NPR Music - The funniest songs of all time

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

"Weird Al" Yankovic helps curate a mix of some of the funniest songs of all time, from classics like Tom Lehrer's "The Elements," to more fringe discoveries from The Hazzards, Tonio K. and more.Note: This episode originally ran on Apr. 9, 2024.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR Music, it's all songs considered. I'm Robin Hilton. If you have spent any amount of time following the news in recent weeks, you probably have a case of whiplash from, you know, just trying to keep up with everything that's been going on in the world because it has been a lot. So this week on the show, we thought, you know, we could all use a good laugh.

So let's play a mix of some of the funniest music of all time. And we thought, who better to guide us through these songs than Weir Dau Yankovic. Right, right. Also, to a much lesser extent, Stephen Thompson from In Pierre Music, as always. Robin, you know it's always a pleasure. So I thought we would begin with a question. Sure.

Assuming for the moment that comedy, and this is perhaps in a Miltonian sense, is the ironic discrepancy between what is expected and what is delivered, could we safely conclude that Thomas Hobbes and his master's master's work, Leviathan, or perhaps even Descartes, treat his passions of the soul. Were they perhaps misguided in concluding that laughter was a sign of pusill adenemity, when so much of it is out of our control, Stephen will start with you. I'm just sitting here thinking, I'm so glad he's doing this with Al and not me. Totally kidding. I have. No, I appreciate the degree you leaned into what people think of when they think of NPR having this thing. I left out all the asides. and passions of the soul Descartes Treatise. No, I'm totally kidding.

No agenda here other than play super funny songs. We all brought some. We'll go around the room here and we'll share some. And Al, I want to start with you. Dealers' choice. You pick one of the ones that you want to play and we'll hear a bit and talk about it. One song is by Tony O.K.

Are you guys familiar with Tony O'K? No, I'd never heard of him. I think his biggest hit, which I don't know if it was a hit in any standard sense, but it was funky Western Civilization, which is an amazing song. It includes a rap by a woman pretending to be Joan of Arc. So I didn't pick that one.

I picked a HAT, R-E-D. That was a song that inspired me. I've actually done two Tonya K. pastiches, not parodies, but sort of like, you know, sound-likes of style parodies. I was only kidding, which this song, which we're about to play a part of, it actually inspired that song

because it starts off very, very, kind of pretty, kind of pretty and acoustic, and then it goes immediately into this kind of punk, outrageous kind of a genre. And I should point out that Tony O'K.'s real name is Steve, but not many nihilistic songs were done by a guy named Steve, so obviously, yeah, to change it to Tony O.K. Now I know it's not unusual. It's nothing so unique.

There's probably hundreds of... wonderful love affairs that go bad in this town every week it's a big town but all of them others them sad-hearted lovers could cry in there be what the egg it didn't concern me was none of my business I never had nothing to say but suddenly darling the table has turned you have left me for somebody new And now it's hard to express the resentment I feel For the years that I've wasted on you But let me kind of put this another way, okay?

There we go. This is sort of a song that yinks the rug out from under you, right? Yeah, I mean, like you talked about, you know, subverting expectations and surprises. It's like you wouldn't expect it to go in that direction. Right. You know, even though it's the same, you know, same lyrics, the first version of the second verse, it kind of takes on more urgency.

The band kicks in. It's also a perfect example. And we're going to talk about a few other songs that fit this description as well. It is a funny song that is also a great song. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So are these songs that you brought in, Al, are they ones that were inspirations for

you early on or that you've, you've drawn on? Several, yeah. I mean, I mentioned, you know, I've been inspired by Tony Oketa to write a couple songs, and I think some of the others on my list also inspired me, you know, here and there, certainly, yeah. Well, we got a lot of music, so we'll try to move quickly here. Stephen, what do you got? Well, the first song that I pick, it's by Robbie Folks.

It's not one of Robbie Folks's best-known songs. Like, he's known as kind of an alt-country guy. He wrote a song a few years back called Fountains of Wayne Hotline. Now I've wrecked my brain and I've looked all around But I can't find a way to freshen my sound And now who do you call when you're down to one musical time Fountains of Wayne Hotline? Fountains of Wayne Hotline, Gerald speaking.

