comedy songs - why do they get boring?

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 27 Apr 19 - 03:00 PM

Obvious answer to the thread title is..

"Some do, some don't - but which ones are variable depending on diverse audiences..."

any analysis beyond that is interesting to debate,
but ultimately leads to even more question marks...

Though academics still try to define comedy...

Maybe time to google AI computer generated jokes...???

That Amazon Alexa thinks she's a comedian,
but right now I'm sure she still depends on human gag writers...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Apr 19 - 02:47 PM

A better question would be "Do comedy songs get boring?". I must be fair, I love some of the 'songs' of Les Barker (Reg: The lonely glow-worm. Dachshunds with erections can't climb stairs). And, although his poems often to seem to be set to well-known tunes (and are often parodies thereof) he doesn't actually sing them. It's more of a poetry recital.
If you get a chance to be at one of his evenings, you will likely enjoy it. But as the evening goes on he gets requests for certain items which are part of his regular repertoire, and people join in with the punchlines. These are just as amusing as the first time you hear them, possibly more so. Les is not only a writer, but quite clearly a 'performance artist'. Just reference to his performances seems to negate the original question.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Apr 19 - 01:28 PM

An obvious career path...teaching to stand-up comedy. You wouldn't last five minutes in a classroom without a strong sense of humour.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Apr 19 - 11:45 AM

strange really -if we'd done that, they would have beat the living shit out of us.

I remember the Cuban missile crisis. i was convinced we were all going to die that afternoon, incinerated. i said to my mum and dad, let's all stay home and be together when we die.

my parents though said - it won't happen they'll work something out - and sure enough they did.

years later i heard a few kids had gone down to the copper kettle milk bar. to die there amongst the milk shakes and kit kats. the headmistress of the girls school came down to the copper kettle and took her girls away from all that temptation.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 02:56 PM

" they'll come flocking into the folk clubs!"
Somebody needs to - and quick
Rag
I love kids, preferably with a sprinkling of fava beans
Don't mean that - I've always found that talking to kids with a degree of interest usually works - maybe that's a generation thing
Two of the most hopeful events recently has been the wave of nationwide strikes by schoolkids here in Ireland, protesting about climate change, and how about that wonderful Swedish girl who told Parliament she could recognise liars when she met them - one of Iains's "ecoloons", no doubt
Kids like those can have my pocket money any day
Jim

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Andy7
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 02:51 PM

Hahaha!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Acorn4
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 02:50 PM

With their ipads of course!!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Andy7
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 02:22 PM

Kids these days, they even find folk music boring.

But just wait until they mature a bit; once they reach the age of 75, they'll come flocking into the folk clubs!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 02:10 PM

Jim - I realised early on when considering teaching as a career
I didn't have a suitable personality for the profession...

I lack patience, am too easily provoked, and have never liked kids that much...

However, I do have some background in comedy entertainment,
but definitely wouldn't pay good money to see myself [our band] perform..
My standards are too high...

My mrs has survived the profession for over 30 years,
it's never been more exhausting and despairing than since Blair,
and then the tories got back in...

She sees younger trainees cracking up regularly...

Anyway, more than a few comedians are ex teachers...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:58 PM

"But as they grow older, more sensible, and more experienced,"
I wonder
I'd want a lot of money to take on a teaching job nowadays`````
Kids are doing nobody but themselves harm by sitting back and waiting to be entertained an them ups tairs are making a fortune out of their boredom
Jim

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:45 PM

Jim - that's kids innit..

But as they grow older, more sensible, and more experienced,
they should have a better notion of what and who is genuinely boring...

The fuss is about a GUEST who claims to be an ex teacher
seemingly embittered by possibly justifiably being called boring...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:35 PM

Not sure what this fuuss is about - I get fed up hearing kids describing things they don't like as "boring" - I only hope they grow out of it when/if they grow up
Don't believe there is any such thing as 'bad language' only badly used language
I'm a great fan of both John Wilmott and Rabbie Burns
Jim

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:26 PM

Al - I know other rude words, if they'd be more acceptable...???

I'm very versatile...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:25 PM

in fact i should like to apologise for the pfr mentioning his knackers.

you've let us all down pfr.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 01:22 PM

wash your mouth out pfr!

there is no excuse for exposing us to you using bollocks in an unsavoury manner - this is a folk music website....a bollocks free zone!

shame on you!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 12:21 PM

GUEST - file as 'nutter'...

