songs and whimsical double entendres delivered with a cheeky smile. 
 

I can’t help that the world needs a bit more of this sort of thing.

[Richard R]

Well you're all wrong. There is even less place for humour in music than there would be for a dog turd in my pipe and slippers.

As a recent convert to the Sillhill School of High Intellectual Theory I am firmly convinced that humour should be careful contained and kept for very rare and special occasions, as I believe orgasms are.  I am now off to burn/melt my recordings of Half Man Half Biscuit, Tom Lehrer, Flanders & Swann, Kitt and The Widow, Peter Sellers, and Muse. 

[TrevorR]

17 hours ago, TrevorR said:

Love the Barenaked Ladies… Brian Wilson, If I Had $1,000,000, Be My Yoko Ono and Grade 9 spring to mind.

 

Or what about Mayor of Simpleton by XTC… humour in music doesn’t just need to be Flanders & Swan or Bernard Cribbins (though both are great)…

 

….and who couldn’t love…

D’oh, for some reason all the other Tom Lehrer clips others had posted weren’t showing up on my iPad…d’oh!

 

 

[TrevorR]

And some folks are adept at music and humour…

 

 

 

[Barking Spiders]

Totally need humour in music to counter a lot of the overly serious po-faced ballcocks out there. My own personal faves are Ian Dury, Macc Lads, Half Man Half Biscuit (from my former manor), Dead Kennedys and the Beastie Boys. Have a bit of Boomin Granny

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Barking Spiders