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Funny / Music

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Healing the world with comedy,
Making a literal difference, metaphorically.
— Bo Burnham, "Comedy"

Even music has its Funny Moments. These are just a few of them.

Bands, solo artists, genres, and works with their own pages:

Other examples:

Funny Moments in Classical

  • Johannes Brahms is believed, when pointed out that his 1st symphony has many similarities to Beethoven, (such as the da-da-da-daaaa rhythm showing up prominently in the 1st and 4th movements, but more specifically the 4th movement's theme sounding similar to the Ode to Joy) to have said: "any ass can see that". Reportedly such comparisons annoyed him.
  • Professor Peter Schickele "discovered some works" by a forgotten member of the Bach family - "P.D.Q. Bach, the twenty-first child & the youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" of Johann Sebastian Bach.
  • Grieg's Piano Concerto will never be the same after Morecambe and Wise were done with it (with the special participation of Andre "Andy Preview" Previn). Playing all the right notes indeed. Here's the full clip.
  • Charles-Valentin Alkan's Funeral March on the Death of a Parrot is hilarious.
  • There is a composer named Paul Hindemith who took Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman overture and deliberately mangled it, dubbing it "Overture to the Flying Dutchman as Sight-read by a Bad Spa Orchestra at 7 in the Morning by the Well". At one point, the overture dissolves into playing a portion of Émile Waldteufel's Skater's Waltz. And the spa orchestra is WAY better at playing THAT than with the Wagner overture!
  • Allan Sherman's "Peter And The Commissar" turns Peter and the Wolf into an allegory for creativity versus the incompetence of the music industry. It also features Beethoven's 5th as a cha-cha-cha and Brahms' Lullaby as a rock-and-roll song, amongst other brilliant bits.
  • Listen to the second movement of Haydn's "Surprise Symphony" (#94) with the volume way up and prepare for it to Jump Scare you into laughter.
  • "Kiss My Ass" by Mozart, one example of his fondness for Toilet Humor.
  • Speaking of Mozart, he composed "A Musical Joke", which is said to make fun of incompetent composers.
  • The Portsmouth Sinfonia's entire output. All of it. The orchestra, which lasted from 1970-79, was infamous for insisting that talent was not required to participate (although they were not required to be novices, as is sometimes claimed), leading to so-bad-they're-hysterical renditions of Also Sprach Zarathustra, Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, The William Tell Overture...
  • Gustavo Dudamel turning the Radetzky March into an Audience Participation Piece at the 2017 Vienna New Year's Concert by conducting the audience's claps and the orchestra at the same time.
  • The Typewriter (a concerto for orchestra and solo typewriter)

