Download or read book Taking Funny Music Seriously written by Lily E. Hirsch and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take funny music seriously! Though often dismissed as silly or derivative, funny music, Lily E. Hirsch argues, is incredibly creative and dynamic, serving multiple aims from the celebratory to the rebellious, the entertaining to the mentally uplifting. Music can be a rich site for humor, with so many opportunities that are ripe for a comedic left turn. Taking Funny Music Seriously includes original interviews with some of the best musical humorists, such as Tom Lehrer, "the J. D. Salinger of musical satire"; Peter Schickele, who performed as the invented composer P. D. Q. Bach, the supposed lost son of the great J. S. Bach; Kate Micucci and Riki Lindhome of the funny music duo Garfunkel and Oates; comedic film composer Theodore Shapiro; Too Slim of the country group Riders in the Sky; and musical comedian Jessica McKenna, from the podcast Off Book, part of a long line of "funny girls." With their help, Taking Funny Music Seriously examines comedy from a variety of genres and musical contexts--from bad singing to rap, classical music to country, Broadway music to film music, and even love songs and songs about death. In its coverage of comedic musical media, Taking Funny Music Seriously is an accessible and lively look at funny music. It offers us a chance to appreciate more fully the joke in music and the benefits of getting that joke--especially in times of crisis--including comfort, catharsis, and connection.

Download or read book How Music Works written by David Byrne and published by Crown. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Updated with a new chapter on digital curation* How Music Works is David Byrne’s incisive and enthusiastic look at the musical art form, from its very inceptions to the influences that shape it, whether acoustical, economic, social or technological. Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers ever-new and thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.

Download or read book Seriously Funny written by Gerald Nachman and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2009-08-26 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The comedians of the 1950s and 1960s were a totally different breed of relevant, revolutionary performer from any that came before or after, comics whose humor did much more than pry guffaws out of audiences. Gerald Nachman presents the stories of the groundbreaking comedy stars of those years, each one a cultural harbinger: • Mort Sahl, of a new political cynicism • Lenny Bruce, of the sexual, drug, and language revolution • Dick Gregory, of racial unrest • Bill Cosby and Godfrey Cambridge, of racial harmony • Phyllis Diller, of housewifely complaint • Mike Nichols & Elaine May and Woody Allen, of self-analytical angst and a rearrangement of male-female relations • Stan Freberg and Bob Newhart, of encroaching, pervasive pop media manipulation and, in the case of Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding, of the banalities of broadcasting • Mel Brooks, of the Yiddishization of American comedy • Sid Caesar, of a new awareness of the satirical possibilities of television • Joan Rivers, of the obsessive craving for celebrity gossip and of a latent bitchy sensibility • Tom Lehrer, of the inane, hypocritical, mawkishly sentimental nature of hallowed American folkways and, in the case of the Smothers Brothers, of overly revered folk songs and folklore • Steve Allen, of the late-night talk show as a force in American comedy • David Frye and Vaughn Meader, of the merger of showbiz and politics and, along with Will Jordan, of stretching the boundaries of mimicry • Shelley Berman, of a generation of obsessively self-confessional humor • Jonathan Winters and Jean Shepherd, of the daring new free-form improvisational comedy and of a sardonically updated view of Midwestern archetypes • Ernie Kovacs, of surreal visual effects and the unbounded vistas of video Taken together, they made up the faculty of a new school of vigorous, socially aware satire, a vibrant group of voices that reigned from approximately 1953 to 1965. Nachman shines a flashlight into the corners of these comedians’ chaotic and often troubled lives, illuminating their genius as well as their demons, damaged souls, and desperate drive. His exhaustive research and intimate interviews reveal characters that are intriguing and all too human, full of rich stories, confessions, regrets, and traumas. Seriously Funny is at once a dazzling cultural history and a joyous celebration of an extraordinary era in American comedy.

