Anna Russell Sings…Again? (now compiled with other stuff (and out of order on) “The Anna Russell Album?”) is arguably the (intentionally) funniest 40 minutes of vinyl ever recorded. (I put the “intentionally” in there, so as to leave the question of Billy Joel’s post-Christie Brinkly work aside)
Ms. Russell is an older woman who sounds somewhat like Miss Hathaway from The Beverly Hillbillies. This album has a couple of generally ignored masterpieces: The first is her “How to Do Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta”, and the other!
"An Analysis of the Ring of the Neibulungen(sp) The first time I heard it, I laughed so hard that my sides literally ached. I had to stop the album several times so I could breath. The upshot is that she explains Wagner’s Ring Cycle in terms that common folk can understand. She describes the Rhine Maidens as “a sort of aquatic Andrew Sisters”. Siegfreid is “very strong and very handsome: a regular ‘Little Abner’ type”.
Trust me: it’s far better than my description makes it sound.
I’d also recommend Andy Griffith’s comedy album (don’t remember the title). Yes, the treacly, cuddly Andy Griffith from Mayberry had an album way back when that had some good routines and one great one: “What it was, was Football” (about a hick/hillbilly who ends up at a football game and provides running commentary.)
Bob Newhart’s second album (The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back) is classic Newhart. Newhart does his classic telephone routine several times, the best of which is: "What would happen if Abe Lincoln had handlers?
“No Abe: DON’T change it to 87 years. Four Score and Seven tests better. Whaddaya mean you shaved off the beard?!”
I would nominate several of the Firesign Theatre’s albums, particularly “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once, When You’re Not Anywhere At All” including the incomparable “Antelope Freeway” segment featuring Ralph Sport Sport Motors here in the lovely city of Emphasema. As the good folks at allmusic say:
Beat me to Firesign Theater. Either “How Can You be Two Places at Once” or “Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers.” Their comedy was so dense that you can listen again and again and still find new jokes.
Newhart’s “Button Down Mind” is a classic.
Chris Rush “First Rush.” Rush had a unique style – a setup and four or five punch lines in a row. I never laughed more than listening to this.
Albert Brooks “Comedy Minus One.” One side is a very funny monologue about his opening for Richie Havens. The second lets you be the comedian.
Well, I’ll nominate almost any of Cosby’s old stuff, “Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow…Right!,” “To Russell My Brother Whom I Slept With,” and “Why is There Air?” come to mind immediately.
Craig Shoemaker’s “The Lovemaster” is pretty good.
Don’t know if it was ever an album, but Dennis Miller’s video “Mr. Miller Goes to Washington” is a riot.
I’ll chime in on Bob Newharts’ (although I can ‘do’ most of the ‘why is there air’ routine still)
On another take, are the Rhino classic “Golden Throat” series (of unintentionally funny) gigs. Remembering the 70’s where every second banana on every almost succesful tv show cut a record, in addition to the first banana on some, and rejects from the Love Boat on others. So you have Sebastian Cabot singing Bob Dylan, Shatner’s Lucy. Inthesky. With Diamonds, Leonard Nimoy’s timeless classic *Proud Mary * ('big wheel keep on turning_), Mae West singing *Twist & Shout *, and others too painful to be remembered.
I’ve got the Anna Russell (“You know, I’m not making this up”), both of Bob Newhart’s Buttoned-Down Mind albums, and a fond memory of a Bill Cosby album titled 200 M.P.H. (“Oh, WOW!”), and they are all uproariously funny.
Others from my favorites:
Eddie Murphy’s first album. “Say, man, somebody stole yo’ batt-ry!”
Richard Pryor’s “Here and Now,” his first one after the fire. “What that? Richard Pryor runnin’ down the street!”
Steve Martin’s “Comedy is Not Pretty,” if only for “Cruel Shoes.”
Andrew “Dice” Clay’s first album.
John “Mighty Mouth” Moschitta’s (sp?) 10 Classics in 10 Minutes. “… and dies.”
These are all good choices, but we have to pick just one? Well, there are a lot of contenders. Cosby’s stuff is great and anything by George Carlin will be on my list of desert island discs, but my absolute favorites are Bob and Ray and Stan Freberg.
Freberg’s “History of the United States of America” is hilarious. If you’ve never heard his “Best Of” album you owe it to yourself to pick it up. His sensibilities are as off-kilter as mine and although by now I can recite most of the bits on both of those albums from memory I still laugh like a banshee whenever I listen to them.