It's a good day for bonkers GUESTS on mudcat.. well entertaining...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,former teacher
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 12:15 PM

you know nothing about me nor is your opinion of any interest to me- you know the situation with education today (or you should)-

I'm not the enemy !! but the word 'boring' to me IN ANY CONTEXT normally (not always) indicates a deficiency in the listener.

And so does bad language

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 09:15 AM

GUEST - calm down - I'm married to a teacher.
I partially trained as a teacher, I know lots of teachers..

You sir are over heated and starting to talk bollocks...
maybe you weren't cut out to be a teacher..??

Like most folks aren't good enough performers to succeed at comedy...???

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,former teacher
Date: 24 Apr 19 - 08:49 AM

So teachers have to please ALL the pupils ALL the time & if one out of the 35 says 'sir this is boring' the teacher has failed??? That's what you are saying!

It's a bloody difficult job to start with and if that is the view of the current generation of non-teachers, no wonder teachers are leaving in droves - I did & get my self-respect back eventually

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 22 Apr 19 - 10:22 AM

I take delight in comedy songs, and their even less respected cousin, parodies. The aspect I think that keeps them from being boring is enough wit to keep being amusing and/or something fun to sing. Everyone's milage will vary on how they percieve the wit & humor of the song. I am particularly fond of a number of the songs of Lou & Peter Berryman, not least because they involve a stupendous vocabulary, sharp observation of human (and other) nature, and are endlessly inventive.

Yet, as Tattie Bogle observed above, sometimes there are just too many verses of the same joke. I was taking great delight in the Berrymans' "Chantey from the British Isles" with silly invented terms, yet Margaret Nelson, who has herself sung a number of comic songs, found the point of the joke was well established, and could stop, about halfway through the song. I never, ever, tire of their best known "A Chat With Your Mother/F-word song" and think it's sing-along chorus helps keep it enjoyable. I think many parodies become boring as performed, because they go on and on with variations of the same joke, with no audience participation. Others might be fun in a sing around session where folks can throw in the verses they know - Old Time Religion is a good example of that.

I also think that weariness of a comic song is as liable to happen as with any song that is over-used in a particular audience.

Joanne in Cleveland who still thinks the Berrymans are brilliant

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Apr 19 - 09:53 AM

Mr Red,
I did not mean to suggest that Bill Bailey isn't musical. I meant that his role as Dylan Moran's sidekick in Black Books didn't feature his musical talent, at least not in the episodes I found on YouTube. Since that is the only place I've seen him, I can't comment on him as a musician. That's what I meant.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Apr 19 - 02:55 AM

My songs still make me laugh, but at my age I don’t remember hearing them before

If you entertained yerself when writing it, and you haven't re-visited it for a long time, you are probably laughing at yer own cleverness. And nothing wrong with that, it is confirmation that it is worth singing again. I am sometimes amazed at the poetc/lyric twists I used to put into my words, but back then when the song just dun gotta come out you were in the zone and out it came. But is your own creation boring? All ego aside, if you are proud of it, you may rest it, but boring? Never!

It's called "Bridge Over Troubled Water" - you sure you didn't call it "Trouble over Bridgwater"?

Bill Bailey I only know from Black Books, very funny but not musical - not musical? He did a concert tour of classical music. He does say, having trained classically, with a face like his, who would take him seriously? But from little I know of the genre, his skill on the piano is way up there. And I doubt he would intersperse the music with anecdotes.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 05:08 PM

alasno! i was bloody awful. totally inadequate. story of my life!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 04:55 PM

"As a former teacher, the cry of 'Sir, this is boring' "

As a former teacher, I'd say the pupils were often right. You can't make everything sound interesting. A lot of what you are required to teach IS bloody boring, endless dates and politics, and pointless maths they're never going to use unless they become maths teachers or rocket scientists; ticking boxes, teaching towards jumping through endless hoops. And then of course there's always 'one man's meat....

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 04:11 PM

Al - well said sir... bet you were a good teacher...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 03:52 PM

i dunno - how many?

i would imagine every comic has died in his arse sometime or other. i remember this twat of a social secretary telling me with great pride how he had paid off the late Marti Caine.

The bravery of a showbusiness footsoldier is something that many folk artists could learn from. The music wasn't always for Cecil Sharp and his followers to frolic on the lawn around to. Its got hairs on its arse.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 03:38 PM

no, not really...

We, don't know how boring or interesting a teacher you were...???

How many crap deluded wannabe comedians blame their audiences...?????