Funny Moments in songs

  • Like Built To Spill's "Preview", Self's "LA Radio" is also a bunch of snippets parodying different music genres strung together, this time edited to sound like someone flipping through a radio dial. The style parodies are entertaining enough, but the funniest moment might be a bit where someone calls a radio station to request Self:
    DJ: That was The Dandy Fanny. Hits 106.9, I'm Tweaky Bob. Caller six, you're on the air!
    Caller: Yeah, can you play some Self?
    DJ: Excuse me, who?
    Caller: Some Self, um... Self?
    DJ: Alright kid, you got it, here's some Seal on Hits 106.9!
  • Christian heavy rock group Thousand Foot Krutch doing a metal take on... "Jingle Bell Rock". It's equal parts hilarious and downright badass.
  • Iggy Pop's "Success" has David Bowie joining in on backing vocals, which basically repeat every lyric of the song. Once Iggy starts going off on ad-libs at the end of the song, Bowie continues to follow his lead:
    Iggy: I'm gonna do the twist!
    Bowie: I'm gonna do the twist!
    Iggy: I'm gonna hop like a frog!
    Bowie: I'm gonna hop like a frog!
    Iggy: I'm gonna go out on the street and do anything I want!
    Bowie: I'm gonna gooutonthestreetanddoanything-
    Iggy: (Corpsing) Oh, shit...
    Bowie: Oh, shit!
  • Stormtroopers of Death has "What's That Noise?" A recording session goes off the rails when a mysterious noise gets on Billy Milano's nerves.
  • Morningwood's song "Take Off Your Clothes". At one point, the narrator's love interest, who's trying to diplomatically tell her that he doesn't want sex just then, says 'It's better when it's anticipated', to which the narrator screams furiously, "No, it's not! So TAKE OFF YOUR CLOOOOOOOOOOTHES!" Even better, at the end of the song, she says please. Belatedly, but she does actually say it.
  • Some churchgoers admit that at least once they have tried very hard not to laugh when they have to sing "All Creatures of Our God and King" in a service, especially the "Alleluia" parts. A certain choir, when singing to mass, was strictly ordered to "laugh away" before mass every time this particular hymn was on schedule. It didn`t help much that the skit was referenced in a similar English hymn, which also had a halleluja refrain. Hilarity ensued (the director had forgotten to mention that one).
  • "Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music, thou shalt not make repetitive generic music, thou shalt not make repetitive generic music-"
  • "Bubba Shot the Jukebox" by Mark Chesnutt. A brokenhearted redneck gets agitated over a song and, well, shoots the jukebox and causes a scene. The crowner is the last line of the third verse:
    Now, reckless discharge of a gun, that's what the officers are claimin'
    Bubba hollered out, "Reckless, hell - I hit just where I was aimin'!"
  • "Gallo del Cielo" by Joe Ely. It's a song about Carlos Saragosa, a Mexican man who steals a prize fighting rooster and crosses the Rio Grande with it, hoping to make enough prize money from cockfighting to return home and buy back his family's land which was seized by Pancho Villa. As Gallo del Cielo (the rooster) wins cockfight after cockfight, Carlos's winnings (not to mention the stakes, and the tension) climb steadily. One guess as to how the song ends. It's a clever, funny song (for everyone except animal rights activists, I suppose), but the Funny Moment comes in the second-to-last verse of the song:
    Hola my Teresa/I'm thinking of you now in San Francisco/ I have no money in my pocket/I no longer have your good luck framed in gold/I buried it last evening with the bones of my beloved del Cielo/I will not return to buy the land that Villa stole long ago.
  • In an attempt to curtail pirating of their album Keep It Together, Guster simultaneously "leaked" a decoy album known as The Meowstro Sings - Guster's Keep It Together: The difference between this and the regular album is that all of the lyrics are replaced with "meow" (monitor engineer Matt Peskie provided the meows). The results are particularly funny when it comes to the wistful ballad "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today". Even the cover is a pretty funny visual gag: Keep It Together has a hummingbird on the cover; the Meowstro version of the album has that same hummingbird in the mouth of a cat. The "meow mixes" of the songs were amusing enough to fans that they're still available digitally alongside the actual album.
  • "I Can't Wait" by Ol' Dirty Bastard is already a bit eccentric-sounding even for him, due to being based around an off-kilter drum machine pattern and a lo-fi sample of the T.J. Hooker theme... Then he spends the whole last verse giving off the cuff "shout outs", starting out naturally enough with mentioning other hip hop artists, but gradually ending up with something a bit more surreal:
    I want to give a shout out to the Eskimos
    I want to give a shout out to the submarines
    I want to give a shout out to the army, air force, navy, marines
    Know what I'm saying? y'all playing my music
    In the submarines and the boats
    • The verse eventually concludes with "I give a shout out to um, um... myself!". Only after all this does he finally give a last minute shout out to the group he's most heavily associated with, Wu-Tang Clan.
  • The entirety of Watsky's G.O.A.T. In it, another rapper jokingly tells Watsky that the lyrics in his songs are too nice and he should throw in "more disrespect". Watsky then proceeds to rap in a robot voice with ridiculous, over-the-top lyrics about disrespecting women, mocking the misogyny in the hip-hop industry.
    "I use my dick as a yardstick to measure my height."
    • When he sardonically mocks humanity's priorities in Tiny Glowing Screens Part 1.
    And it's tragic that we yawn
    We got every gadget but don't care there's magic in our palm
    'Cause it's been getting so hot, I can feel the slow rot
    But let's not die before we get to fuck a robot.
  • ''I Think I Saw a U.F.O'' by British power metal band Neonfly. Willy Norton sings from the perspective of a conspiracy theorist who thinks he's seen a U.F.O.
    I know they're green, I know they're fast
    I know that Elvis is alive
    They took him more than twenty years ago
  • The Red Chord threw in a voicemail message about thirty seconds after the end of "He Was Dead When I Got There".
    Duuude, what the fuck. This ain't no business call, but this is Eric (censored) on your phone, and yes sir, I DID just make out, THREE times, with a hot, big-boobed, BLONDE, nineteen-year-old girl, dude. Yes I did. I made out with her, I touched her boob over the-over the bra, which we can talk about later; almost got down south, didn't quite make it. However, made out, nineteen, I'm twenty-four, TO-MORROW. Peace.
    • For that matter, the whole of "Responsibles", especially if you know the source of inspiration, but the final lines take the cake:
      STOP SHOOTING, SOMEONE'S ACTUALLY HURT!
      DON'T MAKE ME TAKE OFF MY PANTS!
      GIVE ME A CIGARETTE! I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK!
      WHERE'S!? MY FUCKIN'!? BARBECUE!? I KNOW YOU HAVE IT!
  • Pretty much everything by asdfgfa (the actual name - it isn't capitalised), one of Christopher Bowes' many projects. ''NASA'' is mostly just Chris yelling "WE ARE GOING INTO SPACE!", along with numerous references to Wesley Snipes, ''Help, a Bear'' is Black Comedy Rape combined with Bestiality Is Depraved, and ''Ping Pong''...well, is mostly complete nonsense. However, the crowning glory of asdfgfa's category is probably ''Shotgun in the Bum''. Sung by Gloryhammer members James 'Hootsman' Cartwright and Thomas 'Angus McFife' Winkler (under the names 'Jimmy Gingerale' and 'Tommy Lawless' respectively), it's a healthy dose of Ho Yay that's pretty much just three and a half minutes of Cartwright singing about how amazing his bum is and how people are always ogling it. Winkler sings the second verse, which is mostly just the line 'I wanna see your bum' on repeat. The video itself is pretty entertaining, too.
  • Trubaduren (The Ministrel/The Musician) by Swedish musician Magnus Uggla. It does require knowing Swedish, as it's never been translated to English, but it does translate pretty well. It's about a guy at a beach party watching as the girl he was into being seduced by a guitar-playing douchebag, knowing he can't really compete with a musician.
    Magnus: Framår 4-5, fick jag nog, och gick hem, men jag tror, och har på känn, sitter han nog säkert kvar där än!! (around 4-5, I had enough, and went home, but I feel and belive, he's probably still there!!)
  • This bit from Timbuk 3's "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" shows the singer has his priorities straight:
    I got a job waiting for my graduation.
    Fifty thou a year will buy a lot of beer.

