Vicinity of Hilarity

Flight Of The Conchords—“Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”

“Weird Al” Yankovic—“Foil”

Modest Mouse—“Shit Luck”

LCD Soundsystem—“Losing My Edge”

Barenaked Ladies—“If I Had $1,000,000”

The Lonely Island—“I Just Had Sex”

Johnny Cash—“A Boy Named Sue”

The Presidents Of The United States Of America—“Peaches”

Tenacious D—“Kickapoo”

The Gregory Brothers—“Bed Intruder Song”

Jon Lajoie—“Everyday Normal Guy 2”

System Of A Down—“Vicinity of Obscenity”

Eminem—“The Real Slim Shady”

Afroman—“Because I Got High”

Amy Winehouse—“Fuck Me Pumps”

“Weird Al” Yankovic—“Trapped In The Drive-Thru”

Every year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. This award has undergone numerous changes in title and qualifications since its conception in 1959, shifts that may be indicative of a lack of consensus about how to categorize musical comedy. The synthesis of comedic and musical influences blurs the boundaries of the two forms, making it difficult to definitively identify and organize the genre.

Recent viral videos further bring these boundaries into question. The Lonely Island, an American comedy trio, has achieved widespread popularity through their work on Saturday Night Live with music videos like “I Just Had Sex” and “YOLO.” The Gregory Brothers, known for their catchy autotune creations—most famously the “Bed Intruder Song”—similarly use music as a vehicle for comedy. Music itself doesn’t seem to be the primary goal of these projects; the melodies are often supplementary to the lyrics and the content of the videos they accompany.

It is this use of music as a means rather than an end that distinguishes The Lonely Island from artists like Johnny Cash and Eminem, who employ humor to enhance their music. In “A Boy Named Sue,” Cash sings from the perspective of a man named Sue who struggles to come to terms with his feminine name. The humor of the premise makes the song’s social commentary on gender norms more palatable than, say, a straight-faced rant might be. Likewise, Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” jokes about drugs, masturbation, and other potentially unsavory subjects, and in doing so engages with difficult issues that might otherwise be tricky to confront. One might consider these tracks “comedy folk” and “comedy hip-hop,” respectively—subgenres in which comedic elements play into specific, long-established musical traditions.

Parody artists like “Weird Al” Yankovic and Jon Lajoie may exemplify the most balanced marriage of music and comedy by parodying musical traditions themselves. Their works integrate the two forces by humorously adapting pre-existing musical melodies for satirical effect, with discographies that span genres, drawing from multiple styles  either to shed new light on the source or rework it completely for their own purposes. Jon Lajoie illuminates musical tropes by combining them and breaking them down. “Everyday Normal Guy” juxtaposes an archetypal hip-hop beat with lyrics like “If you wanna mess with me I think you probably can / Because I am not confident and I am weak for a man,” subverting the expectation that rap artists have to be tough and aggressive. Weird Al, on the other hand, is known for rewriting the lyrics of popular songs. His work’s humor lies in its complete departure from the intent of the original artist. In “Foil,” for example, he turns Lorde’s “Royals,” a critique of contemporary artists’ lavish lifestyles, into whimsical musings on leftover restaurant food and conspiracy theorists. For these artists, neither music nor comedy is subordinate to the other, for they have inextricably morphed the two into a single entity.

Regardless of how comedy- or music-centric a work of musical comedy is, in order to be fully appreciated it is often necessary to know the context or reference material for the humor. As with most forms of comedy, understanding the background of the subject can be crucial to comprehending its wit. A song that utilizes humor for social commentary relies on the listener's understanding of social norms, while a piece parodying a certain genre assumes the listener is aware of the stereotypes and hits songs of that style. Despite dependence on the primary material, this relationship creates space in which a new product may even surpass the original. In all its iterations, the union of comedy and music has the potential to inspire enlightening discourse on humor, art, and the social issues of our time.