# Is “Yakety Sax” inherently funny, or are we just conditioned into considering it funny by Benny Hill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 7, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942 "2020-11-07T00:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/41 "2020-11-09T17:55:31Z")
Wait, are you saying that 2012 wasn’t a comedy already? ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/42 "2020-11-09T18:08:25Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “Jovial, wacky energy” is a good way to put it. There’s a reason Benny Hill chose that piece of music and not some other. But I don’t know if we’d think of it as inherently funny if it hadn’t been used the way it has by Benny Hill and others. So I think it’s at least partly right that we have been conditioned to consider it funny. Benny Hill has ruined “Yakety Sax” in much the same way that Monty Python ruined Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March.” This is my view after watching the movie edits video. The music absolutely contributed to the funniness but I think it was that in conjunction with the editing and visual speedups. But I could also imagine the music in a more traditional dance scene, where it was jovial and fun and high energy but not necessarily funny. That said, it’s been used in the humorous context so long now that even hearing it in an otherwise serious but fun scene would be distracting in a “waiting for the other shoe to drop” kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/43 "2020-11-09T19:41:01Z")
I love the guy in the suit at the :31 sec mark. He nonchalantly shuts the glass door behind him,…like it was going to stop that car. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/JyLZYmtFtWA/hqdefault.jpg "benny hill russian driver airport") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyLZYmtFtWA) ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/44 "2020-11-09T21:27:22Z")
IMHO the funniest part of the song is the intro note getting longer. Like it’s saying “Hooonk, yes we’re going around again.” It’s the whole repetition into absurdity. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/45 "2020-11-09T21:45:14Z")
Considering the (well-deserved?) reputation of Russian law enforcement, from individual police officers to jails to courts, I have to imagine all the amazing vids we see of amazing Russian anti-driving must end pretty badly for the star of the show. Doesn’t stop me from watching them though. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/46 "2020-11-10T01:05:29Z")
> [@](#): > > [Is “Yakety Sax” inherently funny, or are we just conditioned into considering it funny by Benny Hill?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942) Benny Hill has never conditioned me to anything. I had no idea they’d used that music as their theme music. I know the music though and I associate it with circuses and sideshow barkers. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/47 "2020-11-10T02:27:17Z")
Thinking about it. There are few skits in _The Benny Hill Show_ I found actually funny. Certainly never laugh out loud, more a smile or a light twitter. I watched it mainly for the girls. And the first time I saw the Keystone Kops ending I found it annoying that he used such an old comedic gag with boring visuals, but an upbeat humous song. But again, I kept watching for the scantily clad girls! 😄 ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/48 "2020-11-10T15:01:20Z")
Absolutely spectacular. 1. I noticed a couple guys trying to run the llamas down along the street. WTF? Usain Bolt couldn’t run a llama down a dead sprint and here’s some overweight guy chasing it. Brilliant. It makes you appreciate that humans certainly did not succeed as a species because of our physical abilities. 2. Re: the Russian airport: in spite of the music and my laughter, it did cross my mind that it was like a real life (slow motion) James Bond or Jason Bourne movie. More more more!!! 👍 👍 ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/49 "2020-11-10T15:55:21Z")
1. No one even had ropes at first. 2. Speaking of Bond… These aren’t all winners, but it’s worth watching for the Indiana Jones and Bond clips. The Forrest Gump clip pales in comparison to the one in Post #4. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/BSK2V-a7pg8/hqdefault.jpg "Scenes that should have Yakety Sax") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSK2V-a7pg8) ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/50 "2020-11-10T16:44:38Z")
I am not a musician, or a music major (although my Dad was), or a musicologist, so I probably know only just enough to be dangerous. No doubt someone here who is more knowledgeable about music will be able to amplify, clarify, modify, or nullify my comments. The question of whether any piece of music is “inherently” funny, or sad, or evocative of any other particular emotion can be answered in a couple of ways. From a purely objective, alien’s-eye view, one could say that the answer is no, music is just a non-random series of sounds with no “inherent” meaning. But that is hardly a useful statement. If music had no meaning, humans wouldn’t spend so much time creating and enjoying it. So music has meaning, and like all art, it has both meanings intended by the artist, and those brought to it by each listener. There are conventions in all forms of music that have certain connotations. For instance, to make a very broad generalization, in Western music, minor keys tend to evoke feelings of sadness. Other cultures have other musical conventions. Is music in minor keys “inherently” sad, or is that merely how we have been conditioned? There may have been some scientific research on this question, but for our purposes, it probably doesn’t matter. The conventions exist, and have their effect on those familiar with them. What musical conventions does “Yakety Sax” use, and are they generally associated with humor? I can think of at least four that are relevant: First, it