Rhett, You Got It Goin' On (Got it Goin' On)

I find there are two general kinds of funny songs. Prose-funny includes troubadours like Jonathan Coulton or Flight of the Conchords. Their songs are like the opposite of sad folk songs, in that they generally tell a story, unveiling more and more information as you go, and leading up to punchlines rather than sad reveals. Think about hilarious versions of Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate," where he waits until the final verse to let on that he's really talking about himself (gasp!). 

Jonathan Coulton, or JoCo, as he is (semi-ironically) known, has a song called "Skullcrusher Mountain," a love song written from a mad scientist/evil genius to the girl he has kidnapped. My favorite verse: 

I made this half-monkey-half-pony monster to please you

But I get the feeling that you don't like it, what's with all the screaming? 

You like monkeys, you like ponies 

Maybe you don't like monsters so much

Maybe I used too many monkeys 

Isn't it enough to know I ruined a pony making a gift for you? 

He really commits to the character, referring to doomsday plans and henchmen...it really is the kind of song you can imagine Syndrome writing, if he were the creative type. 

What makes Coulton's and FotC's stuff even better is that they are all really good musicians. Just like with "real" musicians, which leads me to my second category: poetry-funny. Tons of songwriters fall into this category, mostly with puns and asides that they slip into their songs to deepen the meaning or give the songs just the right kind of little Velcro-hooks to stick in your imagination. For instance, Paul McCartney wanted to show how dim his protagonist is in the Beatles' "Paperback Writer," and the third line of the first verse leaves no doubt: 

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book

It took me years to write, will you take a look 

It's based on a novel by a man named Lear

And I need a job so I want to be a paperback writer

Rhett Miller is a master of the sly reference, as well. I think one of the reasons I love him and the Old 97's so much (beyond his sexy, sexy stage dancing) is his clever songwriting. Consider this verse from "Hover" on his 2006 solo album "The Instigator:"

The city is dark

But we're not scared

Wrapped up in each other

Making loving out of nothing

Like the Air Suppliers said

By referring to the common ground of pop music, Rhett lets us in on the joke, while at the same time co-opting it for his own imagery. Also, I love the idea of Rhett Miller, who looks like this: 

...listening to Air Supply, who, when the cheesetastic "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" came out, looked like this:

Of course, the trick of putting jokes into lyrics reaches way beyond pop music. Country music is great at it (witness even just the title of Toby Keith and Willie Nelson's "Whiskey for My Men, Beer for My Horses").* And with its roots in poetry, rap is the perfect medium. The first time I heard Cancer Rising's "Play It Again" on the radio, I drove straight to Sonic Boom and bought the album because of the following verse: 

Stop tryin'

And I'm bound to rhythm and flow

With it

So hit it

Fans tell me 'go spit it, bro'

So spiritual

Dog, it's Roxanne to my Cyrano

Wrote a song about it, baby

Here it go

The Cancer Rising boys illustrated how much they love music with an original, non-cliched example (plus, anyone who can rhyme "go spit it, bro" with "Roxanne to my Cyrano" is more than alright in my book). It's the classic "show versus tell," the mainstay of all post-Raymond Carver creative writing and something I beat into the minds of my 826 students as often as I can. 

So I've just touched the tip of the iceberg; there are many more examples of comedy in music. And I didn't even get into musical comedies or Tin Pan Alley lyrics! But you get the idea. Any songs with jokes that come to mind for you?

*Thank you, Brandi, for knowing that song off the top of your head.