This is a multiple choice poll so vote for all your funny prog and prog related songs.  I kept my list to 1 song per band otherwise the poll would have been 25 Zappa/Beefheart songs   

Be sure to tell us any of your favorites that aren't on the list...

Have fun 

I agree that Gong is probably the most funny.. straight up humorous of the whole genre but perhaps it is just me.. but humor never was a strong suit for prog IMO. Too busy being serious and trying show how smart a bunch of semi educated muso's thought they were...

Zappa.

Also, "We Are Sane" is whimsical, but not funny, i.e. silly. 

The other main band that produces music that I think is funny on its own is Gong of the Daevid Allen eras. 

Micky - you're American.

This is a British song with British humour and it's extremely funny if you understand the place, the time and other events going on there. It's actually based on true events: two gangs fighting over protection rights in the East End of London.

A lot of obscurer bands are successful in combining humor and music without just ending up creating silly forgettable music. Second Hand Death May Be Your Santa Claus is almost physical in its humor. Supersister are hugely entertaining and combines beauty, warmth and lighthearted silliness at once - a little like Caravan and Hatfield... well most of Canterbury. Same can be said about Moving Gelatine Plates. 

The absurd surrealism of Can's lyrics is often fun as well... Faust is a lot of fun too I think... there's plenty.

I think my favorite song in the poll is In Every Dream Home a Heartache though - which perfectly illustrates that having a sense of humor doesn't have to ruin the emotional experience of a song if you're smart and talented enough. 

I've added a couple clarifications to the poll entries:

1) Twelfth Night's: We Are Sane refers specifically to the "Blah Blah" speech that begins the live version on Live or Let Live.

2) Giles Giles & Fripp: Elephant Song has been changed to Fripp's recitation of "The Saga of Rodney Toady" story that is broken up over the intro's to several songs on the album.

PH does not appear on NY3.  Fripp recorded an actual argument he heard from his NY apartment and those are the only words that appear in the song.  I find the juxtaposition of this sampled argument on top of some ripping Fripp prog completely funny...your mileage may vary.  The fact that you seem offended that I might be amused by this would lead me to suggest perhaps you could start your own poll titled, "Prog That Is Not Funny" with NY3 and Cat Food as your first options 

It is if you find some poor slob sexually obssessed with a sex toy doll funny.

;)

I think Hatfield and the North are humorous on many of their tracks ....that sly intellectual cheeky Brit style of funny. As well as Giles Giles and Fripp....though they only did the one lp as far as I know.

;)

I would go as far to say that the whole Canterbury Scene excelled at sophisticated humor alongside top notch musical accompaniments but Gong with Daevid Allen was some of the cream of the crop for sure :)

I find it baffling that 10cc are classed as "prog related". In the 70s, they were THE definitive art rock band, and art rock was firmly classed as prog.

questionsneverknown wrote: Great list of songs, but if I want Zappa it ain't Bobby Brown, it's the Adventures of Greggery Peccary.

 

Same. But the funniest song I know of by him is Who Needs the Peace Corps. 

For this poll however it's gotta be any PICNIC... PICNIC... PICNIC 

Listen to the Viv Stanshall narrated version of the Sailors Hornpipe on (the more recent versions of) Tubular Bells.. in fact any of the Bonzo's stuff and anything to do with Viv Stanshall.. smart and humorous!

Stackridge.. Syracuse the Elephant or any of their songs.. Daevid Allen had a great sense of humour and the beauty of the absurd.. Richard Sinclair's lyrics whether with Caravan or Hatfield again show that warm absurdist humour..

Also, it is quite politically incorrect by today's standards of no-bullying etc.  

I am not sure that most of this music was designed to be "funny", although one should probably state that satirical and pointed is way more like it.

Gilly's thing in GONG, was more about the feminist side than it was funny, or satirical ... it teased just enough to get the attention, but not enough to be outright above and beyond the GONG material itself, which suggests that it was very well thought out and done. Later, she developed it further, in ROBOT WOMAN, and I can tell you that the album IS NOT FUNNY at all! But it is a serious request for more equality.

Vivian Stanshall, is probably the real humorist in the midst of all this, but considering the BONZO DOG BAND progressive is a bit weird and out in left fields towards the poop tundras for the rhinos and elephants! But his satirical, and INTELLIGENT edge is quite obvious ... it's almost scary how he can take a line from MARAT/SADE and come up with ... something else that is not only scary, but also very funny and makes you wish that Peter Brook had included it in his own show! 

All in all, none of the pieces mentioned are "funny". Even FOCUS' famous hit is not really funny, but an exercise in making fun of the seriousness in rock music, with explosive riffs.

