SlapStik Comedy By Cassandra Brook
Though stand-up is often perceived as a series of jokes or narratives told on a brightly lit stage with a stool next to the performer, this form of live comedy is actually much more versatile. It can involve elements like slideshows, prop work, and music. Musical stand-up combines two venerated forms of entertainment, allowing audiences to both jam along and laugh. In fact, some of the most popular comedians specialize in musical stand-up.
Cue Bo Burnham. Starting off his career on YouTube as a 16-year-old, Burnham published humorous music featuring himself, singing or rapping, accompanied by his electronic piano. These songs included complex wordplay and rhymes to both impress and attract his online audience. They responded. After garnering popularity, Burnham moved beyond his childhood bedroom to perform his musical sets on stage, many of which functioned like typical narrative-style stand-up would, discussing his personal vexations with overaggressive autotune and other various, benign topics. This is true of “Can’t Handle This (Kanye Rant),” performed as part of Burnham’s “Make Happy” special in 2016. In this work, Burnham musically lambasts Pringle cans for being too small for his hands, expresses his disdain for his Chipotle burrito contents not fitting inside of the burrito, and discusses his personal insecurities. At many points of the song, the music itself bolsters Burnham’s humor, with him ad-libbing “grraah” when discussing a chicken burrito and adding a dramatic soundtrack as a background to otherwise mundane topics. The musical form also served as a way for Burnham to bring humor to discussions of serious topics. Though, after a musical switch in tone during the same song in which he complains about Chipotle and Pringles cans, Burnham commands “laugh as he attempts to give you what he cannot give himself,” an emotionally vulnerable statement, he significantly autotunes it so that his set retains its levity. Burnham also uses humorous music as a way to satirize the entertainment industry, like in his song “Repeat Stuff,” which mocks the generic love songs of popular young male artists. Exploiting the boy band musical style, Burnham delivers absurdly general words of affection, such as “I love how your torso has an arm on either side,” and biting satirical comments such as “I also hope that you don’t see through this cleverly constructed ruse designed by a marketing team cashing in on puberty and low self-esteem.” Though many of Burnham’s comments hold valuable cultural criticism, they are able to maintain their humor through his exploitation of music.
The musical duo Garfunkel and Oates also use music as a way to deliver cultural and political criticism while keeping their audience laughing. Their song “Sex With Ducks” condemns homophobic comments by televangelist Pat Robertson about how legalizing gay marriage would decay morality, leading to people having sex with ducks. In this song, they mock the desire to have sex with ducks, describing romantic situations with ducks because “sex with ducks and gay marriage are one in the same.” With dramatic piano in the background, Garfunkel and Oates discredit the ridiculous homophobic comment while crafting clever rhymes and presenting humorous situations between ducks and humans. They also perform cultural criticism with their song “Sports Go Sports.” Backed by a staccato rhythm, Garfunkel and Oates make light of American culture’s obsession with sports. By utilizing music, they are able to deliver critical lines, such as “may they compile copious points, so they are rewarded and meritorious, so you feel temporarily, adjacently victorious,” while retaining a sense of humor. Garfunkel and Oates also use music to present humorous situations through the use of impressions and characters. In their song, “Me, You and Steve,” they discuss what it is like to spend a romantic night with a third-wheel, Steve. While their song features them addressing Steve and the awkwardness created by his presence, they are able to depict the situation without having Steve’s character deliver any lines, using gesticulation, expression, and sky offhand comments, such as an awkwardly delivered “Hey, how’s it going.” Their background piano adds another layer of humor, the upbeat melody contrasting the annoyance they experience as a result of Steve’s presence.
Other comedians who don’t specialize in musical stand-up occasionally utilize it to expand their humor, like Adam Sandler, who, though proficient in sketch and non-musical stand-up, has penned various popular songs for the stage. His most famous piece is “The Chanukah Song,” which he performed for Saturday Night Live in the 1990s. This song uses humorous rhymes such as “chanukah” and “marijuanukah” to celebrate a Jewish holiday and garner laughter amongst the audience. Other comedians that have dabbled in musical stand-up include Patti Harrison in her bit “Patti Harrison Performs the Songs she Wrote for Dua Lipa” and Luke Null in his bit “God is Great.” Though these comedians don’t perform exclusively musical comedy, they are able to use it to explore different topics and engage their audience further.
Musical stand-up has long been, and will continue to be, a way for comedians to increase the entertainment value of their content. The rhythms and instruments can not only help engross audiences in the comedy itself but can also add to the comedic value. It is a great way for comedians to move beyond the typical walking and talking around a stool format and get people to both sing and laugh along.
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