How can I help you? Oh, yeah, thanks. Hello, I'm a country singer in a small Midwestern town and I'm here in the studio today. Let me explain. We're working on a track, and we just did a verse. It was kind of broken down,

and at this point, I'm not sure where to take it. Sir, sir, calm down. We can help you. We can help you. What you need to do now is employ the radical dynamic shift. The radical... Yes, what do you mean by that?

You know. Full band entry for Tissimo while maintaining consistent apparent volume on the vocal track. Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. Hey, thanks a lot. Thanks for your time.

My pleasure. We're always here. It's such a drag who stay. My favorite part of the song is later on he calls back and he says, I was not in Gerald before. And he goes, we got, you know, we've got 20 Gerald's here. Like, well, you know, you talk about my dynamic shift. Like, oh, that Gerald. There's so many.

layers of jokes and it builds and builds and introduces new characters, all while still making a great Fountains of Wayne song. Yeah. You know, he does something here that I don't think I've ever done before, but it's pretty brilliant because I've done several parody songs where I'm addressing the band's style, and I've done a lot of pastiche where I basically do a song in somebody else's style, but I haven't done as pastiche addressing the band's style, which is what he does here. It's so brilliant and so lovingly done.

It's just, it's one of the first things that popped into my head when we were talking about funny songs. And it's a song that not enough people, I think, have heard. I don't feel like it's entered the realm of like the comedy canon or anything. It's just kind of a Robbie Folk's one-off that he dropped between albums 20 years ago. Yeah, it's pretty brilliant, I got to say. All right, Al, we're back to you. Oh, okay. I was requested by NPR, and I don't know why.

makes no sense to me, but I said that they wanted me to have at least one song about Adolf Hitler on my list. We did not. Oh, my God. You set that up perfectly because when I saw that you picked this song, I was like, really? Okay. Well, this is a song by one of my all-time musical hero, Spike Jones. And this was his anti-Nazi song back during the days of World War II. Back one was pretty much universally agreed that Nazis were bad.

Well, let's hear. We can talk about it. When the furor says, we is the master race, we hile, hile, right in the furor space, not to love the purer, it's the greatest grace. So we hile, hile, ride in the purer space. You got to know some context that when this came out in 1943, it was part of a cartoon, I think. They probably made a cartoon out of it, yeah. They were clearly deploying humor as a weapon, in this case. Yeah, I mean, using mockery to make a point and, you know, to kind of deflate the whole situation.

I think it was, you know, cathartic at the time for people to, you know, give the Raspberry to Hitler and Spike Jones gave everybody permission. And Spike Jones has been extremely influential to me. I mean, whenever you hear one of my polka meddles, they all owe as much, if not more, to Spike Jones than to traditional polka. because most polka music don't have like bulb horns and guns being fired and and, you know, too cowbells. So that hustle by Jones. Yeah. Yeah.

All right, Stephen, how do you follow that? It's hard to have a conversation with about funny songs and not reference Monty Python. But I wanted to talk about a comedy troupe that kind of came up alongside Monty Python. And I don't think gets nearly as much love, especially in the U.S. they were called the goodies. And to me, this song should be remembered as widely and as fondly as the greatest works of Monty Python. I'm not going to give away the title because it will give away the joke. It's a short song. We'll just play the whole thing.

It's for the beauty that I recognized in you. Hell is for the laughter that I hear the whole day through. I'm so infatuated. with you oh my dear l is for the music that i hear when you are near p is for the passion that i feel for you each day h is for the horror if you ever went away t is for the trust i put in you all else a ball together Is that a parody of put them all together that they spelled mother? Or were there actually a lot of songs at that time? I think there were a lot of songs at that time.

Acronym rock was kind of a subgenre at the time. There was definitely a big one that spelled mother. But it's amazing. That song is from 1968, written by the great Bill Adi. I first heard this song when I was probably seven years old. And for nearly 45 years, I have been able to recite it from memory, every inflection, every little orchestral flourish, the exact tone of the way he says, still not right, is it?

