I Went Down A Lonely Island & Weird Al Rabbit Hole…
I’ll be honest: I don’t really listen to “comedy music.” Now I don’t mean music that has funny lyrics, especially when they’re from an artist I like, but music that is specifically meant to be funny and comedic. I’m talking about Weird Al, The Lonely Island, and that’s really about it. There aren’t a lot of popular artists that are specifically making comedy music, or that are known for being comedic. I’ve always been of the mind that most comedy music is something of a novelty, and I don’t usually go back to a lot of comedy music, mainly because comedy is subjective. Music is, too, but music has a lot of elements that make it all come together. Comedy music is focused on the music itself, sure, but the main focus is to make you laugh and for the jokes to work. If they don’t work, I don’t want to listen to the music itself, because why would I want to? At least with some albums and artists, the lyrics might suck, but I can ignore it, because it isn’t the only thing that I can focus on or that I can enjoy.
I went down a bit of a rabbit hole in regard to both The Lonely Island and Weird Al, but I’m kind of torn on the albums I listened to. I like them more than I don’t, but the best way to describe comedy music for me is that it’s hit or miss. Some of it is great, but not every joke lands, and that’s how comedy is in itself. In every great comedy, whether a film or TV show, not every joke will work. I’ve wanted to get more into comedy music, and I actually got a few Weird Al albums last year, but just never got into them. I spent a few days listening to them recently, and I’m torn on them, same with The Lonely Island. I got a couple of their albums recently, and I wanted to talk about all of these together.
Starting with Weird Al, I got his first three albums, 1983’s self-titled, 1984’s In 3-D, and 1985’s Dare To Be Stupid. Weird Al is known for two things: his polka medleys, and his knack for creating parody songs off popular songs from the time that the album or the songs came out. Both of those things are a strength and a weakness, but let me explain what I mean by that. They’re a strength because both of those things can be unique, catchy, and well written, as well as quite funny, but that’s if the joke lands or the original song is something you like. That’s where the weakness comes into play, because if you don’t like the song that he’s parodying, or songs in the polka medley, why would you care about these?
The interesting thing with hearing these albums from the 1980s is that they parody songs from the 1970s and the 1980s, which makes these albums sort of dated. Not in a really bad way, but it’s kind of a cool snapshot into what was popular at the time, so in a sense, it’s more like a time capsule than a novelty. With that said, though, some of the parodies are great, and some of them are not. I don’t love these albums as a whole, but they’re charming, they’re fun, and even when the lyrics and jokes aren’t that great, the music itself is still good enough to get something out of it. There are some songs on these albums I really like, at least when it comes to the parodies, such as “Eat It,” “Yoda,” and “My Bologna,” and the songs they parody are pretty great, too, but some of them do fall a little flat. “Girls Just Want To Have Lunch,” “Another One Rides The Bus,” or “Like A Surgeon” just don’t do much for me.
I like a good chuck of the Weird Al originals that are on these albums, although his debut is very rough around the edges, so the originals on that album don’t do much for me. The originals are much more in the vein of a general style, versus a specific kind of music. “Buckingham Blues,” which seems to parody blues music, “Such A Groovy Guy,” or “The Check’s In The Mail” just aren’t that funny, but the originals and style parodies get better on later albums. Weird Al has a good voice, but he is a bit whiny and nasally, which does get better on later albums. His debut is kind of rough, but it’s not half bad, either. Weird Al is a pretty solid artist, but his music is very hit or miss for me, so I might come back to these albums every so often.
As for The Lonely Island, I’ve been a fan of them for years, watching them on SNL since they first appeared on there in 2005. I remember when “Lazy Sunday” went viral, and I loved it, but they’ve released banger after banger. They’re also kind of hit or miss, but unlike Weird Al, they don’t do parody songs, so their music is all original. Their music is very hit or miss, but when it hits, it’s really fun. You know the big singles from The Lonely Island, but I wanted to talk about two of their albums, 2009’s Incredibad and 2013’s The Wack Album. The former album is their debut, and features a lot of their most viral hits, such as “I’m On A Boat,” “Lazy Sunday,” and “Dick In A Box,” but there are some songs that aren’t as well known.
The Wack Album has some great songs that I hadn’t heard in a long time, and that aren’t as popular as their other hits, such as “Hugs” with Pharrell, “YOLO” with Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar, and “Semicolon” with Solange. The songs themselves are fun, but the jokes are good, too, and they give me some chuckles. There are some misses on both albums, though, and the albums aren’t consistently great, but there isn’t anything that I’d say is outright awful. Same with Weird Al, and I feel like I came off quite harsh, but there isn’t anything on those albums that I actively dislike. Comedy music is kind of hit or miss, but it’s something I like listening to here and there. These albums have a lot of jokes worth going back to, but there are a few songs that are genuinely clever and funny.
