The 5 comedy songs that are just genuinely awesome

Anyone can write a silly song, but occasionally that rare beast comes along - a comedy song that is also a genuinely superb bit of music. And sometimes, that beast comes along five times!

Based on my passion for said musical comedy (and 1980s-inspired synths, it would seem), please enjoy this entirely subjective list of the five comic songs from television and radio that are just awesome tracks.







5. Day Man, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

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Less of a full-fledged track than a melody sung by two idiots, Day Man is still a stone-cold tune - just try and get it out of your head after one listen. Its absurd genius is perhaps down to the fact that Charlie Day's character in this clip has been honking on spray paint in a darkened room before the muse alights. One of the chief pleasures of this one is Glenn Howerton (Dennis) unleashing a genuine pair of Mercury-esque pipes with his falsetto wails, proving once and for all that for me at least, the best comedy songs have some real singing chops on them. (I'm clearly not alone in loving this one - just look at how this snippet has spawned countless renditions and remixes on YouTube, including this brilliant one.)


4. Doctor Sexy, BBC 6Music's Adam and Joe Show

Due to their intentionally hasty production, the results of Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish's weekly 'Song Wars' duels were always a mixed bag, including a Royal Wedding ballad, an alternative Bond theme and a dancehall number about the Wii. This, Joe's effort at producing 'a sexy song', is undoubtedly the funniest and best, thanks to a killer funk sample and some frankly ridiculous lyrics. Now, "let's break some British Medical Association Rules..."

(NB. That sample is from an album by Dave Matthews - not that one - that interpreted Frank Herbert's Dune via the medium of funk. No, I don't know what to say either.)


3. Freelove Freeway, The Office

Is there anyone that doesn't now know that Ricky Gervais was in a New Romantic band called Seona Dancing? Or that despite the dodgy Bowie impersonations and £300 videos, Gervais really was something of an awesome singer? This knowledge certainly lends an extra piquancy to David Brent's tales of a past life in a band called Foregone Conclusion, and this performance might be the funniest moment from the Office's first series. Not even Brent's mid-Atlantic drawl, or the exquisitely cringeworthy lyrics about a 'pretty girl on the hood of a Cadillac', can detract from this being a rocking song. (The video also includes Brent's attempt at Ebony and Ivory-style musical inclusiveness, which is a treat in itself: "racial, so...")


2. Inner City Pressure, Flight of the Conchords

I was so torn between this and the stunningly good Fashion is Danger, the Conchords' other 80s pastiche - but in the end Inner City Pressure just pips it to the post. This deadpan pastiche of West End Girls transcends its parody roots to become an astonishingly good tune in its own right - a two-minute epic that might just be the best thing the Kiwi duo have ever done. If it wasn't for the very funny lyrics - "You know you're not in high finance / Considering second-hand underpants" - those synths would be downright melancholy. In fact, I think they still are.


1. One Track Lover, from Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

Where to even begin? If cultural popularity was a true meritocracy, then Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - a loving homage to crap 80s horror - would be everyone's favourite comedy series. Every episode is superb, but this is probably its finest hour: a driving power ballad performed by comic genius Matt Berry, with Richard Ayoade on sub-Pet Shop Boys rapping duties. Just perfect.

This is the edit that appeared in the show, but I wholeheartedly recommend you also hear the full 12" version (as it's called on the DVD extras) for the wealth of screamingly-funny additions - namely Ayoade's extended rap, a cod-Phil Collins drum solo and some frankly obscene metaphors.