That is the song that like tease you up. It's setting you up for this punchline and then it just delivers so perfectly. I crack up in supermarket checkout lines. I crack up just like in my car when it just pops into my head. And again, like, first of all, the goodies, those guys had a ton of. of great stuff. They were, they did a show called, I'm sorry, I'll read that again. That is full of fantastic absurdist, kind of Monty Python-ish humor. And for whatever reason, it feels like the collective, our collective memories all just went Monty Python. Right. Yeah, I was not familiar

with them at all. Yeah. And I just, I don't think these guys get nearly enough love. Yeah. Well, we've got to take a break, but we'll be back with more funny songs, obscure or otherwise right after this. I want to play a band that began as a duo, a duo called The Hazards. This is a duo featuring Sydney Moreska and Anne Harris. They've since added some other members, but they had kind of this cold classic song called Gay Boyfriend Back in 2007. But before that, they released this EP called So Pretty, and it included this song I want to play called Just a Temp. They're a ukulele band, and in fact they were originally called the Yukes of Hazard.

Oh, nice. Excellent. Of course. The yukes of hazards. I don't remember how I found this band. And, you know, the best I can tell, the hazards are still together. And based out of New York, though, it doesn't look like they put anything out in a while. But I just absolutely bust a gut when I first heard that.

And every time I hear that, you talk about the unexpected, right? Any song with a Glock and Spiel solo has got my love. At one point, she later on, you know how you're like, guitar? She says, Glockenspiel. It's sort of a proto Garfunkel and Outs. Yeah, totally, totally. In fact, we should hear one of their songs, too, Garfunkel and Nose. They also did a song called Gay Boyfriend, but a different one that's different from the one the Hazards did.

Garfunkel and Noots another duo. They're from L.A. So many funny songs. But I want to play a little bit of one called Google. The world isn't round and the Buddha's nuts in. And we both have really. good taste in men and there really is a black forest land where everyone gets all their hand and i swear i didn't google you okay i did i admit it was so easy to do

seven thousand eight results and i know everything about you you're not a sex offender but you feel he'll make in 1997 it really isn't that weird come on we're all we're all Adults here. Okay, I did Google you. I did. Come on, we're all adults here. Garfungle a notes, just the name alone is hilarious. Also still together, but been a while since they put out an album.

Looks like the last one, I think, was in 2015. But yeah, so good. I think they do such a beautiful job capturing a slice of life. Yeah. Just like clever little moments that capture some slice of existence. I feel like bands like that have really benefited from the YouTube era. and kind of being able to kind of put these ideas out into the world in like without a lot of gatekeepers. I think the removal of those gatekeepers has really allowed for a flood of comedy that isn't necessarily commercial.

And that's allowed a lot of comedy to diversify in really important ways. YouTube has kind of been a godsend for ukulele bands that couldn't find, made some acceptance or supported their record labels. Well, I mean, it is true. Like, how would this ever get out in a million years if it were 1980 or whatever? I mean, yeah. Dr. DeBento. Yeah.

Well, I found Wesley Willis somehow. And I don't remember, you know, before the internet. And I don't remember. I guess just. He was on labels. Like, Deaf American put out a couple of Wesley Willis records. You ever get a headbutt from Wesley? Yes.

I have you? I have gotten a knot on my forehead from Wesley Willis. It was like, fully swollen. Yeah, he wasn't good kidding around. That was the thing. That was a thing. That's how he said below. If you met him, he had butted you, and I interviewed him at a club.

Rob Segal and I interviewed him at a club in Madison, God knows how many years ago. And by the end of the night, we were dizzy. Oh, yeah. All right. Al, what else did you bring for us? Oh, well, we did, Spike Jones already. Another one of my all-time heroes is Tom Lererer, who, as of 10. today is still with us. He's getting up there in years, but he's still from all accounts doing

well, hanging in there and still not adding to his body of work. He's been retired for longer than I've been alive, I think. But this song is called The Elements. It's one of my favorite Tom Lerr's song. It's a list song. It lists what I believe at the time that he wrote it was every single element on the periodic chart. And this one of my favorite. This song was one of the reasons that I cast Daniel Radcliffe to be in my biopic because I saw him perform this song on the Graham Norton show on the BBC with like I think Rihanna and Colin Farrell were like sitting there looking nonplussed. And Daniel Radcliffe was rattling off every single element there is. And nobody quite understood what he was doing. But I thought this is my, this is my guy.