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 03:15 PM

As a former teacher, the cry of 'Sir, this is boring' invariably came from inattentive and uninterested students, not those who actually listened to what was being offered.- a parallel?

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 02:40 PM

Bill Bailey's not musical?

Keyboard gens

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 02:00 PM

John the Murderer - a Business Plan

I am a trainee murderer - my name is John
I do hope you will bear with me -please don’t get me wrong
My aim’s a career in homicide - the college course is Murder 101
There’s two modules - Killing for Profit - and the other’s Psychopathic Fun
I’ll start off working for meself - but I’m not trying to be funny
Long term aim is workin’ for the mafia - I’ve heard they do pay decent money.

You can use a gun, or axe, a rope or even cyanide
The possibilities will be endless - When I get qualified.

You need an interesting angle - you need that creative knack
You can have a mate to help you, or you can do it on your jack
We’ll be THE BANANA KILLERS - which sounds quite rock’n’roll
And in this folie a deux - I have worked out my role.
I’ll shove bananas in the victim’s mouth - that bit will be fun
And murderer number two can shove bananas up his bum

You can use a gun, or axe, a rope, a banana or even cyanide
The possibilities will be endless - When I get qualified.

There’ll be late night TV shows about us, if we do it well
Perhaps a thinly veiled portrait of moi, in a book by Ruth Rendell
But of course justice always triumphs, the baddies always fail
They’ll get the banana’s DNA profile, and the whole bunch will get jail.
Basically that is my business plan - how I think it could be done
By John, trainee assassin, studying Murder101

Words and music by Alan Whittle Copywright October 27th 2018

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Apr 19 - 02:19 AM

Bill Bailey is very musical. I like him in Black books. he does stand up as well, which argues courage.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Neil D
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 09:33 PM

pfr, I watched a Tim Minchin concert on Amazon and was pretty much done half way through. I did like him as Atticus Fetch on "Californication".
Bill Bailey I only know from Black Books, very funny but not musical.
Now Flight of the Conchords, I love those guys and never tire of them. "Issues" is classic and when Britt in the guise of The Rhymenoceros raps "Ain't no party like my nana's tea party" I just about spit my coffee.

As to the premise of this thread, I'm reminded of a guy who was really popular when I was young, Jim Croce. Songs like "Don't Mess Around with Jim" and "Roller Derby Queen" have long since lost there charm and if I never hear "Leroy Brown" again it'll be too soon. On the other hand songs like "Time in a Bottle" and "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" are moving and timeless.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 06:46 PM

There are people who simply sing comedy songs, often without learning the lyrics, cadence, comic pauses etc and sometimes try to sing them and read the words at the same time. This approach doesn't work.

Then there are people who PERFORM comedy songs!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 11:24 AM

Producer-package-consumer. You can't break 'em up.

Two sides of the same coin: Songs of bad taste

George Lopez gets a very different reaction from Republicans at a $5,000/plate charity event than the typical casino lounge set.

Entertainment can be "stale" even when it's brand new. Doesn't matter if you've got the audience for it. Other nights.... [thunk-thunk] "Is thing turned on?"

Funny or taste aren't in the songs or jokes per se. It's in the relationship the audience has with the producer (suits, venue, artist &c) and the material.

Understanding your guests, very important in hospitality.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Andy7
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 11:17 AM

I just came across a song I must have written and forgotten about. It's called "Bridge Over Troubled Water"; and it's not bad, though I say it myself.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 11:15 AM

I knows a gal a real fine gal, down in Roxham way
She were whooly nice to me back in the old school days
She would smile all the while, but Daddy didn't know all
What she used to say to me down by the garden wall
"Have you got a light Boy?
Have you got a light?"

Chorus.
Molly Lindley, she smokes like a chimney
But she's my little nicotene gal

Now you'll see her and me never more to part
We would wander hand in hand together in the dark
'Til one night I held her tight in the old back yard
But when I tries to hold her close she says "Now hold you hard!"
Have you got a light boy?
Have you got a light?

Chorus

Then one day she go away. I don't see her no more
'Til by chance I see her down along the (Mundley?) shore
She be there twice as fair but will she now be true
So when she sees me passing by she says "I'm glad that's you!
Have you got a light boy?
Have you got a light"

Chorus

By and by we decide on a wedding day
So we toddles off to church to hear the preacher say
Will you now take this vow to honour all the time
Before I has a chance to stop her, she begins to pine
"Have you got a light boy?
Have you got a light?"

