Does Humor Belong in Music?

[Numanoid]

I would have to say no

[Harry_HH]

Of course - all feelings or aspect of life "belong" in music. But as you can try to live without the humor, you can try to avoid humor in (your) music.

[Hink]

strange question and tbh a bit of a strange response from you (no offense intended). There are so many types of humor to begin with, irony, sarcasm, parodies and such that it makes this a very broad question. Humor is natural, humor is different for different people, humor can be heartwarming and it can offensive. So I dont see how it can not be a part of music, I mean how do you control such a thing?

Music imo is often about expressing one's emotions, if a song can make you cry it seems to me that the antithesis needs to exist and music must be able to make you laugh as well. It just makes no sense to me to suggest that any emotion should not be a part of music. For instance, what about children's music? A child will not always appreciate complex compositions but love silly, funny simple songs. That imho by itself is a key part of development and learning

Just curious, does music belong in comedy?

[aMUSEd]

No

[aMUSEd]

No

That was a joke

[cryophonik]

No

That was a joke

Humor does not belong in music discussions.

[Numanoid]

strange question and tbh a bit of a strange response from you (no offense intended).

You are what you is, and so am I

[Mushy Mushy]

This should end the discussion

[dea-man]

Fish

[Hink]

strange question and tbh a bit of a strange response from you (no offense intended).

You are what you is, and so am I

you are what I is?

[RunBeerRun]

Huh? There is no humor in music, any music except parodies. Unless you're talking about classic negative stereotypes.

[Numanoid]

Unless you're talking about classic negative stereotypes.

Have I offended someone?

[robotmonkey]

Even though I voted yes I must say that 99% of the time when someone tries to be funny in a song it's actually embarrassing. There are only very few musicians who can pull it off subtly and in a way that it really is funny.
Pere Ubu comes to mind as a positive example. This song from their latest album made me immediately grin when I heard it the first time.

[Numanoid]

Pere Ubu comes to mind as a positive example. This song from their latest album made me immediately grin when I heard it the first time.

Unfortunately, you can't do that on stage anymore

[Hink]

Even though I voted yes I must say that 99% of the time when someone tries to be funny in a song it's actually embarrassing. There are only very few musicians who can pull it of subtly and in a way that it really is funny.
Pere Ubu comes to mind as a positive example. This song from their latest album made me immediately grin when I heard it the first time.

that's the thing about humor in music, if one hears the same joke over and over it starts being less funny or at least less likely to make them laugh as much. Speaking for myself only I listen to music I like often and music with a punchline so to speak will also be also less likely to make me laugh like the first time I heard it.

We think of hooks in music as something that catches our attention making us want to hear more (at least that's how it is for me), humor can be that hook. Take Zappa and Joes Garage, when I was young and first heard it of course I laughed, then came the phase of playing it for my friends for the first time and laughing with them. But after a while we didn't all sit around and laugh like we did when it was new. Some of those friends will go on to say years later, "wow I haven't heard that in ages" (and probably laugh again). But with myself as a musician I found so much more to appreciate about Frank Zappa's music that it continued to hold my attention. The humor was the hook...of course YMMV and humor is so subjective it makes it harder but that's my P.O.V