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Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: wysiwyg Date: 15 Jan 09 - 01:43 PM Um, jokes and songs (even funny ones) go to different parts of the beholder's brain. One part gets tired out easily. It gets more tired more quickerer when it can only hear, and not see, the delivery and the devilish eyes. OK, don't listen to me, that's fine too. Not the first time. :~) ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: kendall Date: 15 Jan 09 - 01:06 PM I can't tell you how many times I've had people before a performance come to me and say "Be sure and tell the one about the three legged chicken." I see a big difference between a corny joke and a humorous story. Like everything else, it's a matter of taste. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Date: 15 Jan 09 - 12:41 PM Some humorous songs can be timeless, as mentioned above, if not done to death. Just do them seldom enough so they remain fresh. Some of the humor individuals and groups incorporate into "live performance" records and CDs, however, can become dated in a hurry, especially if it is topical in nature. I was listening to an old Bud & Travis recording recently in which they refer to "green stamps." I love their work, but how many today even know what green stamps were? The worst examples of this are probably the comedy records which were once very popular. People like Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Jonathon Winters, Shelley Berman and many others did quite well with them early in their careers. Listen to some of those recordings now, however, and though some of the material is still very funny, they just don't have the old zing. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 15 Jan 09 - 10:47 AM All humorous songs don't have a short shelf-life. Some have been around for hundreds of years. It depends on the subject. Humorous political stuff tends to have a short life. Seamus |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Ron Davies Date: 14 Jan 09 - 11:16 PM A matter of taste, of course. But I'm a huge fan of puns, and for me there's no such thing as a bad pun--the groaners are just as good as the others---and no matter how many times I hear them. Some of my favorite cuts on Art Thieme's recent CD are the short stories he tells--totally deadpan--and ending in a pun--like the one about his dog and the one about the birds in the locks of the canal. I think the deadpan approach plays a role. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: GUEST,Dáithí.. Date: 14 Jan 09 - 09:47 AM ..Jake Thackray's stuff still does it for me. A modern master and mixture of Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann and Noel Coward, with rhythms and rhymes to die for. Sadly, he did, a few years ago and is sorely missed! D |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Sooz Date: 14 Jan 09 - 02:55 AM Off at a bit of a tangent - we've often wondered if it was worth the effort to learn a humourous song as it would have a very short shelf life. However, when we have gritted our teeth and learned lots of complicated words (Such as the Aardvark song - see other thread) we've found that the song is so popular and requested so often that we are the ones who get fed up with it!! |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Gurney Date: 14 Jan 09 - 01:44 AM I have a Frank Carson CD, and the songs are only about 80% of the recording, the rest being interspersed jokes, while the accordeonist carries on playing. It's a live recording, probably in a pub. I'd never put it on if I wanted 'serious,' but when I want cheering up, it's great. Like R_Tim and Leadfingers say, you need an audience. I'll go along with Joe_F about Lehrer and F&S, too. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Alan Day Date: 13 Jan 09 - 10:48 AM There seems to be a fine dividing line between Humorous songs and silly songs.Some of the examples mentioned I would agree are a good listen no matter how many times you hear them.A live humorous act with audience reaction seems to work better long term for me than a studio recording on a CD. Al |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: GUEST Date: 13 Jan 09 - 09:18 AM Bobby Thompson, "The Little Waster" of Tyneside is available on CD (sorry, I can't remember the label), though I think his humour may be more ethnic than folkie!
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 13 Jan 09 - 12:10 AM Hi Alaska Mike - I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks. The songs your friend referred to hearing wouldn't be 'Clydesdale" or "Little Jim', would they? You wrote 2 beauties there, big fella. I've found that the funny songs are what sell my CDs, both at shows and on the Internet. In fact, the comedy songs make up about 75% of the downloads I sell at CDBaby. When I sing humorous songs in a club or at a concert, people usually want to buy the CDs with those songs on them. Several of my CDs were recorded before an audience, and so the jokes and comic songs were part of the live show. Now, as for how many times people can listen to the funny stuff when they get the CD home, that is up to them. As Tom Bliss and Joe F pointed out up above, Les Barker, Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann, or my favorite, Victor Borge, can take repeated playings. Like everything else, I suppose it's up to the individual. Seamus |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Alaska Mike Date: 12 Jan 09 - 11:14 PM All of my CD's have humorous songs sprinkled in amongst the serious. Invariably, the CD will sell to an individual because of the funny song. And a year or so later, that fan will tell me that their favorite song on the CD is one of the serious songs. I do think that funny songs have a short shelf life, but I also think they definitely have a valued place on the CD. I was happy to hear from one of my friends that while she was at the Wisconsin Irish Festival last summer, she heard at least 4 different groups performing one of my funny songs during their stage sets. Funny songs have a wonderful effect on an audience during a live performance but without my song being recorded on a CD many of these performers would never have heard it in the first place. I'll keep putting them on the CD's. Mike |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Joe_F Date: 12 Jan 09 - 07:58 PM Tom Lehrer and Flanders & Swann have, for me, a shelf life 50 years & counting. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Big Al Whittle Date: 12 Jan 09 - 07:20 PM I used to get as much (probably more) pleasure from the way Derek delivered a line, as from the way some player or singer twiddled a grace note. the ability to hear and appreciate 'funny' is just a great a gift as the ear to hear music. i can replay most of his routines in head - even though some of them I haven't heard for years. the ones he recorded are best - beecause they are more firmly in my mind. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Leadfingers Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:31 PM The difference is , as I said earlier , TIMING ! On a CD , I feel that , Especially with a studio recording , you dont get the Live Audience Feed back , so the timing can be a bit variable ! |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: RTim Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:25 PM I have never thought that Funny Songs or Jokes work very well on CD's.
