Playlists: comedic songs

By Marco den Ouden

The history of comedic songs goes back to prehistoric times when a caveman named Ogg wondered: “What happen if bang two rock together?” He tried it and rather liked the pleasant clunk they made. One day his woman named Oggette ran off with Trogg, the guy who discovered that very round rocks could be easily rolled. Well, Oggette then ran off with a itinerant encyclopedia salesman named Flogg. No paperbacks back then, so Flogg came into the cave and started to lay some scratched out drawings on the cave wall. He also laid Oggette. 

Trogg meanwhile discovered that a rock rolled over dried leaves made a pleasant crunching sound. He remembered his old pal Ogg and paid him a visit and they played together. Thus rock ‘n’ roll was invented. They also opined about the feckless Oggette and grunted a humorous song about her. And thus was born the comedic song and one of its ever-lasting themes.

The Battle of the Sexes

We start off our set with British comedienne Victoria Wood singing about a incompatibility—It Would Never Have Worked. 

Tony Ferrino (aka Steve Coogan) and Björk sing about a Short Term Affair. She’s the winsome family au pair and Tony is smitten by the kitten. But don’t tell his wife!

Loudon Wainwright III noticed one day that his girlfriend was giving some women the eye. “Are you a lesbian?” he asked. She replied: “I Wish I was a Lesbian.”

And we wrap up (sort of) this section with the comedy duo of Garfunkel and Oates. Both of the women in this duo are comedic actresses who had guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory. Riki Lindhome played a grad student infatuated with Sheldon while Kate Micucci played the shy, mousey girl who kept escaping through the bathroom window while on dates with Raj. They sing a duet about what’s really on the minds of a couple just getting to know each other. One sings the male part and the other the female part. The big question is, which “parts” do they want to comingle? Fuck You. Wry humour with a touch of smut. And who is the most libidinous? The guy or the girl? 

Continuing our history of comedic music we come to the parody. The word comes from the ancient Greece: parōidia — “a song sung beside/against another song.” It began when two troubadours formed the duo Lyre Liar. Scholars suggest Lyre Liars’ biggest hit was Sick Old Eppie’s Toffee, a parody of The Seikolos Epitaph, which they debuted at the opening ceremonies for the first Olympics. Their follow-up hit was Hurry Up, It’s Him, a parody of  Hurrian Hymn No. 6, which was not actually Greek, but hey, it’s Greek to me! 

Song Parodies

First up we have the rather urbane British comedy duo of Frankie Howerd and June Whifield. They, oddly enough, have the same conflict as Garfunkel and Oates in their parody Up Je t’aime. 

Fans of the Muppets know they often did song parodies, pairing a popular singer with one or more of the Muppets. Here we have Rita Moreno and Animal with their rendition of the Peggy Lee classic Fever. This involves sight gags so watch the video. It’s hilarious. 

French singer Jacques Dutronc parodies Elvis-style rockabilly with a touch of Beatles in Merde in France.  

And we would be remiss if we didn’t include that American master of parody Weird Al Yankovic with Amish Paradise. You’ll find another of his in the B List. 

Continuing our history of the comedic song, ballads, that is songs that tell stories, were popularized in the days of olde when knights were bold and condoms weren’t invented. Chaucer was known for his bawdy tales, but the most famous of troubadours was Weird Alan-a-Tale who liked to yank his viola. He was also known as the Card of Camelot.  

Ballads

We start off our ballads with a classic from the Marx Brothers movie At the Circus. Groucho Marx tells the story of Lydia the Tattooed Lady. She’s a walking encyclopidia!

Much covered, I’m My Own Grandpa was first recorded by Lonzo and Oscar in 1948. 

Irish band The Dubliners tell the hilarious tale of mishap and misadventure that led to the narrator sending his boss The Sick Note explaining why he won’t be in to work today. Ay Caramba! That’s some story!

Another Irishman, Val Doonican, tells the story of McGinty’s Goat. Some delightful double entendres here.

Now on with our history of comedic song. The court jesters and minstrels of old were a privileged lot and were allowed to criticize the King in satirical song. The very first of these was a lass. Poor Yoricka. She was known for her bantering wit and her hit song Was that a Hamlet or a Procrastinet? She accompanied herself, of course, with some castanets. 