This is my guy. You know, we will be friends someday. A real full-circle moment for you. Yeah. Bringing you back to one of your heroes. There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, and hydrogen and helium, and nicolidium, neodymium, germanium, and iron, amuricium, ruthenium, uranium,

uranium, eurobium, zirconium, rutisium, vanadium, and lanthanum, and astatine, and radium, and gold ineptinium and indium and gallium, and iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium. There's itrium, aturbium, actidium, rubidium, boron gadolinium,ium, niobium, iridium, Estranium and silicon and silver and samarium and berym and berym and berym.

I mean, this is really hard. Yeah, dude, right? It's not easy. You know, I performed this song myself like at college coffee houses, and it's tough to memorize. I have to say. And breathless. When you even get a breath in?

Between eerie and euturbium. And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curiam. I'm so, if you hadn't brought Lerer, I would have. I mean, poisoning pigeons in the park. Poisoning pigeons in the park. My favorite Lerer song is National Brotherhood Week. That's a good one. Well, they're all great.

But yeah, they're all great. But that one is one that really has lost nothing on its fastball. Over the many decades, it's just as sharp as ever. And he, God, what a treasure. You know, he just, like, made this body of songs. He was kind of satisfied with the body. of songs that he wanted to make, became a very well-regarded

professor in California, and just like washed his hands of the whole thing. Well, one of the famous lyric quotes is, what good are laurels if you can't rest on them? I had the absolute pleasure. I mean, you've, I'm sure, hung out with him and met him and stuff, Al. I've never met him in person.

We've exchanged a few emails over the years. He was apparently a big fan of my movie, UHF and said he quoted it a lot. Yes, he was. He told me that. Oh, good. Maybe I heard it from you. I forget. But I tried to get him on my Saturday morning show when I had a like a kid show on CBS and I couldn't drag him out of retirement. I said, you could be, you know, the guy behind the walls. We just hear your voice and he's like, no, I'm I'm done. I'm retired. He's thought of as such a, you know, as this like reclusive figure. He just like went on with his life and was like a nice guy who yeah, you know, did a couple interviews.

and then went back to what he's doing. He's not Howard Hughes saving his urine in the jar. He's just like, you know, living his life. He's just not like putting out records anymore. Well, you don't know, really, but sure. Yeah, let me walk that back. He could be saving his urine in the jar. Okay.

Stephen, we've come back to you. I'm so sorry. Well, I was thinking about, like, where are the funny songs coming from in 2024? Weird Al Yankovic largely taking the year off. What are we to do? What are we to do? One of my, what has proven to be one of the truest sources of funny songs in recent years has been TV shows, namely Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which has done, which put together these brilliant kind of Broadway tropes. Speaking of Fountains of Wayne, the late Adam Schlesinger co-wrote any of those, and he was a genius.

But also more recently, Girls Five Eva. Yes. Girls 5Eva was on Peacock, now on Netflix. It is a kind of Tina Faye produced sitcom starring Sarah Borellis, Busy Phillips, Paula Pell, and Renee Elise Goldsbury as a girl group, kind of a spice girl style girl group who had like a big hit around 2000 and then decide to get back together to take another bite of the apple. And their songs are funny and clever and they are also very credit. pop songs, as you can imagine, by a group that includes Sarah Borellis, Renea Elise Goldsbury, and all these talented people. And I wanted to play a little bit of the song, one of their signature songs, this is Famous FiveEva.

Hey, hey, hey, it's us, Girls FiveEva. We're going to be famous for 10 hundred years because it's like Five, Five, Evah. All we know is we're going to make this count. Gonna be famous by them Cause forever's too short Three gather together People staring at us thinking we are badass Watching as we wave goodbye

Our stomach's all the flattest Riding in our lexas Life really affects us Drinking birthclico champagne and texting all our exes Playing with our brand new flip phones Talking with our friends It's such a clever take on that. Like what, you know, these go to 11 because 10's not enough, right?

I mean, forever's not enough. Forever's not enough. So we're going to be famous, three-gather. It's so funny. It's so funny, but it's also a completely credible song. If that had been a hit in 1999, you'd completely believe it. The best satirical songs are the ones that don't stretch truth too much. I mean, it sounds very close to an actual pop song.

