Let’s be honest, guys and gals: Comedy songs suck. There
are a lot of reasons for the proliferation of downright awful
so-called musical comedy, everything from overdone jokes to bad
music or throwaway parodies.
Take “Weird Al” Yankovic, who is hugely popular one
minute and playing county fairs the next. While comedy films and
even musicals often inspire long-term fans, put the same thing on
disc, sans the big production and slapstick, and it’s pretty
forgettable.
Yankovic’s biggest hit, “Amish Paradise,” was
successful thanks to the music video more than the Coolio parody
itself, and even Al seems to be in on the joke. When I saw him in
concert back in the day, he played in front of a massive video
screen complete with a “Forrest Gump” montage. Setting
the visual standards low for the audience, a magician was his
opening act.
Recordings of stand-up comedy are a different animal ““ a
funny animal. Bill Cosby earned his credibility on his early live
albums and Woody Allen honed his chops on his stand-up recordings,
road-testing many of the jokes that ended up in films such as
“Annie Hall.”
Even David Cross is just as solid on CD as he is on
“Arrested Development.” The humor springs from the
words and the delivery, not a gag reel. Demonstrably, the potential
exists for comedy albums to contain actual comedy.
But musical humor always seems to fall flat, and usually the
fault lies with the music. Counting on jokes to carry the
performance, the average musical humorist forgets to take the song
seriously, leaving the listener groaning long before the songs have
the chance to wear out their comedic welcome.
Parody singers like Weird Al have it easier, but why listen to
“Fat” when you could be jamming to Michael Jackson?
Sometimes imitation leads to something innovative, though only
rarely. UCLA alumni Hard ‘n Phirm’s track
“Rodeohead” is probably one of the most downloaded
songs in the brief history of file-sharing, but that’s in no
small part thanks to the brilliance of its source material. The
song draws from practically the entire Radiohead catalog,
incorporating bits of 17 songs into a single, well-executed
bluegrass medley.
Ultimately, though, comedy albums of any kind come down to the
jokes themselves. Adam Sandler didn’t have much luck with
those, although you know there’s a dearth of material when
he’s releasing three versions of “The Hanukkah
Song.” Now, I listened to Sandler albums at summer camp as
much as the next impressionable young Jewish kid, but weirdly
sexual mom jokes and ethnic accents stopped bringing the laughs
after middle school.
But blatantly playing the Jew card is just as unfunny as any
other gimmick. So-called musical comedy duo What I Like About Jew
released “Unorthodox” this week just in time for
Passover, and the 18-track album might be the most offensive
attempt at combining humor and songwriting I’ve ever
heard.
At least it hits all the bases: The album’s 45 minutes
include laughable genre-hopping pastiches (Lounge singing? Arena
rock? Eastern mysticism? ’60s mod pop? Check, check, check,
check.), head-scratching punchlines (“Madonna had just become
a Jew / Moses was found on the Potomac / and marched with Martin
Luther King”), and enough bad jokes about stereotypes and
circumcisions to make you kvetch.
There’s more to humor than just throwing out the phrase
“kosher meat” with a lurid accent. If you’ve ever
read “Portnoy’s Complaint” or seen a Mel Brooks
film, lines about Jewish mothers and Freudian neurosis should be
old news. And even if they aren’t, listening to What I Like
About Jew try to be funny is almost as bad as listening to Kevin
Federline try to rap.
All in all, the only truly successful musical comedy albums are
by a couple of rock stars. Jack Black and his band Tenacious D
never stop rocking, even when he’s cracking jokes. The guy is
pure charisma and personality, and that’s not just funny
““ that’s rock ‘n’ roll, and it never gets
old.
If you’re already sick of Passover matzo, e-mail
Greenwald at dgreenwald@media.ucla.edu.