Download or read book Weird Al written by Lily E. Hirsch and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-04-15 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Expanded Edition features even more insights on “Weird Al” Yankovic, including his activities during a tumultuous 2020 and 2021, diving deeper into the world of the iconic man who has made a career out of making us laugh. Funny music is often dismissed as light and irrelevant, but Yankovic’s fourteen successful studio albums prove there is more going on than comedic music's reputation suggests. Lily Hirsch weaves together original interviews with the prince of parody himself, creating a fresh take on comedy and music’s complicated romance. She reveals that Yankovic’s jests have always had a deeper meaning, addressing such topics as bullying, celebrity, and racial and gender stereotypes. The Expanded Edition celebrates Yankovic’s vast influence on musicians, comedians, and performing artists as well as what the man has meant to fans—in a time of uncertainty, Yankovic has served as a much-needed bright spot for many. From his love of accordions and Hawaiian print shirts to his popular puns and trademark dance moves, Weird Al is undeterred by those who say funny music is nothing but a low-brow pastime. And thank goodness. With his good-guy grace still intact, Yankovic remains unapologetically and unmistakably himself. Reveling in the mischief and wisdom of Yankovic’s over forty-year career, this book is an Al-expense-paid tour of a true comedic and musical genius.

Download or read book Last Lecture written by Perfection Learning Corporation and published by Turtleback. This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Would Everybody Please Stop written by Jenny Allen and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor "One of the funniest writers in America." That’s what The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz calls Jenny Allen—and with good reason. In her debut essay collection, the longtime humorist and performer declares no subject too sacred, no boundary impassable. With her eagle eye for the absurd and hilarious, Allen reports from the potholes midway through life’s journey. One moment she’s flirting shamelessly—and unsuccessfully—with a younger man at a wedding; the next she’s stumbling upon X-rated images on her daughter’s computer. She ponders the connection between her ex-husband’s questions about the location of their silverware, and the divorce that came a year later. While undergoing chemotherapy, she experiments with being a “wig person.” And she considers those perplexing questions that we never pause to ask: Why do people say “It is what it is”? What’s the point of fat-free half-and-half ? And haven’t we heard enough about memes? Jenny Allen’s musings range fluidly from the personal to the philosophical. She writes with the familiarity of someone telling a dinner party anecdote, forgoing decorum for candor and comedy. To read Would Everybody Please Stop? is to experience life with imaginative and incisive humor.

Download or read book Saturday Review of Politics Literature Science and Art written by and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Saturday Review of Politics Literature Science Art and Finance written by and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Saturday Review of Politics Literature Science and Art written by and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 872 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Taking Laughter Seriously written by John Morreall and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1983-06-30 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Preface Part One: Laughter 1. Can There Be a Theory of Laughter? 2. The Superiority Theory 3. The Incongruity Theory 4. The Relief Theory 5. A New Theory Part Two: Humor 6. The Variety of Humor 7. Humor as Aesthetic Experience 8. Humor and Freedom 9. The Social Value of Humor 10. Humor and Life Notes Works Cited Index

Download or read book It s Kind of a Funny Story written by Ned Vizzini and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2010-09-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.

Download or read book Planet Funny written by Ken Jennings and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year The witty and exuberant New York Times bestselling author and record-setting Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings relays the history of humor in “lively, insightful, and crawling with goofy factlings,” (Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette)—from fart jokes on clay Sumerian tablets to the latest Twitter gags and Facebook memes. Where once society’s most coveted trait might have been strength or intelligence or honor, today, in a clear sign of evolution sliding off the trails, it is being funny. Yes, funniness. Consider: Super Bowl commercials don’t try to sell you anymore; they try to make you laugh. Airline safety tutorials—those terrifying laminated cards about the possibilities of fire, explosion, depressurization, and drowning—have been replaced by joke-filled videos with multimillion-dollar budgets and dance routines. Thanks to social media, we now have a whole Twitterverse of amateur comedians riffing around the world at all hours of the day—and many of them even get popular enough online to go pro and take over TV. In his “smartly structured, soundly argued, and yes—pretty darn funny” (Booklist, starred review) Planet Funny, Ken Jennings explores this brave new comedic world and what it means—or doesn’t—to be funny in it now. Tracing the evolution of humor from the caveman days to the bawdy middle-class antics of Chaucer to Monty Python’s game-changing silliness to the fast-paced meta-humor of The Simpsons, Jennings explains how we built our humor-saturated modern age, where lots of us get our news from comedy shows and a comic figure can even be elected President of the United States purely on showmanship. “Fascinating, entertaining and—I’m being dead serious here—important” (A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically), Planet Funny is a full taxonomy of what spawned and defines the modern sense of humor.

