Just like actors, musicians who dabble or focus on comedy get no respect.
Unless they’re Frank Zappa. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, in the same class as Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and the Allman Brothers.
Zappa was the George Carlin of rock, his jokes wildly offensive and impossible to defend, then and now, all delivered in an outrageously original musical style that borrowed from jazz, show tunes, musicals, smashed together with rock, pop and R&B. His album, Have I Offended Someone?, is vile and not for the faint of heart.
Zappa operated below the mainstream, revered by music fans and people who adore rude and juvenile humour. His one and only appearance on top 40 radio in the early 1980s was Valley Girl, a goofy novelty hit with his daughter Moon Unit rapping on top.
That kind of musical humour (and Zappa’s ongoing influence) continues to this day. If he were still alive, he would have loved Steel Panther and their dirty, over-the-top sexist songs. They play original songs that sound lifted straight from the Motley Crue and Bon Jovi hair metal catalogue but stripped of all subtly, with all of the misogyny out in the open. Think Andrew Dice Clay. If you’re easily offended by endless, teenage boy sex jokes or you’re thoroughly woke, steer clear.
There are just as many comedy styles as there are other musical styles, of course, not just raunchy stuff. “Weird Al” Yankovic is the clean and silly Zappa, equally deserving of a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the many hits, the five Grammy Awards, the 13 million albums sold and the career longevity. Yes, the greatest hits are comedic covers of big hits with rewritten lyrics but that takes serious skill.
Plus Canadian Idiot, his cover of Green Day’s American Idiot, is mercilessly insightful.
The Yankovic influence on a band like Weezer runs so deep that when they covered Toto’s Africa, they brought Al in for the video. And the best way to summarize current pop sensation Oliver Tree is he’s a mashup of Weird Al and Twenty One Pilots.
Maybe it’s coming out of COVID and everybody needs a laugh. Fortunately, we have plenty to choose from, going all the way back to Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue and all the way to the new Kim Petras's sweet pop confection Coconuts (two guesses only what the song is about).
Want to see and hear more about what I’m talking about? Here's the the MusicNerd1: JustJokingAround playlist, with both songs and videos, can be found on Apple Music at @neilgodbout. Make your own funny music playlist and share with me – I’d love to hear it.
Neil Godbout is an unapologetic music nerd.
