Jack Black and Kyle Gass are funny boys. The D have triumphantly balanced bonerbased banter between the screen and stage for nearly three decades, from their selftitled HBO series and The Pick Of Destiny feature film to numerous albums of giggle-inducing ditties.
Say what you like about comedy rock: Tenacious D are the daddies. And it got us thinking. What are the funniest songs? Does something have to be an out-and-out deliberate ‘comedy’ song to split sides, or can it be lyrically funny, musically funny, unintentionally funny, or just so batshit that there’s no other way to describe it? So, we put it to JB and KG. Tell us. Enlighten us. What are the funniest songs in the world, and why?
They rattled through an admirable shortlist, featuring The Who, Descendents, Weezer and the completely fucking batty The Upper Crust, who dress like aristocratic fops. But, only 10 could make the cut. So here we are, stranded in a postapocalypto printed wasteland of Tenacious D’s own making, with these tunes for company. Jables, Kage, what do you have to say for yourselves?
Electric Six - Gay Bar
Jack: “It’s a barn-burner. There’s just something about the ‘gay bar’ and the ‘nuclear war’ and the juxtaposition of these wild lyrics that makes you laugh. And it just makes you fucking rock.”
Kyle: “You know when they ask you which song you wish you’d written? There it is.”
JB: “[Singing Gay Bar’s riff] It might be a little bit of Nirvana, though. Come As You Are, but faster. 'Come as you are… at the gay bar!' That might be a great mash-up. Let’s do it!”
Andrew W.K. - Party Hard
Jack: “He’s just a fuckin’ rocker who gets the crowd pumping and amped up. It’s a great song to pump up the party, and I don’t know why it makes me laugh. Kyle, do you agree that Andrew W.K. is funny on that song?”
Kyle: “Yeah, I like the simplicity and the message.”
JB: “He’s just singing about… partying. Why is that funny? It just is.”
KG: “Because that’s all it is. It’s minimalist! He played Festival Supreme, our festival [in California], and his warm-up was incredible.”
JB: “But his thing is, he makes partying a priority. He does it with pride and he does it with urgency, and that’s fuckin’ hilarious.”
AC/DC - Big Balls
Jack: “That’s just a fuckin’ funny song because it’s about dancing balls, like Cinderella. But obviously he’s talking about his testicles. And its fuckin’ hilarious. Who does that?! AC/DC – Bon Scott AC/DC, that’s who.”
Disturbed - Down With The Sickness
Jack: “Ha! How did that make it into the list?”
Kyle: “That must have been one of mine. I think it’s the ‘Wah-ah-ah-ah!’”
JB: “‘WAH-AH-AH-AH!’” KG: “Yeah, the Billy Joel ‘ack’. ‘Cadillac-ack-ack’.” JB: “That song is on there because we think it’s funny, even though clearly it’s not supposed to be funny. But a lot of times, the thing that’s not supposed to be funny is the funniest. For instance, have you ever seen the movie The Room [2003 cult film directed by Tommy Wiseau]? It’s probably the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. Down With The Sickness is The Room of rock.”
The Darkness - Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Jack: “Come on. That’s pretty obvious. You’ve got a song called Get Your Hands Off My Woman – motherfucker? It’s just hilarious, and it’s also one of the most impressive feats of falsetto in the history of rock. He’s up there high, am I right, Kyle? In the singing community, it’s always like, ‘Oh, the gold standard’s if you can hit a high C above D’, or whatever the fuck it is. I know he’s up there! He’s up there with those opera singers on that song.”
Kyle: “And he’s singing about just possessive, jealous fanaticism. His love is so intense that he becomes territorial. I don’t know. Maybe you’d get cancelled for that song if you put it out now. But let me tell you what – that song is a SCORCHER.”
Black Sabbath - The Wizard
Jack: “I love this fuckin’ early Black Sabbath song. Ozzy’s talking about a fuckin’ wizard. ‘Without warning! The wizard walks by!’ Imagine the music video – it would be dumb. A fuckin’ guy in a robe, dressed like a wizard, just walking by really fast. ‘Never talking! Just keeps walking! Spreading his magic!’ I want that music video. I wanna be that wizard, by the way.”