Funny Moments with the bands/artists

  • Relient K as this about once per album, if not more, but the best is definitely Crayons Can Melt on Us for all I Care. The title might actually be longer than the song itself, which only makes it more hilarious.
  • Kelly Clarkson did not want to release "Already Gone" as a single, due to the fact that it was basically Beyonce's "Halo" with the Serial Numbers Filed Off. 19 Entertainment felt otherwise. So, while performing the song at one of her concerts, to get back at her record company and the writer of both songs, she did this (wait until the 3:32 mark).
  • Short Stack: "We are confident enough in our sexuality to do a Kylie Minogue song!" They then proceeded to sing "Can't Get You Out Of My Head".
  • In a live performance of Fake (possibly one of the most beautiful unrequited love songs ever written), the Frames' lead singer Glen Hansard decided to shake the song up a little. Between each half of each verse is an instrumental crescendo. During the crescendo in the second verse, he ad-libbed some new lyrics:
    "I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one."
  • Any time Chibi of The Birthday Massacre gives an interview, but especially the time when she tried to coerce the interviewer into taking up knitting.
  • An entirely unintentional moment courtesy of Visual Kei/Goth Rock/Whatever band Malice Mizer, along with some very much intentional rubbish from their fanclub event.
  • Ben Folds playing Chatroulette at a concert. Can double (triple?) as Awesome Music and a Moment of Awesome.
  • During his 30th Aniversary concert, Michael Jackson performed "You Rock My World" and Usher first comes out, leading to a small dance/robot battle. Then Chris Tucker, who had appeared in the music video of the song, comes out and starts to dance. Michael begins to crack up as Chris mimiced several of Michael's dance moves. Michael then did his kick-move, which Chris did, but with the wrong leg (relating to a joke Chris told earlier in the concert about Michael telling him he was "Kicking with the wrong leg" in Rush Hour 2, where Chris sang "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough") which causes Michael to do a literal ROFL.
  • John Myung, the bassist for Dream Theater, well known (ironically) for not bringing attention to himself by even doing so much as talking most of the time, tackles◊ lead singer James LaBrie in the middle of a concert as a result of a bet. None of the band knew about it beforehand and one of the technicians, who dared him to do it, didn't think he would do it.
  • During a random jam in the middle of "Seek and Destroy" on Metallica's Live Shit CD, James prompts Jason to start soloing by saying, "Impress the fuck out of us." Jason responds by stopping playing entirely, to which James and Kirk agree, "I'm impressed."
  • Jonah Bergman of Schoolyard Heroes responds to a Moral Guardian.
  • Sara Bareilles sang a song that was called something like "You're an asshole" at a concert. People were given lyrics.
  • Ella Fitzgerald performs "Mack the Knife" on the live album Ella in Berlin. She forgets the lyrics halfway through: "What's the next chorus to this song now?/This is the one now I don't know." But Ella improvises some new lyrics and pokes fun at her flub: "Now Ella and the fellas/We're making a wreck, what a wreck of Mack the Knife." This doubles as a Funny Moment and an Awesome Moment.
  • Lee Bulig's review of the SPL Kultube. Even if one knows nothing about the unit, it's still hilarious because of Lee's... eloquent and masterful usage of the English language.
  • A bit from Kaya's performance at AnimeUSA 2009: around the middle of the concert (beginning about 5 minutes in this video), Kaya signals the lights operator to turn up the lights so he can see the audience. He scans the crowd and spots a certain pair of cosplayers...
    Kaya: ...ah, Hizaki! ... Kamijo! (Kaya runs to the opposite end of the stage) Darling, hi!
  • When Slipknot turntablist Sid Wilson broke both his feet during a live show and ended up temporarily confined to a wheelchair, this happened during another live show:
    Corey Taylor: Everyone say, 'Hi, Sid!'
    Crowd: Hi, Sid!
    Corey Taylor: Everyone say, 'YOU BROKE YOUR FUCKIN' FEET, SID!'
    Crowd: YOU BROKE YOUR FUCKIN' FEET, SID!
  • Gabriella Cilmi at the 2008 ARIA Music Awards. She won six awards, but as the night wore on she got more and more drunk, so her first acceptance speech was pretty generic, but the later ones didn't resemble anything like a speech, especially since she was having trouble staying coherent.
  • From Black Sabbath's 1970 TV concert in Paris, there's guitarist Tony Iommi tapping his foot along to the bridge of "Iron Man" (at 17:08).
  • Drake's 2015 fued with rapper Meek Mills was so hilariously one-sided that it culminated with Drake performing one of his diss tracks at a festival (his own) in Toronto while the screen behind him showed nothing but all the Internet memes and demotivational posters created making fun of Meek Mills. As one commentator put it, "Don't start a rap feud with someone who can make you look like an idiot with a Powerpoint presentation."
  • A band with an April Fools' Day joke available each year, Cormorant have a couple examples from their Facebook page, but the crowning moment has to be this one that was written around the time of the Mega Millions prize in 2012 with plenty of light-hearted Take Thats pointed towards record companies, a few bands and gaming.
  • This Red Army Choir's live rendition of the Russian folk song Kalinka includes some rather... special stage dancers.
  • Job for a Cowboy responded to a fan who asked on Facebook for "sqeeels and bree rees" on their eventual followup to Sun Eater with a gif of Judge Judy rolling her eyes.
  • Aaron Heard of Jesus Piece gained minor viral fame in 2019 when he quite literally dropkicked someone offstage (the person in question being a buddy of his who was apparently fine with it).
  • Devin Swank of Sanguisugabogg, never one to shy away from a potential Memetic Mutation, struck (very NSFW) paydirt at a live appearance in early 2020.
    Devin: "How 'bout a little crowd involvement? When I say 'I eat my own', you say 'cum'. I EAT MY OWN!"
    Crowd: "CUM!"
    Devin: "I EAT MY OWN!"
    Crowd: "CUM!"
    Devin: "I EAT MY OWN!"
    Crowd: "CUM!"
    Devin: "I EAT MY OWN!"
    Crowd: "CUM!"
    [song begins]
  • Lovebites' Heavy Metal Never Dies: Live in Tokyo 2021 concert: During "Spellbound" a stagehand brings out a keytar for Miyako, who looks absolutely disgusted and attempts to refuse, but is forced to take it by her bandmates and the stagehand.

