What are some favorite comedy albums? I'd like to get George Carlin's box set of lots of his earlier stuff. Its name escapes me for the moment. I also like Bill Cosby's Noah: Right! from his Bill Cosby : Is A Very Funny Fellow Right? album. It's a classic.
Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Redd Foxx, Lenny Bruce, Groucho Marx, Ray Stevens, Monty Python, Allan Sherman, Spike Jones...the list goes on. I've only heard a couple comedy albums and don't own any. The closest I've come to it is 3 2CD Dr. Demento sets. At least that is if or when I get Carlin's box set
Stan Freeberg - "The United States Of America" (parts 1 and 2)
A Place For My Stuff! - George Carlin
Wanted - Richard Pryor
An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer
the most famous tune from that album:
Pollution
When you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware,
Don't drink the water and don't breath the air!
More from that album:
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
So some Sunday you're free why don't you come out with me
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park
And maybe we'll do in a squirrel or two
While we poison the pigeons in the park...
or
The Elements
(To the tune of "I am the very model of a modern major general)
There's antimony arsenic aluminum selenium
and hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium...
Base 8 is just like Base 10... If you're missing two fingers!
New Math
Hooray for New Math! New-ew-ew Math!
It won't do you a bit of good to review math!
It's so simple!
So very simple!
That only a child can do it!
Come back tomorrow night, we're going to do... fractions!
Not sure which album it's on, but I always loved Bill Cosby's "The Dentist." One of my elementary school teachers used to play the whole album for us on rainy days.
Does anybody know the story by Emo Phillips (I think) about the two Baptists who meet on the side of a cliff and discuss their religious beliefs? They agree on a whole bunch of points, and when they find they disagree on some miniscule detail, one of them screams, "Die, heretic!" and shoves the other guy off the side of the cliff. I'm pretty sure I heard that on Dr. Demento, and I'd like to get the album someday, if there is one.
I used to have an album by Eddie Murphy that I thought was funny as a high school student. It had the goofy song "Boogie in Your Butt" on it. I haven't heard it in about 17 years, so I'm not sure of the lyrics, but it goes something like:
Put a tin CAN in your butt
Put a little tiny MAN in your butt
Put a TREE in your butt
Baby, put ME in your butt.
Or something like that. Ad infinitum.
I remember in high school we used to listen to the stereo/radio in the cafeteria, which I suppose was played from the teacher's lounge, and someone snuck in a Steve Martin record in which he tells a story of going to a woman's place (I guess after a first date) and she shows him her...um... and then the audience laughs, and then he chides them for misunderstanding him, and then he tells the very funny, raunchy punchline.
If you don't know what I'm talking about cuz that's too vague then you've never heard the joke to begin with and I won't go any further what it's about cuz some may be offended by it but I think it's funny as hell.
More from "An Evening Wasted":
One of my favorite tunes is Clementine where Tom tries to imagine what the song would be like if it wasn't written by "the people" and instead been written by the likes of Cole Porter, Any Classical Composer, Any Beatnik, and Gilbert & Sullivan. Here's the "beatnik" verse:
Drove those ducklings to the water ... yeah rock, doodle-ee-doo-doo, ah-ahhh
Every morning like 9 a.m. ... doo-doot, doo-doot, doo-doodle-ee-aahhh
Got hung up on a splinter, got hung up on a splinter ... klugle-mah ... hoot-hoot
Fell into the foaming brine.
Dig that crazy Clementine, MAN!!
Juli! You found us!
Yeah, I think Emo put out an album. It may be out of print now, though.
I forgot about Eddie Murphy's two comedian albums. Those are classic! "You want me to what in my butt?" Yeah, I remember "Boogie In Your Butt". My favorite was his parody of the Donna Summer/Barbra Streisand song, "Enough Is Enough". Eddie had Buckwheat and Richard Simmons singing it.
I know what Steve Martin bit you're talking about Mark. "I was talking about her cat. Boy you people are sick." Of course Steve's biggest hit was "King Tut". Did you know that that was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band backing him on that song?
More Clementine
O Clementino-si! O Clementino-si! O Clementine! O Clementine! O Clementine!
O Cle-e-e-e-mentine!
O Cle-e-e-e-mentine!
O Cle-e-e-e-mentine!
(use Italian pronunciation}
Which album is Lobachevski on?
Plaigarize!
Let no one else's work evade your eyes!
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plaigarize, plaigarize, plaigarize!
Only please be careful to always call it "research".
or
One man deserves the credit
One man deserves the blame
And Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevski is his name!
Any Allen Sherman fans out there?
Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda ...
Here I yam at Camp Granada.
Camp is very entertaining,
And I think we'll have some fun if it stops raining.
All the guys here hate the waiters,
And the lake has alligators.
You remember Jeffrey Hardy?
They're about to organize a searching party.
I know a man,
His name is Lang,
And he has a neon sign.
And Mr. Lang is very old,
So they call it "Old Lang's Sign"
Oi, my Zelda ... my Zelda ...
My Zelda she took da money and ran with the tailor!
My Zelda, she found her big romance
When I broke the zipper in my pants!
My Zelda she took da money and ran with the tailor!
************************************************
I gave my love a chicken, it had no bone.
I gave my love a cherry without the stone.
I gave my love a baby, and then you'll see,
My love got very angry and she said to me,
"I didn't mind the chicken without the bone.