The piece mentioned by JT is not a funny piece and is a part of an album that is NOT FUNNY, and in fact, is downright serious and even mean at times. And the comment at the end of the song, is pretty much saying ... how stupid we look ... it's not our story, but the hare's, and for all intents and purposes, the point was/is that we were intruding on it! How very rock'n'roll that really is, and we don't get it?

Actually, no. In fact, from a literary standpoint, you are completely wrong. The original late-medieval "Passion Plays" or "Mystery (ie., Miracle) Plays" were indeed serious in part, a precursor to the Elizabethan stage plays. However, within Passion or Mystery Plays, they often inserted a comic interlude between the first and second act to break up the heavy moralizing and keep the "groundlings" interested. These comedic intermissions were often slap-stick, satiric or downright vulgar and had nothing to do whatsoever with the content of the Passion Play itself. 

So, "The Hare That Lost Its Spectacles" is an absurdist fable that is indeed just such a comedic interlude, and based on Tull's love of Monty Python, there is an accompanying film of "The Hare" with bassist Jeffrey Hammond as the Pythonesque narrator (complete with wacky Lancashire accent). 

And I don't think Ian Anderson got enough credit for how truly "progressive" this album was. The man did his research, as the whole plot resembles an allegorical Passion Play, except in true Ian anti-Anglican fashion, the newly-dead protagonist Ronnie Pilgrim is resurrected at the end, rather than Christ.

And "A Passion Play" is quite hilarious throughout, really. I am not sure where you think the satire involved is so deadly serious. Any lyricist who rattles off the line "And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulder of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision," is not being terribly serious. 

Ditto!

Senor Valasco's Mystic Voodoo Love Dance

It certainly is untouchable. I haven't touched it for decades.

iluvmarillion wrote: Tempted to vote for the Split Enz because I love Split Enz, but this one is about the worst thing the band every wrote, so I'll give it to Bike.

My Mistake is one of Split Enz's funniest; especially the video. Cracks me up every time!

I love Split Enz, too - and some of their material is definitely crazy, quirky and humorous, and would easily fit the criteria of this poll. The song here seems to have been chosen more for its title than its content. I like it, and I would never call it even close to being “the worst thing the band ever wrote”, but there are definitely far better songs, that would be far better contenders for this poll. Nevertheless, out of patriotic solidarity, I have voted for the Enz anyway.

This wouldn’t be a great song for the poll either, so I’m not sharing for that reason, so much as because I love this particular performance. 🥰❤️

curious comment 'Dad joke'  . The song was about a story that made the papers at the time , 2 London gangs fighting over protection rights. 'East End Heroes' , I don't find it that funny either but people like to think its quintessential British humour.

Really?? You've never heard that expression?

 

You do realise that this track was written specifically for vinyl, and that its brilliance doesn't translate to CD or digital formats?

 

That is kind of obvious, and I doubt anyone listening to it could not recognise it was written specifically for vinyl. But while I do think it is not the worst thing the Enz has every written, nor would I call it brilliant. But in terms of tracks that have this gimmick (for lack of a better word), I would rather go for Bowie’s “Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family”, bro (bro…bro…bro…)

I voted for KC, Eno, Roxy, ,,,,but more due to liking them....not sure I consider them 'funny' per se....wittty..?

 

Hmmm, I don't know. If someone hasn't ever experienced vinyl, and came across this "gimmick" in the form it exists on CD or digital formats, would they recognise it for what it is? It is easy for those of us who have experienced this on vinyl to assume that it would be obvious even for those who only know CD or digital formats. But why would a person who only knows CD or digital even think that the track was intended continue ad infinitum?

 

Because I’ve never played vinyl. I grew up on cassettes, and then CDs. I’ve never owned a record, but I still understand the concept of a runout groove.

 

Ahhh... where did you get the term "runout groove" from? Sounds like jargon to me, suggesting knowledge other people might not have. Anyway, it is probably futile to continue this "What Is It Like To Be A Bat" type debate.

 

It's either your mistake or my mistake then! My mistake is very funny, but then the poll question is directed at Mental Notes which is the last song on the debut album in which the band sings the title song backwards. I don't particularly find the song funny, but maybe others do. However it's possible the person who constructed this poll made the mistake of including Mental Notes as the Split Enz song contribution when he actually meant to include My Mistake.

An effervescing elephant riding a bike

On an unrelated note, I'm watching Yellowstone now & I have yet to see one dental floss farm on the show.

Hi,

I was thinking that The Hamburger Concerto is funnier ... when the cook is singing and dancing while flipping burgers. 

Isn't most of Yellowstone in Wyoming?

 Most of the Yellowstone National Park is in Wyoming but the show is set on a fictional cattle ranch called Yellowstone in Montana. ( No Dental Floss Yet.  )