Parodies, novelty music, and humor et cetera

Jun 26 10:48 UTC 2002

The music business must find this droll and above them, because it 
really hasn't been very much a part of what's been produced lately.

Weird Al Yankovic is still the reigning king of parody, although even 
he has been fading from the mainstream popular spotlight.  Perhaps he 
will capture a new generation of fans, but his last video appearances 
were on VH1, not MTV.

I don't even know where to find new Dr. Demento broadcasts anymore 
(perhaps Tim would know).  He, of course, was a big supporter of Weird 
Al's music when Yankovic was first starting out (I believe "My 
Bologna," a parody of the Knack's "My Sharona" was the debut) and his 
radio show was all about this kind of music: parody and novelty.  Last 
I remember, Dr. Demento was strictly syndicated and he wasn't doing a 
live show anymore, either by retirement or forcing from execs.

Al Sherman, known for "Camp Granada"-- he was the parody king before 
Yankovic.  Before that, there was Spike Jones, and he was more novelty 
than parody.  There was also Harry Stewart, who did the Yogi Yorgesson, 
Harry Kari, Claude Hopper, and Klaus Hammerschmidt characters 
(http://www.yogiyorgesson.com/records.html for discography and digital 
samples.  Main page includes biography, pictures, and trivia as well)

Jock Blaney of 2nu was the last person I can remember that did 
something novelty in recent years, although he disappeared about as 
fast as he came in the very early 90s.  "This is Ponderous," "Spaz 
Attack" and "Two Outta Three" were big hits for a little while, at 
least here in the Northwest; Blaney was a radio announcer in Washington 
and OK95 in Kennewick did a lot of promotion for his first album.  It 
was different as Blaney didn't sing but told stories to music.  The odd 
songs aforementioned worked; but others that tried to be more.. 
musical.. flopped, especially his cover of "Spill the Wine."  Again, no 
singing.  Eventually, Blaney recycled part of the lyrics to "Two Outta 
Three" into a spa commercial.

So is the music business just taking itself waaaayyy too seriously?  
Most of these songs are hard to find outside of the Rhino label, which 
does oldies tunes as well as everything Dr. Demento.