I didn't mind the cherry witout the stone.
But when you give a baby, there's just one thing,
You ought to give AT LEAST an engagement ring!"
The Emo Philips album referenced a few messages above was titled "E=MO squared" and was released back in the 80s (I think). Might I also quickly recommend "I Have a Pony" by Steven Wright, released at about the same time.
My grandfather's watch was the best ever made
By the Timex company.
It was just like the one John Cameron Swayze displayed
Last night on the old TV.
Oh it works under water so perfectly
And it still makes a ticking sound.
Which my grandfather tried only this afternoon
And that's how the old man drowned!
Or, this one...
Harvey and Sheila!
Harvey and Sheila!
Harvey and Sheila!
Oh! The day they met!
Harvey and Sheila!
Harvey and Sheila!
Harvey and Sheila!
No one will forget.
Harvey's a CPA.
He works for IBM.
He went to MIT, got his PhD!
Sheila's a girl I know
Happy BT&O (?)
She worked the PBX
And made out the checks...
And, who can forget the classic:
If you go to the delicatessen store,
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the liverwurst!
I repeat what I just said before,
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the li-ver-wurst!
Oh eat the corned beef if you must,
The pickled herring you can trust,
And the lox puts you in orbit A-OK (A-OK!)
But that big hunk of liverwurst
Has been there since October First
And today is the 23rd of May!
So when you go to the delicatssen store,
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the liverwurst!
It'll make your insides awful sore!
Don't buy the liverwurst!
Don't buy the li-ver-wurst!
When I was a kid, I loved playing my dad's comedy records. The ones I remember most fondly are the two Bob Newhart "Button-Down Mind" albums. Also, a Smothers Brothers album. I played these over and over again until the grooves were worn. I could recite all the routines by heart and used to imagine I was Bob Newhart or Dickie Smothers (Dickie was the funny one, Tommy mostly played straight man), getting gales of laughter from an appreciative audience.
Steve's biggest hit was "King Tut". Did you know that that was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band backing him on that song?
No. Did they really? Cool. Thanks for the info. Yeah, you got the joke right. I'm glad someone did, but then I figured at least one person would.
I Have a Pony by Steven Wright is hysterical. I've got it on tape. Unfortunately, it has also been deleted and is no longer available.
I believe The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart is available on disc, though.
I've got a best of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band disc. The liner notes provided that bit of info on "King Tut".
Well when he was a young man,
He never thought he'd see
People linin' up
To see the boy king
King Tut!
[deleted]
Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia
Born in Arizona -- got a condo made of stone-a!
King Tut!
He coulda won a Grammy -
Buried in his Jammies.
King Tut!
The Emo Philips album referenced a few messages above was titled "E=MO squared" and was released back in the 80s (I think). Might I also quickly recommend "I Have a Pony" by Steven Wright, released at about the same time.
Thanks, Desmond. Now I remember! I also loooove Steven Wright. A few classics (not exact quotes):
I spilled spot remover on my dog, and now he's gone.
I have a life-size map of the world. The scale says, "1 mile = 1 mile."
The other day I cooked instant soup in the microwave and I went back in time.
I love Wright's deadpan deliveries of his jokes. It's his trademark, of course. He used to seldom crack a smile as he told his jokes but lately he's done so more often.
Reality - What a Concept! -- Robin Williams.
His improv of Hamlet meets 3-Mile Island is brilliant.
Is that the one with "Elmer Fudd Sings Bruce Springsteen"?
No. That was the next tour (the one with "Mr. Happy!") -- saw it live, and don't remember the tour name.
"You-we dwivin' in my caw...
Wistenin to the wadio..."
Okay. At the Met, or something. Are his albums even available anymore? Oh, was that Joke 'Em If They Can't Take a F*ck or am I thinking of something else?
New question: What was the best Monty Python album?
I've only heard "Monty Pytihon Sings", which was released for their 20th Anniversary (and dedicated to Graham Chapman), so I'll go for that. But there are others...
Way back when I remember seeing a promo on HBO for Williams live at the Met program and it promised his Elmer Fudd routine but it was never shown! I was so pissed cuz I'd seen the entire program, in anticipation of it.
BTW, I used to live in South Lake Tahoe and saw many celebs at work and one day, when I lived on the Nevada side, I was walking towards the California side, passing the golf course there, and who should come jogging by me but Robin Williams himself. Now, he either just looked tired or had a please-don't-stop-me-for-an-autograph look on his face, I wasn't sure, so I just smiled at him and watched him jog on by.
I liked the "Free Album with Matching Tie and Handkerchief" (this was a 3-sided album).
It had The Argument Clinic, the Dead Bishop, the Cheese Shop, and of course, The Background to History.
The only one I have is Live at City Center. It's got all the classics as well. It's great to use as filler material on mix discs in between songs!
I saw Python live at City Center in April, 1976. Great show. I'll take the albatross.
I adore Bob Newhart's Button-Down Mind routines, especially Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue and The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company.
(His 'telephone' gimmick, incidentally, was later revived in miniature for Cantel Cellular phones: "Hello, Fine Jewellers? I'm calling from Chez Pierre...it's my anniversary...Well, thanks, I just found out myself...")
Also Bill Cosby's Noah routines (God: "NOAH!" Cosby: "Whaaaat?") and the Himself album (most of which I guess ended up on television, but it sounds funnier and edgier live).