Social and Cultural Commentary

Back in the day there was quite the foofarah when the treasures of King Tut’s tomb made the rounds. Steve Martin tells us all about the boy king!

One of the fascinating things that came out in this topic was artists not generally known for comedy or doing comedic songs. We’ve mentioned the multi-talented Björk as well as Rita Moreno. So here’s Billy Idol with a song about religious idols and icons with Plastic Jesus. I remember our visit to the Vatican in 2011 where we saw street vendors selling bobble-head popes. 

Stan Freberg is a comedy legend in America and here he skewers censorship with his rendition of Elderly Man River. 

Bongwater is also not generally known for comedy, but here offer us the “seamier’ side of high culture at the art museum with Obscene and Pornographic Art. 

And in the sixties with sexual mores growing more and more liberal, Tom Lehrer sings the praises of flagellation in The Masochist Tango. 

Of course, wordplay has a long history in comedic songs. Puns, tongue twisters and what have you. We fondly remember the legendary John Ponne, best known for his  ribald masterpiece Doth Be Not Prude and his very catchy but incomprehensible Fort Whim Duh Boil Trills. The same scholars who so astutely remarked on the origin of parodies also suggest Ponne wrote the latter after imbibing too much mead at the local tavern and banging his noggin on the door jamb on leaving the pub. Ponne was a tall fellow and doors were much shorter then. 

Wordplay and Nonsense Songs

The British are known for their wry sense of humour and no one is wryer than the legendary Kenneth Williams aka Rambling Syd Rumpo. Williams once said: "Honest vulgarity is the central tradition of English humour." And so it is, as we have seen. Here he regales us with The Ballad of the Woggler’s Moulie. His forte was using nonsense words and making them sound honestly vulgar! 

And tongue twisters have been great fun since Peter the Great picked a peck of pickled peppers. Or was that Peter the Piper? In any event, next up is the German duo of Bodo Wartke & Marti Fisher rapping about Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar 2. She runs into three barbarians and a bearded barber who loves beer. 

Instrumental and Visual Humour

And we close with an instrumental, a rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C Sharp Minor. As the pianist tells us, Rachmaninoff Had Big Hands. He, sadly, has small hands. So some of Rach’s compositions required a good reach to hit all the notes in some of the chords. Igudesman & Joo do the honours. Now doing a comedic song without words, a comedic instrumental, takes a special kind of cleverness. Pianist Igudeman’s sidekick Joo (who is a master violinist) helps him out with the chords that are beyond his reach. But how does he do it? Does he sit beside the maestro for some four-handed piano? Oh no! He’s a violinist, not a pianist. But help he does. This is visual humour and you must see it to appreciate its brilliance.

You’ll find a lot more comedic flourishes in the B List. 

Amusing A-List Playlist:

1. It Never Would Have Worked - Victoria Wood (Uncleben)

2. Short Term Affair - Tony Ferrino & Björk (severin)

3. I Wish I Was a Lesbian - Loudon Wainwright III (BanazirGalbasi)

4. Fuck You - Garfunkel & Oates (TarquinSpodd)

5. Up Je t’aime - Frankie Howard & June Whitfield (TarquinSpodd)

6. Fever - Rita Moreno & Animal - (pejepeine)

7. Merde in France - Jacques Dutronc (TarquinSpodd)

8. Amish Paradise - Weird Al Yankovic (Nicko)

9. Lydia the Tattooed Lady - Groucho Marx (TarquinSpodd)

10. I’m My Own Grandpa - Lonzo & Oscar (pejepeine)

11. The Sick Note - The Dubliners (Naguchi)

12. McGinty’s Goat - Val Doonican (magicman)

13. King Tut - Steve Martin (Fred Erickson)

14. Plastic Jesus - Billy Idol (Naguchi)

15. Elderly Man River - Stan Freberg (SweetHomeAlabama)

16. Obscene and Pornographic Work - Bongwater (Mnemonic)

17. The Masochism Tango - Tom Lehrer (Naguchi)

18. The Ballad of the Woggler’s Moulie - Kenneth Williams (TarquinSpodd)

19. Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar 2 - Bodo Watke & Marti Fisher (Nilpferd)

20. Rachmaninoff Had Big Hands - Igudesman & Joo (BanazirGalbasi)

Burlesque and Beyond B-List Playlist:

“I can list what I want on the B List. Nobody really cares. I can list a song about my mammy or a pretty ditty to the girl upstairs.”

