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With the exception of Flight of the Conchords, most musical comedy is often terrible. Here's five examples from the recent past that are actually worth your time.
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers" (aka Jon Daly), "Abracadabralifornia"
Parodying the Chili Peppers is like shooting funky fish in a humpty-bumpty barrel, but comedian Jon Daly got it down to a science for this one-off gag, to the point that the crooned L.A. freeway directions, scat-rap gobbledygook and noodly bassline convinced a few people that it was actually the band's new single.
2. "Kanye West" (aka Local Business Comedy), Kreezus
A Christmas-themed remake of 'Ye's harshest album just sort of writes itself. The titles alone ("New Sleighs," "I Am a Claus") are enough to induce giggle fits, even before the Jay Pharoah-worthy Yeezy impressionist delivers the line, "Hurry up with my damn egg nog!"
3. Father John Misty as Lou Reed, "Blank Space"
An Inception-level satire from the Andy Kaufman of soft rock, the former J. Tillman's response to the "grotesque stunt" of Ryan Adams' full-album cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 mashes up Swift's "Blank Space" and "I'm Waiting for the Man," with Tillman channeling Reed in all his wheezing, a-hooing glory.
4. "Sun Kil Moon" (aka Morgan Enos), Under the Canopy
If anyone deserves to have every ounce of piss surgically removed from his body, it's Mark Kozelek, but this three-song EP is less a mockery than a freakily accurate tribute, with titles like "I Watched the Movie The Revenant With Leo DiCaprio" and such existential musings as "The world was a beautiful place and I would have died here/ Which brings me back to the really great Mexican food that I ate."
5. Helper, Watch the Stove
Who knows beef better than Hamburger Helper? So perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that its anthropomorphic glove mascot dropped the most fire rap mixtape of the year. For real, it's probably the most successfully hip viral marketing stunt ever. Talk about going ham, am I right?
Willamette Week