Barenakedladies have never taken themselves too seriously, so I would include them in this category.
+1 on the punk stuff, Debbie Gibson is Having my Two Headed Love Child, Ah the memories!
I would probably throw in SCOTS (Southern Culture on the Skids), Richard Cheese, and definitely Me First and the Gimme Gimmes!
Great call. I mean those guys are pretty much an all-star project of other bands on Fat Wreck Chords (No Use For A Name, Swingin’ Utters, NOFX, Lagwagon), which is one of the labels that raised the bar for musicianship in punk rock so much in the 90s.
The Fabulous Poodles. I wonder if anyone remembers them … very funny, and great rock, too.
There’s a Canadian pop-punk band called Chixdiggit! who started as a joke – some guys thought it would be a great band name and had t-shirts printed they sold (IIRC) at shows for other local bands. People eventually started asking where the actual band was, so they actually tried the whole “making music” thing and turned out to be pretty good at writing catchy, lighthearted-but-not-QUITE-novelty songs.
Martin Mull. An excellent songwriter, even though all his songs have humorous themes.
Am I right that Robert Cray played the role of the Bass player in that band for the movie filming?
I nominate “Cake”.
Jerry Reed. The guy trained under Chet Atkins. They even played together on some tv specials.
I don’t know why he choose to record a novelty song like When You’re Hot You’re Hot as an early hit. It pretty much defined him as a novelty record guy. Like Jim Stafford and Spiders and Snakes. He made it even worse by switching to acting for awhile. Jerry Reed could have been a really respected musician and songwriter.
I think Jim Stafford is supposed to be really good too. I’m not sure since I’ve rarely seen him perform on tv.
If Jerry Reed is a “joke band”, then so are Ray Stevens and Roger Miller. I don’t think they are. Is Johnny Cash a joke band for recording “Boy Named Sue”?
That “early hit” came after a dozen years in the music business. Prior to his breakout hits “Amos Moses” and “When You’re Hot You’re Hot,” he was making a little pocket change by writing songs and playing guitar for one Elvis Presley.
I’m with you. Ween, Barenaked Ladies, Cake, and They Might Be Giants are most certainly not joke bands.
If a band is going to actually play, joke or no, they’re going to need to be sufficiently talented to do that.
Even if they use sucking as a gimmick, there’s sucking and there’s sucking. You have to be really good at violin to play like Jack Benny.
There’s always The Rock-Bottom Remainders, the rock band made up of authors as a publicity thing. The authors included Dave Barry, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Matt Groening, Robert Fulgham, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. I’ve never heard them play, and have no idea if they were any good, but they really didn’t need to be great*. They told their story in the book Mid-Life Confidential (which I’ve read) and an interactive e-book, Hard Listening, which I haven’t (that title evidently comes from Dave Barry’s name for their genre – “Hard Listening Music”, as opposed to “Easy Listening Music.”)
*For what it’s worth, Al Kooper shepherded them musically for several years, but probably should be held responsible for their performance.
I mentioned that I’ve seen Jerry play note for note with Chet Atkins. There aren’t many country guitarists that could do that. Jerry was one heck of a guitarist.
That’s why I hated seeing him playing Burt Reynold’s sidekick in a string of cheesy movies. I think Jerry could have been right up there with Kristofferson and Willie Nelson as a songwriter/performer. But, he still had one heck of a great career.
Johnny usually did serious stuff. He did have a period in the late 60’s and early 70’s where he was performing lighter and more commercial material. Jackson, Boy Named Sue and a few others. It was a nice change seeing the lighter side of the man in black. He recorded Hurt before he died and that’s the raw, man in pain that he was.
Niggaz with hats from Fear of a Black Hat.
The Folksmen
Mitch and Mickey
The New Main Street Singers
Rudy Baker and the Vegetables
Rocco and the Four Speed Dual Quad Positraction 409s
I guess Elton John has finally gotten past the outrageous outfits and huge glasses that he was known for in the 70’s? Some of those costumes were pretty close to clown outfits.
I love Elton John’s music and he is a tremendous talent. But I couldn’t stand to watch him on tv in the 70’s.
Not entirely original; there was already Difficult Listening Hour (and yes, she is playing her necktie).
The Puppini Sisters reinterpret pop songs in a 1940s close harmony girl group style, but you can’t really call them a joke because they have serious vocal chops: I Will Survive just swings.
The Axis of Awesome: Four Chords and How To Write A Love Song
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: Wuthering Heights and Melange
I think Cake is a joke band, but in a Steven Wright kind of way.