1. The B Side - Marty Feldman (TarquinSpodd)

2. My Lovely Horse - Father Ted & Dougal (TarquinSpodd)

3. Wine With Dinner - Loudon Wainwright III (BanazirGalbasi)

4. Bring Back Lou Lou - Jolly Boys (TarquinSpodd) – not listed as a separate category in the A List but of course, double entendres is a big one which got its own topic a while ago. 

5. Better Off Without a Wife - Tom Waits (tincanman)

6. Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros - Flight of the Conchords (Nilpferd)

7. The Hippopotamus Song - Flanders & Swann (Nicko)

8. I'm a Vulture for Horticulture - Jimmy Durante (Nicko)

9. You Always Hurt the One You Love - Spike Jones (SweetHomeAlabama)

10. Delaney's Donkey - Val Doonican (magicman)

11. Hole in the Ground - Bernard Cribbins (magicman)

12. Because I Got High - Afroman (SweetHomeAlabama)

13. My Old Man's a Dustman - Lonnie Donegan (magicman)

14. Feelings - Les Dawson (magicman) - not listed as a separate category in the A List, but this one is not a parody but a straight song sung in a peculiar way. This one is deceptive at first but kicks in with the laughs at 52 seconds in. Cracked me up. 

15. White and Nerdy - Weird Al Yankovic (Nicko)

16. So Bored - Jane Bond & The Undercover Men (ShivSidecar)

17. One Piece at a Time - Johnny Cash (Naguchi)

18. I'm Going to Give It to Mary With Love - Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards (Nicko)

19. Nellie the Nudist Queen - Ross & Sargent (Nicko)

20. My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes - Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band (Nicko)

21. Kuntz - Butthole Surfers (vanwolf2) - another category not listed in the A List is foreign language songs made to sound funny. I thought it was hilariously clever. Genius notes “This song is actually a recording of Thai luk thung singer เพลิน พรหมแดน (Phloen Phromdaen)’s song “กลัวดวง” (“Klua Duang”/“The Fear”) processed through Gibby Haynes' Gibbytronix system, which is a rack of multiple delay effect units used for looping and warping sounds (usually Gibby’s voice). The Gibbytronix serves to emphasize the main word in the chorus, คัน (“the itch”), which sounds similar to an English word that is widely considered inappropriate and profane. The new title is another spelling of the English word, and this spelling is actually a fairly common German family name.” 

22. The Streak - Ray Stevens (SweetHomeAlabama)

23. Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball - Dr. Hook (TarquinSpodd)

24. Terry Keeps His Clips On - Vivian Stanshall (Fred Erickson)

25. Basketball Jones - Cheech & Chong (Fred Erickson)

26. Trapper Ain't Got a Bird - Peter & the Test Tube Babies (Carpgate)
    Another category of comedic humour not mentioned in the  A-List is Punk Pathetique. Here P&TTTB mock their bass player aka Trapper. 

27. Terry's Dog - Philip Jeays (TatankaYotanka)

28. Mother's Lament - Cream (TarquinSpodd)

29. Congo Man - Mighty Sparrow (magicman)

30. You're the Reason Our Kids are Ugly - Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty (Fred Erickson)

Guru’s Wildcard Picks:

1. I Am Cow - Arrogant Worms – I’m surprised nobody nominated an Arrogant Worms song. Lots of great songs to choose from. Canada’s Really Big, or Last Saskatchewan Pirate, and more. We saw them live last fall. 

2. The Story of Biathlon - Nicolay Ramm – my guru pick for Winter Sports. 

3. Art Rock Suite - National Lampoon – satirises pretentious art rock. Don’t have the album any more but I recall the liner notes saidtit satirizes over twenty different groups.

These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: Musical jokes and lyrical laughs: comedic songs. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.

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