Lou, when you have to explain humor, it’s no longer funny. Kelly was a genius for his brilliant art work through the cartoon media, and his biting political satire. Satirizing Christmas Carols was not done in the 40s and 50s, he was a groundbreaker. And, he’s not just using nonsense words, he’s using real words (mostly) – at least in the first version: Walla Walla, Wash(ington) is a real city, as is Kalamazoo. “Nora’s freezing on the trolley” is scarcely gibberish. The song borders on the edge of making sense, like Lewis Carroll’s great parodies.
Kelly was also satirizing people who don’t know the words to a song but think they do, or sing anyway – the reason there are so many versions of “Deck us all” is that some character, like the hound dog Beauregard, would interrupt to say, “You’re singing it wrong,” and give us “Bark us all bow-wows of of folly.” There’ve been several threads here about “misheard” song lyrics.
If you don’t think it’s funny, then you don’t. I never understood the one about soap and radio, for instance.
Kelly also did several versions of “Twelve Days of Crispness,” of which my favorite verses were “three wench friends” and the concluding verse, “and a parsnip in a psaltry.”