It just goes, yeah, like you said, breaks it to 11. Well, speaking of TV shows, we have to play something from Flight of the Concords. Yes. You know, and they, of course, they had their breakout show on HBO, much like Tenacious D. So many songs that I would rank among some of the funniest of all time. For people who don't know, this is a duo from New Zealand. They broke out with this HBO series around 2007. And the whole premise of the show is that they were these two musicians who were, you know, a struggling music duo trying to make it and nothing ever worked out.

But every episode was filled with music and they spoofed all kinds of genres like smooth R&B and business time. Business time is maybe my favorite. Yeah. I mean, like are ballets like the most beautiful girl in the room, which has great lines like out there on the street. Depending on the street, you could be in the top three. You could be a part-time model. That's right. Oh, those are legendary.

But I actually want to play a song called Hip Hopopotamus versus Rhymnoserous. I'm the motherfuckin'eris. My piece of fat and the birds are on my back and I'm horny. If you choose to proceed, you will indeed concede. Because I hit you with my flow the wild rhyme or stampede. I'm not just wild. I'm trained domesticated. was raised by a rapper and right of the dated and subsequently procreated.

That's how it goes. Here's the hip-hop-popotamus, the hip-hop hippo. They call me the hip-hop epitomist. My lyrics are bottomless. He's just so, one of them is the rhyme nostrils, and he throws it to the hip-hop epitomist. The rhyme a bottomless with hip-hop epitomatimus is so perfect. Oh, yeah.

But that's all the further you can go. There's nothing else after that. Where did you get that preposterous hypothesis? Did Steve tell you that per chance? Steve. The timing is so perfect. It's so perfect. It is so perfect.

Their timing is incredible. Yeah. I saw a flight of the Concords live, and I have never laughed so hard at anything before or since then. They were just incredible. It was so bummed when they stopped. But when you look at their body of work, it's sort of like, you know what, they did it all.

that there's like nothing else for them to spoof. Some musicians who are funny, they just keep going. They don't know when to quit. Some people start in like 1980 and just like keep going for like 45 years. Yeah, what's the point of that? And you're like that guy? Yeah, you have to respect to the Conquerqueath. I mean, they were like two seasons and done.

They didn't want diminishing returns. And as much as I would have loved to have seven or eight seasons, I mean, they kind of knew their limit, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. So good. Ow, we're back to you. What else did you bring today? Well, another one of my all-time favorites is Shel Silverstein, who I was, I'm sure I probably was familiar with some of his kids' books, Gipping Tree, and things like that. But I'd never heard any of his recorded work, and I heard this for the first time in the Dr. DeMano show very early on. This is from an album called Freakin' at the Freakers Ball, which was one of my first albums, which I, you know, memorized.

This is Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out Oh, Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would not take the garbage out She'd wash the dishes and scrub the pans Cook the ams and spice the hams And though her parents would scream and shout She simply would not

take the garbage out and sewed up to the ceilings coffee grounds potato peelings brown bananas and rotten peas chunks of sour cottage cheese it filled the can it covered the floor it cracked the windows and blocked the door with bacon rinds and chicken bones drippy ends of ice cream. Obviously, this song appeals to me for a number of reasons, not least of which is basically a food song. Yeah. But I just loved this performance.

I didn't realize till later that this was just like one of his children's poems. I think this is from where the sidewalk ends, maybe. We want one of those famous books. But I just loved his interpretation of it. And I went out to collect, I think, every Schuller, Silverstein album there was. Yeah, boy, when you combine this and the giving tree, you basically have my entire personality. Right. I love the giving, the giving tree, you pick it up, and it's such a, it's the sweetest book ever written.

And then you look at the author's picture and you look like, er. Am I the only one who found that book to be completely depressing? Oh, I mean, I sob like a baby. When I say it's the two halves of my personality, I mean gross out humor and crying over dead. trees. It's not a feel-good book. It is so sad. For the parents, the kids are always like, once around, Daddy. Yeah, exactly. Daddy, why are you sobbing?

Then, of course, it was too late. The garbage reached across the state from New York to the Golden Gate. And there in the garbage, she did hate. Poor Ceramet, an awful fate that I cannot right now relate, because the hour is much too late. But children remember Sarah Stout. And always take the garbage out. All right, Stephen, we've come back to you.