is fast-paced: written in 2/4 time, [it is mostly eighth and sixteenth notes](https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0163264). Not all quick music is perceived as “funny,” but most slow music is perceived as somber, serious, or sad. Second (and here I’ll admit to being on somewhat more shaky ground, musicologically), it strikes me as being more [chromatic](https://www.britannica.com/art/chromaticism) than most “serious” (in mood, that is) music, by which I mean a lot of the melody moves up and down between adjacent half-steps on the scale. I have a gut feeling that this often has a less serious musical connotation. Or at the very least, that most “serious” music does _not_ do this. Third, as mentioned above, Randolf cribbed several bars from “Entrance of the Gladiators,” which, through its long association with the circus and clowns years before he wrote “Yakety Sax,” definitely evokes a non-serious mood. As does the mere fact of blatantly lifting a familiar theme and dropping it off-handedly into another piece. This is one of the techniques that Peter Schickele uses to make P.D.Q. Bach’s music funny. His best example of this is probably [“Eine Kleine Nichtmusik”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68_j6yU4Whg): it’s a straight performance of the first movement of Mozart’s famous “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” overlaid with musically similar snippets from other well-known works. You don’t have to be a music major to find this 12-minute piece hysterically funny. (For non-German speakers, by changing the “A” in “nacht” to an “I”, Schickele changed the meaning of the title from “A Little Night Music” to “A Little Non-Music.”) So my answer to the OP is, yes, “Yakety Sax” is inherently funny, or at least light-hearted, and would have been if Benny Hill had never heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/51 "2020-11-10T20:22:09Z")
I recall Jean Shepherd doing a bit about Boots Randolph on his radio show. This was in the 70s, a cultural moment when country music was getting a serious reappraisal as the True Voice of the working man. Jean insisted that in fact, if you went to Nashville people didn’t care much about Johnny Cash but would pack the clubs to see Boots. True story, or just an excuse for Jean to play his kazoo along with “Yakety Sax”? ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/52 "2020-11-10T20:32:55Z")
> [@saucywench](#): > > The Forrest Gump clip pales in comparison to the one in Post #4. But still made me smile!! More, please! ---
**Author:** ![urbanredneck2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/5f8ce5/32.png) [@urbanredneck2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urbanredneck2)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/53 "2020-11-10T20:57:57Z")
Why not? The goal of most music or any form of art is to cause an emotional response to the audience. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/54 "2020-11-10T22:01:49Z")
If you could find “Yakety Sax” being referred to as a Novelty record before Benny Hill got a hold of it, that would conclusively confirm that it was already considered (or, at least, intended to be) funny. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/55 "2020-11-10T22:21:26Z")
Just an excuse for the kazoo. But remember, the early 70s was the time Johnny Cash got to #1 on the country charts and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with _A Boy Named Sue._ Boots Randolph was also a highly respected session player in Nashville - the kind of musician other musicians want to see. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/56 "2020-11-10T23:20:29Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > A Boy Named Sue. Written, BTW, by Jean Shepherd’s good friend Shel Silverstein, and based on Shepherd’s experience as a man with a woman’s name. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/57 "2020-11-11T01:29:00Z")
A Boy Named Sue was the second 45 I ever bought. Ring of Fire is on the b-side. I still have it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lTdcfADyQ7Q/hqdefault.jpg "Louisville Car Chase 6/29 + Benny Hill") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTdcfADyQ7Q) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/58 "2020-11-11T04:52:15Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > based on Shepherd’s experience as a man with a woman’s name. And another named “Sue”. > **[DAVID CARROLL: Yes, there really was a boy named Sue](https://www.albanyherald.com/opinion/david-carroll-yes-there-really-was-a-boy-named-sue/article_b4ab5fa4-fa4c-11e9-8bf4-fbe76c3b5f69.html)** > > Well my daddy left home when I was 3, and he didn’t leave much to Ma and me, except this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze. Now I ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/59 "2020-11-11T07:57:12Z")
I’ve never seen Benny Hill, and I think Yakety Sax in the traditional tempo is inherently funny as hell. So, that’s one data point. ETA: I’m 38 years old. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942/60 "2020-11-11T12:50:48Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Is music in minor keys “inherently” sad, or is that merely how we have been conditioned? Is the following [simple pop] tune sad? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XaCrQL_8eMY/hqdefault.jpg "Lizzo - Juice (Official Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCrQL_8eMY) Though there is a lot of musical theory about how some chords sound more stable, others more dissonant and require certain resolutions, etc., and any competent composer will exploit that. There was an interesting discussion somewhere on these boards about how various keys and modes had different tone colours and were folklorically associated with different emotions, not always consistently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yakety-sax-inherently-funny-or-are-we-just-conditioned-into-considering-it-funny-by-benny-hill/924942.md?page=4)