"The main thing it has to express for most of its followers is - hey I'm not a working class oik. Therefore I sing in a funny way." says WLD.

Who sings in a funny way? I sing folk/traditional music and I don't see anything "funny" in the way I sing, unless I'm deliberately doing so for comic effect. The same applies to most (although, admittedly, not all) of the people I usually sing with. I can't think of many cultures where someone singing traditional music in their own voice would be regarded as funny.

Those whose singing voice has divorced itself from their speaking voice in order to conform (consciously or subconsciously) to cod-American pop sensibilities (Sting, Elton John, Seth Lakeman et al) could, I suppose, stand accused of singing "in a funny way".