Well, I have to talk about one of my very, very favorite songs by Weirdo, Yankovic. Uh-oh. I wanted to pick an original. And I really thought when I did a ranking for NPR a year. so ago. I went through and listened to the entire Weird Al-Yankovic catalog, and I ranked my 40 favorites. And I put one more minute at number two and white and nerdy at number one. And I put white and nerdy at number one because of sheer joke density. That song contains about three laughs a second for a while there. And so I certainly... Did you time it? Like as you were listening

and that's how you concluded this is... At one point, I literally looked at a timer. At one point, I literally looked at the timer and counted the jokes per second. But I wanted to pick one more minute because it was, first of all, it was one of the songs where I really fell in love with the music of Weird Al. But this song for me, in a way, it kind of ties back to what we were talking about with Tony O'K at the top of this show when we were talking about the song, H-A-T-R-E-D, where, like, this is a very funny song, but this is also genuinely a great breakup song. So I pulled your name out of my roll-a-dance And I tore all your pictures into the malt shop where we used to go Just because it rained. That's right, you ain't gonna see me crying

I'm glad that you found somebody new Because I'd rather, spading shards of my. broken glass, then spend one more minute with you. Now, I'm not trying to sound like Elvis, but that's definitely sort of totally like an Elvis and the Jordaneros kind of vibe on this song. I remember when I was in college. My girlfriend at the time broke up with me. I listened to Harry Nelson's, you're breaking my heart.

I thought of that song with this. Which for those that don't know, it's kind of a profane song, but it's... But I remember listening to it over and over. I thought of that because it has such a great... And I just think, like Stephen said, it was very cathartic. It was like, you know, it lets you get that kind of negative energy out of you. And I thought, well, maybe someday I'll write a breakup song like that, that, you know, that would be helpful to people in that situation. And as it turns out, I guess, in 1984, 85, like when I was starting to write the Darede be Stupid album, my girlfriend at that time had just broken up with me.

And I decided to use all that negative energy and channeled it into a pop song. Well, to me, I mean, Dare to Be Stupid was a very, I mean, that song came out in 1985, the year I turned 13. And your favorite Weird Al record is very likely to be the one that came out when you were 13. Yes, yes. Well, so I want to play one of yours, too, since he did. And I'll just say that the reason I want to play this is, well, it's a great song, but it also ties in with another song that I want to play.

This is called The Saga Begins. We took a bongo from the scene. And we went to feed to see the queen. We all wound up on tattooing. That's where we found this boy. Oh my, my, this here Anakin guy, maybe Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry. And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye.

Saying soon I'm going to be a Jedi. Soon I'm going to be a Jedi. So obviously spoofing Star Wars, I have to ask you, you know, when you have a moment where you realize you've got a line like maybe Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry, soon I'm going to be a Jedi. And how perfectly it fits the original melody, the rhythm, the cadence, everything of American Pie, are you just like, oh, thank God. Writing is my least favorite part of what I do. I like to think that I'm pretty good at it, but it's not like a pleasurable thing for me. My wife will tell you about like the weeks when I'm in a writing mode where I'll wander around the house with a thousand-yard stare, you know, like a zombie. Oh, you're writing.

But every now and then, I'll get an inspirational strike or lyrical just come together in a way that I hadn't seen like 30 seconds prior to that. And it'll just work out in a way that I'm amazed that I came up with it. And that's very gratifying to have created something that I actually am very proud of. Well, and isn't that particular song one that you mostly wrote before you'd seen the movie? Because I feel like that song dropped almost concurrently with the Phantom Metals. It didn't, but I did have to write it before the movie came out. So I wrote and recorded the whole thing based on internet spoiler rumors. I guess George didn't have a lock on his trash can back then or something.

A lot of facts about the plot kind of got out. And I didn't release the song. I told the label to hold off on putting out the album until I'd actually seen the movie on the offchance that the internet was wrong, which it had never been before. That's true. One of the odds.

One time. But I went to a charity screening, and I saw the movie. And it was like 99% what I had been told via the internet. And I think I might have changed one or two words for clarity or for consistency. but it was essentially exactly as I'd written and reported it. And you've got the song Yoda too, which fits so perfectly with Lola. It's just absolute genius.