Funny Moments in music videos

Funny Moments in TV Show Themes

Funny Moments in Interviews/Public Appearances

  • Kurt Cobain attending Headbanger's Ball wearing a ridiculous yellow dress. When asked about it, he replied "It's Headbanger's Ball so I thought I'd wear a gown."
  • After a very intense (for MTV standards at least) performance by Marilyn Manson at the 1997 Video Music Awards, host Chris Rock yelled for the audience to "Run to church right now or you're going to hell!"
  • Dave Mustaine got kicked out of Metallica and formed Megadeth. Mustaine had some bitter feelings, but the band just laughs at him.
  • This commercial featuring legendary brutal tech-death metal band Suffocation advertising a Dark Ages program on the History Channel. Yeah, it should've been either Nile or Bolt Thrower to advertise the show.
  • Not one to stop at a memetic live performance, the aforementioned Aaron Heard of Jesus Piece recorded a mock Cribs runthrough of their hotel room during a Japanese tour that is simply dripping with sarcasm.
    "Now if you wanna come over here to my entertainment system, I can show y'all somethin' that's real high-tech. That Tokyo shit, nigga. Over here, we got, uh, a wind machine. [holds up cheap hairdryer] Niggas don't have this shit in America. I do."
  • While The Judds' induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame is a mostly sad affair because one half of the duo had killed herself a few days prior, Ashley Judd still managed to put in a funny moment:
    I want to take a moment to recognize my sister, a G.O.A.T. Do you know what that means? I don’t think she knows I’m calling her the ‘Greatest of All Time'. She lives on a farm. She’s being a little literal.

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