That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore

As mentioned earlier, my music taste in high school was a mixed bag. Some stuff I’ve always loved, some stuff I fell out of and later revisited, and some stuff I’ll probably never touch again. One sub-population of those last bands could perhaps be lumped and labeled as “comedy rock.” I don’t think I’ll ever be able to come to terms with that crap.

But ten or twelve years ago, I was a fan. I loved Adam Sandler’s “They’re All Gonna Laugh At You!,” The Bloodhound Gang, and the President of the United States of America. Eventually, though, it got old. I mean, how many times can you hear a joke before it’s not funny anymore? Not much. Music is at its best when it’s expressive, so if the only point of a song is to get a chuckle, it’s not going to have much staying power once the laughter subsides.

When you compare the extreme highs and lows of the Funny spectrum, like “Amish Paradise” vs. “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,” the distinction is obvious: one is dripping with intense feeling, and the other is….a slightly amusing reworking of an older hit song (try to guess which one is which). But there is a good deal of bands situated in the murky middle of that spectrum, and my reactions to them grow more complex.

Take the Darkness. I really, really wanted to dislike them when I first read about them in music mags. Their cheeky embrace of 80’s hair metal stylings just seemed to reek of cynicism. But upon hearing their stuff, I was impressed. It may all have been a joke, but the efforts they made to take that joke to its fullest were apparent. The songs have admittedly limited repeat value, but they’re damn fun pop music. They almost convinced me to check out some authentic 80’s hair metal. Almost…but not quite.

A harder one to judge is Robyn Hitchcock. Musically, he’s a seamless blend of Syd Barrett and John Lennon, but his lyrics are even more odd than those two points of reference. He’s at his best when his words balance his rabid paranoia with surreal whimsy. But his songs are all over the map in terms of Funniness, from dreamily expressive, to almost-joke territory (somewhat close to the Darkness), to unbearably comedic. I can say that I generally like him, but I always have to approach with caution, since any album is likely to have at least two or three joke mines lurking within.

Then there’s Frank Zappa, who I’m pretty sure I hate. Worshiped by almost everyone I know (though I was happy to read that Lester Bangs, Lou Reed, and John Cale all shared my distaste), Zapp crapped on all of his creative ideas with crass, sardonic humor and a flat vocal delivery that lets you know that he could care about these songs if he wanted to, but he just doesn’t have time for such trifles. This approach stands apart from that of his friend and contemporary, Captain Beefheart. Both shared a fondness for novelty songs and toilet humor, but Beefheart was totally committed to his craft. You could tell that he loved the music he made; he lived it and breathed it, jokes and all. Zappa just wanted to demonstrate how above pop music he was. His use of jokes was at the expense of the music he parodied.

In my opinion, the Residents are a more successful incarnation of what Zappa was trying to do. They can be overly jokey, and also overly preachy about the evils of pop music, but they actually make stuff that they like making. If you hate pop songs so much, and you ambitiously call upon muses like Stravinsky and Varese, then why spend your whole career making doo wop songs about poop? The Residents hate pop music, so they make delightfully weird soundscapes that provide an alternative to the music they satirize. Zappa thought that being funny was enough, but without any real ties to the music he made, he’s only slightly more respectable than Weird Al.

Again, for me, it’s a ratio that determines whether I tolerate or loathe these middle points on the humor scale. And this forces the continuum into a binary distribution. Either it’s a good song tarnished by cheap cheek, or shitty comedy rock with little or no redeeming musical qualities. The Tiger Lilies, the Dead Milkmen, and Senor Coconut are on one side; The Decemberists, They Might Be Giants, and Tenacious D are on the other.

Try to guess which one is which.