Thank you. I mean, people are always asking, when do you get into their Star Wars song? It's been over 20 years, and the problem is, you know, it's a nice problem to have, but both of my Star Wars songs to date have been huge hits, which I have to play pretty much at every concert now. And if I had another Star Wars song, it would become the Star Wars show, basically. Yeah. Well, so the reason why I wanted to play this is also because I've got another Star Wars spoof song.

And this one is admittedly funnier if you see the video that goes with it because it's one of those bad lip reading videos. You know, where they take a film clip. You know, and they dub in alternate dialogue that's absolutely ridiculous, but, you know, astoundingly sinks with whatever the characters are saying on screen. This is a song called Seagulls, and it's credited to the anonymous producer behind the bad lip reading videos. And again, I'll set it up by saying that this is a bad lip reading from the Empire Strikes Back. And what you'll hear is Yoda singing to Luke. And this is happening in the moment when Luke is training with Yoda. And Luke is running through the Dagobah Jungle with Yoda on his back.

I can be your backpack while you run. Swing from a herivine. I can be your backpack while you climb. Stand on one hand and lift. Rocks with your special gift. Run, run, run, jump. Now breathe. That's good.

Right there. Underneath was a tiny little stick. And I was like, that log had a child. The log had a child, this little stick. You know, and the story Yoda tells about finding his little walking stick led to another song called My Stick. My Stick is better than bacon, which is also my stick is better than bacon. Also hilarious. You know, and as I was re-listening to this, it occurred to me,

How creative and hilarious art can be when you're working with some pretty extreme limitations. In this case, you know, the bad lip reading producer obviously has to match the film, which led to all these ridiculous phrases. And you wonder, how did they get this to work like this? But, I mean, that's essentially what you do, Al. You're working with incredible limitations. Yeah. It's a puzzle.

You're working with a set parameters and you try to, like, jam comedy into the nooks and crannies. And yeah, I actually had lunch with the guy that does bad lip reading a couple months ago. Oh, okay. Talked about the business. And hopefully I'll get to do a bad lip reading one of these days. I'm a huge fan of that franchise. But yeah, I mean, it sounds like a lot of non-sec orders if you're just listening to the audio, but the geniuses when you watch the video, I mean, it's an exact lip sync for the pieces cut together.

So we've got to take another quick break, but we will be right back. It's all songs considered from NPR music. I'm Robin Hilton. I'm here with Weird Al Yankovic and NPR Stephen Thompson talking about and playing some of the funniest songs of all time. All right, we've all got one more pick. Al.

My last pick is, I think, by far the most obscure. Pick on the list. I've always been a big fan of this band that has only ever released four songs, and they were all four released on the same single, two cuts per side. And this is fun with Animals, which is a band.

featuring a singer-songwriter named Richard Haxton. And I love all four tracks on this little EP single. The hit off of this, if you can call it, that was The Test of Love and Sex. But this is one that's even more obscure is called Going to Pasadena. And I love the song because it's one of my favorite subgenres of comedy songs. It's like a song where basically nothing happens. It's sort of like my trap in the drive-through. And in fact, my song Albuquerque, this is one of the songs that inspired that because it's, you're going to Pasadena just to see what's going on.

And if nothing's going on, I'm going to turn around and go back home. I'll hit it here. To Pasadena, just to see what's going on. Going down to Pasadena just to see what's going on. If there's nothing going on in Pasadena, I'm going to turn around and go back home. I went down to the supermarket just to buy myself a quart of

milk I went down to the supermarket just to buy myself a quart of milk I gave my money to the cashier she said Thank you Here's your change

And now I'm going to Pasadena Just to see what's going on To Pasadena Just to see what's going on If there's nothing going on in Pasadena, I'm going to turn around and go back home. I love the song also because it's a traditional eight-bar blues song, ostensibly sung by a robot. And with a keyboard playing in an entirely different key.

