I attribute the loss of novelty content on the radio to the rise of the public Internet and social media. There's simply no need to write and publish novelty or comedy content for radio when chances are, depending on one's sense of humor, you can find something you might consider funny on TikTok, Youtube, or hundreds of other sources. Since the 90's one can find any level of cute, quirky, nerdy, sick, profane, or completely socially unacceptable forms of comedy, all for free with the click of your mouse.
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Do "funny" songs run thin on the radio?
- Thread starter tall_guy1
- Start date
That's a big part of it I'm sure. Alternative stations in the 90s used to play a song called "Detachable Penis" by King Missile. It was juvenile. Some songs by Primus could be considered "novelty". Think of "My Name Is Mud" or "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver".
Comedy or Novelty songs burn out quickly. Hearing the same joke over and over gets tedious fast. Weird Al has managed to make a successful career out of parody songs. He certainly is very good at it...
There seems to be a trend in our market for "guilty pleasure" type shows on various local stations - I've noticed three or four stations starting to run these, normally on a weekend afternoon. The problem is that the songs played aren't really "guilty pleasures" - they are just bad novelty songs. I'm sure it makes someone at the station giggle to play the likes of Mr. Blobby or Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, but as a listener I spin the dial faster than you can say "yellow polka dot bikini".
This is the one that has been getting on my nerves in the general daytime playlist on our Rhythmic CHR station lately:
This is the one that has been getting on my nerves in the general daytime playlist on our Rhythmic CHR station lately:
And that's the risk of this sort of song being played. Your average listener loves/loved the song, or absolutely hates/hated it and tunes away immediately. In the business we called it a tune-away track.
The problem is in modern times; someone under 50 listening to the radio that finds themselves repulsed by a particular novelty song that they would tune away, are probably switching to one of the many choices that doesn't include that station, let alone radio. Saw some research on this point about five years ago, that to paraphrase; there is a risk that something like 14% of an audience would remember that station WXYZ played some offensive song which generated such a visceral reaction, to the point where they would intentionally avoid that station in the future. In fact, one song in particular which created the strongest negative reaction in the study, was Disco Duck by Rick Dees. The parallel to the reaction was feeling ill after eating at a restaurant, then making a point of avoiding an unpleasant experience in the future by not eating there again.
Now that there are so many choices for people to listen that don't include traditional radio, why on God's green earth would a station take a risk of driving even a couple percent of their audience away?
You have to go across the Atlantic to find novelty songs making appearances on a popular music chart. The United Kingdom has had a number of novelty songs that have become hits. A character named Mr. Blobby has a self-titled song that became the Christmas number one song of 1993 according to the Official Singles Chart. "Mr. Blobby" spent a total of three weeks at the top spot. In 2018, YouTube personality LadBaby began his reign as Christmas number one champion with "We Built This City," a song parody of the Starship single of the same name. However, instead of building the city on rock and roll, he built it on sausage rolls! Since then, LadBaby has released four more novelty songs, all of which became Christmas number ones. Proceeds from all of LadBaby's singles went to The Trussell Trust, a charity that is working to stop hunger and poverty in the UK.
If someone else has a more recent one, say so, but at this point it looks like the last Top Ten outright novelty record in the U.S. was Weird Al's "White and Nerdy", which was also his biggest hit, peaking at #9 and going platinum. That was 14 years ago (2009).
I would say “Sexy and I know it” by LMFAO. Who are the son and grandson of Motown founder Berry Gordy. It peaked at # 1 in 2011.
Just to let y'all know that this thread has led me down a YouTube rabbit hole of Dickie Goodman, Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Bob and Doug Mackenzie, Cheech and Chong.
I love this stuff. Would it make a viable 24/7 format? Well, me and 2 or 3 other people on here would love it. But as a money making venture, eh, probably not.
But thank goodness for the internet so we can listen to these classics.
I love this stuff. Would it make a viable 24/7 format? Well, me and 2 or 3 other people on here would love it. But as a money making venture, eh, probably not.
But thank goodness for the internet so we can listen to these classics.
These records were part of short-lived “Comedy Radio” formats that popped up (usually on AM) in several markets 20-plus years ago.
There still is a comedy format on a few stations in Canada.
Also there's Dementia Radio on the internet!
That one played for years all the way to 2017 on KMXV.
I’m not surprised. When I traveled through Pennsylvania, I realized, there’s money to keep this antiquated.
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Several months ago in October 2022, the "Victoria's Secret" single by Jax, charted at #35 on Billboard. That's as close to a novelty song as I've heard in a couple of years. It might have been more of a hit due to social media exposure than due to any exposure by a radio station. ( Just my opinion).
Jax-Victoria's Secret
Jax-Victoria's Secret
In 2004, the funny song "Chocolate" Choco-Choco by Soul Control was released. It charted in Europe, but I don't see that it ever charted in the U.S. In Orange Country, the morning DJ on the station that played old school R&B ( he was the former announcer for the Oakland Raiders, but I don't recall his name), played it maybe once a morning. It has a fun dance beat to it, with funny lyrics ( that might have double meanings), but it never caught on.
The most interesting novelty records seemed to be released in the late 50's, especially those done by the hilarious comic Stan Freberg. There were also "Purple People Eater" "Witch Doctor", " Christmas Don't Be Late" by Alvin & the Chipmunks, and a whole lot of funny songs like that. Song lyrics seem to reflect the mood of whatever culture the artist is affiliated with, and in North American culture, the times are much more serious now. Just my opinion.
No offense but those songs are non factors 🙄
It was also a much different time then, in many respects. The world is a much smaller place now and has been for quite a few years, technology has changed greatly and so has radio, which was the platform people like Spike Jones and Stan Freberg used to gain exposure and some level of notoriety for their parodies. As others have explained, those who are interested in novelty tunes, song parodies and similar comedy have platforms like YouTube and TicTok to both upload and present their stuff, and for people who are into that genre to watch/hear it. Radio, on the other hand has greatly changed since the era you refer to. No longer are most all stations live and local 24/7 where people like Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento) are in a place where they can insert a few novelty songs here and there on their shows in their market, realize through call-in requests that there's an audience for that stuff and create an hours-long, nationally syndicated show around it. Now, most stations are voicetracked and automated during most dayparts, formats and playlists are more tightly controlled and stations, many of them corporately owned and controlled, are less likely to deviate into things like novelty tunes, for all the reasons many others have explained in previous posts.
The sausage roll guy has made millions from those songs, and still claims to be doing it "for charity".
If we are going down the road of novelty songs released in the UK, then we can't not mention The K***s aka K*** and the Gang, whose most recent four songs all charted in the UK singles chart (all contain extremely explicit language, you are content warned):
- Boris Johnson is a F***ing C*** (and its "radio friendly" version, Boris Johnson is a Sausage Roll) (#5 in 2020)
- Boris Johnson is STILL a F***ing C*** (#5 in 2021)
- Prince Andrew is a Sweaty Nonce (#20 in 2022)
- F*** the T*ries (#7 in 2022)
Except for the song about Prince Andrew, the songs you listed were released in December to compete for the Christmas number one spot. Obviously, December is prime time to release a novelty song in the UK.
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