Chorus

Now the doctor tells me a daddy I shall be
but when I asks him "Whats the score?" he says there's only three
So here I go Cheerio, to see how she do fair
I know what she will say to me as soon as I get's there
"Have you got a li..............ght, b.............o................y?"

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 11:02 AM

Warwick Slade...so right. I'm always finding songs I wrote at some time long forgotten , for what reason...god knows, i certainly don't!

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 08:21 AM

My songs still make me laugh, but at my age I don’t remember hearing them before

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 05:43 AM

Billy Connolly is funny. More than humorous. But Like Tommy Cooper - there is a huge visual content adding in.

And the difference between surprise and absurdity in this context is marginal. We are bandying words, when we should be inspecting concepts.
I refer you to my proposition** that there is a conflict in competing logics. Which can be, IMNSHO, absurdity or surprise.

Now consider the unfunny joke, in this I specify "heard it before" but it could equally be poking fun at your "favourite", it is still absurd though there is no surprise. We park it in the "heard it" pigeon hole or the "non-PC" one. And kill the laugh that would have ensued 250 mS later (yes that is the speed the brain processes - at best).

**borrowed from commedians like Jimmy Carr &/or Ken Dodd

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 04:54 AM

A friend heard about my recent decision to master the uke and enthusiasm for George - so when she went round a charity shop she got me Formby's greatest hits for 50p.

yesterday i put it on the car stereo. ....up comes With Me Little Stick of Blackpool Rock....and those immortal lines

It may get sticky, but I never complain...
I like to have a nibble of it now and again

DEnise and I were both laughing at the line. why is it, some bits still tickle your fancy after numerous hearings and you don't get bored?

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 04:35 AM

I like all those too, but that’s more ‘post modern’, with irony, parody and experimental, but more dangerous territory because your audience needs to be on the same level, or they’ll be just non-plussed (looking for jokes that are not necessarily included or needed).

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 03:56 AM

Flight of the Conchords.. Tim Minchin.. Bill Bailey..

Musically impressive.. but can't make my mind up how funny I think they are...???

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 03:51 AM

errr.. "bombed out and evacuated.."...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 03:48 AM

A good comic song is a lot more than just telling a joke, or even a series of jokes, to my mind. It’s more about describing a situation and responses to it, (as in sitcoms and farces), but interlaced with clever wordplay, a consistent rhythm to the lyrics and both good and deliberately bad rhyming (ideally in triplets with the best saved until last, plus multiple internal rhymes, sometimes tortuous). Check out songs by George Formby, Victoria Wood, Jake Thackray, Miles Wootton, etc. for examples).

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 03:17 AM

Rusty - That's good news..

btw.. my mum is 87.. so if Doc/Ivor can hurrry it up a bit..

I played her "down by the riverside" again this afternoon,
she was in hysterics before the song even got to Birmingham,
her birth place..

She then spent a fair time reminicing on the single shared toilet
in the tenement block she was raised in before being bombed out evacuated..

The Doc's treatment is a valuable tonic for dementia care...

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 02:53 AM

punkfolkrocker - you will be pleased to know that there are plans to issue a five-CD compilation of the appalling Biggun's career, the fifth being new studio and pub recordings (with myself on a couple of tracks (banjo and mandolin) in a geriatric bid for chart success by association).

I shall post on the 'Cat if anything comes of it, but in the meantime Doc is usually to be heard on a Thursday evening annoying punters at the 'Eel's Foot' pub, Eastbridge, Suffolk.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: BobL
Date: 20 Apr 19 - 02:36 AM

Sometimes a comic song continues to work simply as a good song.
e.g. Flanders & Swann's Hippopotamus Song.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 09:19 PM

As has been said above,(most)comedy songs are akin to telling a joke - generally, once the punchline has been delivered it becomes a spent bullet.
There are exceptions of course. Fawlty Towers (though not a song)is a good example of comedy writing that is eternally funny because of its consistant high quality. In the same way, comedy songs written to a similar level will always survive (providing the content does not get dated). It's worth remembering, there's a whole new generation every couple of decades to whom the song(s) will sound brand new.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: Johnny J
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 07:03 PM

Topical comedy songs get boring even quicker, especially when they become less relevant.

However, more traditional humourous songs are more likely to stand the test of time.

Subject: RE: comedy songs - why do they get boring?
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 19 Apr 19 - 06:38 PM

Frank Sidebottom
Jilted John / John Shuttleworth
Jonathan Richman

various other offbeat and outsider performers..

Where do they fit into the analysis...???