Kyle: [Starts playing The Wizard on his phone.]
JB: “Let’s shoot it! That’s a music video that’ll collapse the internet. Fuckin’ hilarious, and it came at a time when music videos didn’t exist yet. But I guarantee you, if there had been a video, it would have been hilarious.”
The Lonely Island - Jizz In My Pants
Jack: “OK. Look. Talking about songs we wish we wrote? The Lonely Island’s written a handful that I wish we’d fuckin’ written, and that’s one of ’em! It doesn’t really rock. What is that genre they’re making fun of? Pet Shop Boys? ‘East End boys and West End girls!’ ‘And I jizz! In! My pants!’ They’re singing about a guy who prematurely ejaculates – it’s a real problem. There’s something so funny and vulnerable about that song that makes me laugh in a very unexpected way. Kyle, why does it make me laugh so hard?”
Kyle: “I thought it was a little on the nose…”
JB: “I remember the first time I made love – I didn’t even get my pants off, I was so excited.”
KG: “It’s relatable.”
JB: “And I think they captured that youthful enthusiasm and lack of control. And nobody sings about that. So they’re geniuses, and I thank them for going there.”
Wet Leg - Chaise Lounge
Kyle: “How did we not write that?”
Jack: “We were never gonna write that one!”
KG: “It was one of those that reminded me of the first time I saw Nirvana. It sounded so fresh in my ear-pussy.”
JB: “It’s all so simple, yet so profound, so strong. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next for this artist. I want to go to that concert. It’s exciting, but why’s it funny, Kyle?”
KG: “Uh… they’re singing about a chaise longue? It’s the idleness of it. The low priority. Ooh, look. I got my New Yorker! So excited.” [Starts to unwrap his new issue of The New Yorker.]
JB: “Kyle, please. It’s a distraction. Put that away. But isn’t it also about a girl going to college, and it’s like a new world? She’s exploring it, and there’s sex, and there’s these things, and she’s becoming herself, and it’s her rite of passage. And for some reason, it’s about a… chaise loooooongue. But it’s really not about the chaise longue.” [It’s actually about female friendship, watching 2000s teen movies and singer Rhian Teasdale’s parents steering her towards a more stable career! – Wet Leg Ed].
KG: “I think it’s a metaphor.”
JB: “And that verse, just sort of repeating.”
KG: “‘Is your muffin buttered?’”
JB: “Dude, yeah. She’s comin’ out with some double entendres that are just very funny and, dare I say, sexy.”
Nirvana - Tourette's
Jack: “I really love Tourette's by Nirvana, mainly because I can’t make out one fuckin’ word Kurt’s saying. I don’t know what he’s singing at all, yet the jam is fuckin’ undeniable. It rocks as hard as anything you can fuckin’ think of, and you can’t understand one word – it shows how unnecessary words are. Like, how can I love this song so much and not even know what it’s about and what’s being said? Because it goes deeper than words, deeper than language. And someone just blurting out weird sounds that I can’t understand? There is something inherently funny about that. Kyle, play me a little Tourette’s, please.”
Kyle: [Plays Tourette’s on his phone] “…Kinda weird.”
Spinal Top - Big Bottom
Kyle: “We played with the Tap! [During a charity gig in 2001 at West Hollywood’s House Of Blues].”
Jack: “We played that song with the Tap! I think there were 13 bass players on stage.”
KG: “Mine was unplugged. I could never get the riff…”
JB: “The thing about that song is it’s about big butts. And they cannot lie. I don’t know whose came out first. What’s the guy’s name?”
KG: “Sir Mix-A-Lot. So Spinal Tap [were first], 1984. But they didn’t come up with ‘Put ’em on the glaaaaass!’”
JB: “Nicki Minaj used Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s jam when she did her song: ‘My anaconda don’t! Want! None! Unless you got buns, hun!’ What’s the best lyric in Big Bottom, Kyle?”
KG: “‘I love to sink her with my pink torpedo.’”
JB: “‘I saw her on Monday, t’was my lucky bun day, you know what I mean.’ C’mon. Why Big Bottom? It’s quite possibly the greatest comedy rock song of all time.”
