Yesterday Once More

26 Apr 2016

Humour

Hi Listeners,

This week we are going to ‘tickle your fancy’ and try to make you laugh or at least, smile. Over the years there have been many humorous songs which have proven to be popular with radio listeners. So this week we are going to analyse what makes a song funny. To start off we will examine the question is laughter infectious? ‘The Okey Laughing Record’ produced in the early 20th century was a very popular record for creating amusement. Can it do that today?

Accents (esp Cockney English) always seem to amuse listeners and can explain the popularity of Lonnie Donegan’s big hit ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’ and Mike Sarne and Wendy Richard’s tongue in cheek seduction song ‘Come Outside’. Ray Stevens was an extremely popular American singer/comedian and songs like ‘Ahab The Arab’ were very popular too. Other ‘funnny’ songs were Alan Sherman’s deadpan song about the joys of going to camp in ‘Hello Muddah Hello Faddah’, Rick Dees’ silly ‘Disco Duck’ and big funny man, The Big Bopper with ‘Big Bopper’s Wedding’.

Australian humorous songs reflect a very Aussie sense of humour. The violent overtones in ‘Farewell Aunty Jack’ and the phenomenon of the biggest selling song in Australian music history – Joe Dolce’s ‘Shaddap Your Face’ are represented here. Why on earth was this song so popular? Included too is Johnny Chester’s reggae cover version of the highly amusing narrative in ‘Shame And Scandal’.

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