So all that on top of lyrics that just really don't say anything. I made the call. The party answered, and this is what they said on the Taliban. They said if you jack them Your directories Operator I really liked the process In preparing for this show

You know We saw each other's picks You know We had a little spreadsheet We were working with And I was like Oh my God Al picked a song

I don't know Who is this Who is this band? What is this song? And I Google And I'm looking around Okay, it's not on Spotify And I find

It's on YouTube posted by Richard Haxston Right Of the band It was posted seven years ago and it has 756 views. Let's get it to 800.

Let's get it to 800. This to me is part of like growing up obsessed with funny music and growing up trading underground tapes with friends. To me, like some of that feels like it's been lost in the internet

era because of the notion that kind of everything is available all the time. But there are still these cool songs bubbling around that have 756 views on YouTube that more people would enjoy. And we're getting the word out. Yeah, exactly. Public service journalism.

That's right. That's what we're here for. Yeah. All right, Stephen, you've got one more pick. Well, I just decided to go with basically, arguably, I don't know, if I'm picking my favorite movies of all time, this is Spinal Tap. Ties into a lot of what we've been talking about, right? You've got to be great at what you're parodying.

You've got to be able to do what you are parodying as well or better as the artists that you are influenced by. The Spinal Tap soundtrack has given me so much joy. Basically my entire life. Picking a favorite spinal tap song is folly, so let's just go with Big Bottom. I think stealthily, the funniest line in the song is, You know what I mean? Because it implies that there's some kind of clever, double entendre going on?

Yeah, I can figure it out. I can drive a line between two points here, yeah. I cannot be happier that they are at this very moment in New Orleans shooting the sequel. After, you know, how many, 40 years? 44 years. Is it 80? 84, 84. It was it?

I think, you know, I've seen Casablanca mentioned as the most quoted movie of all time. I just don't think that's true with spinal tap and stuff. the picture. Well, I will say, Robin and I, quote, this is spinal tap to each other far more often than we quote, quote, Casablanca to each other. I've said hello Cleveland many times backstage. I will say that. Oh, my gosh, for sure. Not an exit. How many times I've said that when I'm trying to find my way around a building, not an exit. Obviously, way more songs that we could ever fit on this show. There were so many, I wanted to get to. Loretta Lynn has one year of the reason our kids are ugly. Sometimes all you need is the title of the song.

our kids are ugly. Doja Cats moo, I think, is just absolutely ridiculously absurd. There's one by Mickey Avalon that I'm not going to say, but it is so funny, and Aquafina did a perfect reply. I'll just look up Mickey Avalon and Aquafina and listen to those two songs.

Back to back. So we'll make a playlist where funny songs, people can go listen to these, and we'll put a bunch more on there. We could go out on any of them, but I guess we'll go out on one by the Lonely Island, the Comedy Troop featuring Andy Sandberg, Jorma Takani, and Akiva Schaefer. They've done so many funny songs over the years, but they really broke out with this one when it appeared on Saturday Night Live. A lot of you will remember it.

It's called Lazy Sunday. My favorite moment is when they're dropping $10 bills everywhere, paying cash for everything. They're going to a movie. They're going to see the chronic what? of Narnia, and they say that you can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're dropping Hamilton.

Doesn't get any more genius than that. And I'll just hit it. Thanks so much to both of you for doing this. Weird Al Yankovic, especially to you for taking the time out. Oh, thank you. This was so fun. Al has more things going

on in his life than I do. You just know that if you call me, I'm there. Yeah, Stephen's my safety. I literally can say, and Stephen, we're doing a show on bagpipes next week. You in? He's like, yeah, sure, no problem. I could do it.

No follow-up presence. But no, yeah, no follow-up. So thanks so much. Thank you. No follow-up questions. For NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered. Lazy Sunday.

Wake up in the late afternoon. Paul Parnell just to see how he's doing. Hello, what up pawns? You're Samberg, what's cracking? What I'm thinking? What the other man is happening. But first my hook of pangs, I'm sticking like duct tape. Let's hit up MacNogia and Mac on some cupcakes.

No doubt that bakeries got all the bottom frosty. I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gawslid. Gawesley. Gossilie. Gossil. No six. No 12. Bakers doesn't.

I told you that I'm crazy for these cupcakes cousin. Yo, where's little bit's root? I prefer Mac Quest. That's a good one too. Google. Double crew. 68th of Broadway. Step on this sucker.

What you want to do, Chris.