Download or read book Musical America written by and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 1320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Seriously Funny written by Terry Pratchett and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-04-21 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.’ The most quotable writer of our time, Terry Pratchett’s unique brand of wit made him both a bestseller and an enduring, endearing source of modern wisdom. This collection is filled with his funniest and most memorable words about life, the universe and snoring.

Download or read book Werner v Jaruga 295 MICH 617 1940 written by and published by . This book was released on 1940 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 57

Download or read book Belter s Book of Comedy Songs written by Hal Leonard Corp. and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Vocal Collection). Contents: Adelaide's Lament from Guys and Dolls * Alone from Young Frankenstein * Alto's Lament * Always a Bridesmaid from I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change * Always True to You in My Fashion from Kiss Me, Kate * Bewitched from Pal Joey * Butter * Dance: Ten; Looks: Three from A Chorus Line * Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes * Doin' What Comes Natur'lly from Annie Get Your Gun * Don't Call Me Trailer Trash from Cowgirls * Getting Married Today from Company * A Guy What Takes His Time from She Done Him Wrong * Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying * The History of Wrong Guys from Kinky Boots * The Hostess with the Mostes' on the Ball from Call Me Madam * I Am Playing Me from title of show * I Cain't Say No from Oklahoma! * I Never Do Anything Twice form The Seven Percent Solution * I Want Them . . . (Bald) * It Ain't Etiquette from Dubarry Was a Lady * Last One Picked from Whoop Dee Doo! * Listen to Your Heart from Young Frankenstein * My New Philosophy from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown * Nothing from A Chorus Line * One Hundred Easy Ways to Lose a Man from Wonderful Town * Satin and Silk from Silk Stockings * The Secret Service from Mr. President * Show Off from The Drowsy Chaperone * Shy from Once Upon a Mattress * Special from Avenue Q * Stepsisters' Lament from Cinderella * Take Back Your Mink from Guys and Dolls * Taylor, the Latte Boy * A Trip to the Library from She Loves Me * Whatever Happened to My Part? from Monty Python's Spamalot * When You Got It, Flaunt It from The Producers * You Can't Get a Man with a Gun from Annie Get Your Gun

Download or read book Frog Trouble written by Sandra Boynton and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hang on to yer hat, Cowboy. Yeeeee-hah! Boynton goes Country with Frog Trouble, a terrific CD and illustrated songbook of her new and wildly original Country songs. And they’re sung by a truly amazing roster of Country Music’s biggest and brightest stars: Here’s Brad Paisley with "Copycat," Dwight Yoakam singing "I’ve Got a Dog," Alison Krauss on "End of a Summer Storm," Ben Folds rocking "Broken Piano," Darius Rucker with "Beautiful Baby." The lonesome-cowboy title track is performed by the low-voiced moody rocker Mark Lanegan (yes, of Queens of the Stone Age.) Add Josh Turner, Fountains of Wayne, Ryan Adams, Linda Eder, and quickly rising Country star Kacey Musgraves—all accompanied by Nashville’s finest instrumentalists—and WHOA. You’ve got yourself some mighty fine music, with a whole lot of gumption and heart. A COUNTRY MUSIC ALBUM FOR KIDS AND EVERYONE • Boynton-illustrated songbook with full-length music CD • 12 new songs with a whole lot of gumption and heart • Cowboy, Country, Rockabilly, Honkytonk, Bluegrass, Blues • Retro sound with a TRULY AMAZING All-Star Artist roster! • Lyrics by Sandra Boynton • Music written and produced by Sandra Boynton and Michael Ford • Recorded in Nashville with renowned session musicians • Boynton & Ford have written and produced three Gold Records • Boynton has a Grammy Nomination for Philadelphia Chickens, which was also a #1 New York Times Bestseller