Bob and Ray are one of the greatest comedy teams ever. While they’re not so much off-center as just goofy, their radio-show style routines such as “Elmer W. Litzinger, Spy” sponsored by the likes of “Monongahela Metals Corporation, the foundry that casts its steel ingots with the housewife in mind” are incredible. Both of these guys are incredibly talented and their humor is off the chart.
When I drove from Harrisburg to New Orleans last year I took about a dozen comedy albums with me to pass the time when I got sick of music. While I enjoyed them all, Stan, Bob, and Ray where the only guys whose humor made me laugh hard enough to almost lose control of the car.
Steve Martin’s Let’s Get Small (IIRC) - I don’t recall the title exactly, but I still repeat bits of it every now and then. “…bought a fur-lined sink.” “I have four dollars, guess I’ll throw it in the street. What? I can come in here for four dollars? Okay. … What happens?”
There was a Cheech and Chong album that I listened to as a young’n. Scandalous for us at the time - I don’t know where we got a copy, but we hoarded it like the Ark of the Covenant. “Bob… What is Your Name?”
I grew up listening to my mom’s collection of Bill Cosby albums, I think she has all of 'em. My favorite is 200M.P.H. and I still think of “dumbguy, dumbguy, dumbguy” when it’s raining and I see someone without their wipers going. Mom also had some Alan Sherman albums, my favorite of those was My Son the Nut. A couple of years ago, I found Alan Sherman CDs, I bought My Son the Greatest for Angie.
I’ve got to say that while these two albums are wonderful, Lehrer’s masterpiece has gotta be “That Was the Year That Was”, if only for “The Vatican Rag” and the magnificent: “National Brotherhood Week”:
Oh the white folks hate the black folks
nd the black folks hate the white folks
and the Hindus hate the Moslems
and everybody hates the Jews!
But during National Brotherhood Week
National Brotherhood Week
Lena Horne and Sherriff Clarke(?)
are dancing cheek-to-cheek
It’s fun to shake the hand
of someone you can’t stand…etc
Sorry, my bad. Bill Cosby “Himself” doesn’t have Noah. (Riiiight!) However, it has these routines
“Natural Child Birth” – “Natural Child Birth means that no drugs will be administered to the mother during the birth. The father can have all he wants.”
“Brain Damage”, “Kill the Boy” and “Same Thing Happens Every Night” are great routines about the family dynamics in the “Cosby” household.
“Chocolate Cake for Breakfast” is one of the best. “Eggs, Milk, Wheat! are all in the Chocolate Cake!”
I’d give another nod to the Firesign Theatre, but for my money their best album in terms of overall theme and humor was “I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus.” Most people don’t catch on that it’s pretty much a parody of Disneyland.
The older George Carlin stuff was side-splitting when I listened to them in my tender years: “AM/FM” and “Occupation: Foole” in particular.
The Bill Cosby albums as well: “Wonderfulness,” and “To Russell, My Brother Whom I Slept With.”
Martin Mull’s Perfect/Near Perfect has to be his best album. The others are very uneven, but P/NP is definitely his best work.
My favorite of the Firesign Theater’s has to be “How Can You Be,” although their version of Shakespeare on “Not Insane” would be right up there if the sound wasn’t so crappy (it was taped from a live performance). Sad to say that I’ve listened to some of their stuff since, and they’ve really gone downhill.
Then there’s Tom Lehrer, one of mankind’s greatest losses to satire . . .
First you get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosary
Bow your head with great respect and
Genuflect!
Genuflect!
Genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen
When in Rome do like the Romans
Ave Maria!
Gee it’s good to see ya
Gettin’ radical
Gettin’ estatical
Doin’ the Vatican Rag!
(Ah, and there’s “Alma” with Gustav and Mahler and Franz! My first introduction to Bauhaus and contemporary classical music at age 9. . . )
I can’t believe no one has mentioned George Carlin!!! The 7 Words You Can’t Say on Radio or TV–although that might not be the name of the album itself. All his routines, especially from the 70’s crack me up every time I hear them. When he talks about the differences between baseball and football, I laugh so hard that milk comes out my nose (assuming I’m drinking milk at the time, of course). in fact, i have learned not to try to eat or drink anything if I’m listening to him. i have got to get his albums.
This in no way diminishes my admiration for Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, and Tom Leher, they too are comedy gods. And i saw a young woman on Comedy Central the other night–based on what I saw, I’d pay to see her live, and I’d buy a CD, if i ever remember her name.
Cosby’s stuff is great and anything by George Carlin will be on my list of desert island discs, but my absolute favorites are Bob and Ray and Stan Freberg.