They are such stuff of the moment, dependent upon an audience Tim Rdaford |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: GUEST,Tom Bliss Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:12 PM I've agonised over this often. My solution is to do the funny songs on a CD as if they were straight songs, ie to concentrate on the tune and the lyrics and not the laughs. In live situations I'll milk the humour and happily subvert the song, interrupting myself and guerning and generally messing about in order to up the comedy. But not in the studio. Obviously the humour is still there, but it's played down, so hopefully it won't cloy so soon. I'm taking this approach with two of Les' poems I'm currently recording for the Guide Cats project. Others will have to decide if it's worked or not! I agonised about putting 'Pie' on the 'The Whisper' for this very reason too, but hope I might have got away with it by calling it a bonus track. The CD officially finishes on track 13, so if people don't switch it off then that's their problem! Also I used a live recording, and the laughs seem to keep it fresher. I still chortle at the jokes in Flanders and Swan's two Hat albums (which were recorded live) even though I've heard the jokes thousands of times, and I still love The Bestiary which is played straight, in the studio. But I don't laugh out loud. Tom |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:09 PM So let me ask you 'Catters who don't like the funny songs and jokes - if you can listen to a song or a tune over and over again where the melody doesn't change, and the words don't change, why can't you listen to a joke or funny song repeatedly? ------------------ For me it's NOT listening to one particular track on 1 CD. Same performer can repeat stories in a live act & even if they're word-for-word, I love them & never miss a performance (only performer I follow to every gig at every Festival) cos of the presentation, it's just one particular recorded story I don't listen to. This performer could recite the phone book & have 'em rolling in the aisles. sandra |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: wysiwyg Date: 12 Jan 09 - 05:24 PM Part of the fun of a joke it the element of surprise. A funny story is always a funny story, but sometimes a funny joke needs a little resting time before it gets funny again. When they are on a CD-full of songs, it's helpful if the jokes are on a separate track from the songs so that, if one wants, one can move past them easily. ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Clifton53 Date: 12 Jan 09 - 05:21 PM Some things I always find funny, and I enjoy humor being mixed in with music on CD. I tend to agree with Bert that a master like Seamus will always make me laugh |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 12 Jan 09 - 02:46 PM Thanks, Bert, I appreciate that. The thing about and jokes and bits of business, is that for me they almost become a song. I develop a rhythm to them, that practically scans. So let me ask you 'Catters who don't like the funny songs and jokes - if you can listen to a song or a tune over and over again where the melody doesn't change, and the words don't change, why can't you listen to a joke or funny song repeatedly? The words don't change, the melody doesn't change.... Seamus |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Big Al Whittle Date: 12 Jan 09 - 02:34 PM Me too, I used to love Billy conolly and Derek Brimstone albums, and as for bernard wrigley - those are the trax I used to liten to all the time. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Bert Date: 12 Jan 09 - 02:25 PM I love funny songs and jokes on CDs and I treasure all of Seamus Kennedy's CDs and listen to them often. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Alan Day Date: 12 Jan 09 - 02:03 PM I made a point of putting down this comment for CDs (records), live performances are different.I would not miss, although I have heard them many times, songs of Bernard Wrigley,he is a very funny man and others too live are hilarious,somehow after a few times listen on a CD it loses it's sparkle. Many of you remember the manure cart going down the high street spraying everyone,at one time it was performed at every Folk Club I visited, It just became painful after a while.I think this is the only song even now I would get up and go for a pint whilst it was on. So I agree with you Sandra and Leadfingers. I do think that a good tuneful song with comical writing can get away with it.Stupidity does not work on a CD for me. Al |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Leadfingers Date: 12 Jan 09 - 12:06 PM With regard to our (Possibly) future poet Laureate , Les's appeal is in the Banter and Heckle put downs that are an essentila part of his act ! AND That most difficult of Comedy Atributes , TIMING !! |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:20 AM As much as I love a friend's comedy stuff, I tend to skip one particular track & just listen to the songs on one album. Yet I love the live shows, they're a fantastic mixture of serious songs, silly songs, jokes & silly stories, including the one I skip & all the others! Maybe it's cos the recording is just a voice? Might be different if it was a video/DVD? I dunno sandra |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Acorn4 Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:19 AM I actually write comical and satirical songs, but do appreciate the point about the short shelf life. The useful things about CDs from my point of view is that my songs aren't that well known and sometimes people at singarounds/ gigs ask for the words so that they can do them, so a CD or download from a website is the easiest way to learn the tune so they can do them. I think the same comedy songs do get performed too often and the law of diminishing returns applies especially with comedy - the Keith Marsden "Co-op Ham Tea" one I just tend to switch off in nowadays as you hear it so many times - even the "Why Paddy's Not at Work Today", hilarious though it is is also a case of letting your mind wander to other things. Having said that, we went to a Les Barker gig the other night, and I still found them all hilarious even though I've heard them loads. |
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Subject: RE: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Leadfingers Date: 12 Jan 09 - 06:11 AM I am inclined to agree with you , Alan - Makes it difficult for a Folk "Entertainer" to do a representative CD though ! |
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Subject: Funny Songs and Jokes on CDs From: Alan Day Date: 12 Jan 09 - 04:10 AM Click for the 'PermaThread™: List of all joke threads'I enjoy a good joke and telling them,but after you have heard a joke you do not want it said to you again and again.The same goes for me with jokes and funny songs on CDs I enjoy them the first time, but after three or four listens they start to get boring after six listens they get annoying. On the back end of two of the De Dannan records are two funnies I just cannot bear to listen to them they are simply dreadful and spoil for me the rest of the two records which are fantastic. Do you find jokes and funny songs on CDs equally annoying after a while ,or is it my personal taste? Al |
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