Rockin' Funnies: Fire, ala Elmer Fudd via Robin Williams (1980's)

 Sometime in the early 80's, Robin Williams incorporated a brief excerpt of Bruce Springsteen's "Fire", which later became a hit for the Pointer Sisters, into his stand-up act. Less than a minute of pure bliss.

Rockin' Funnies: Junk Food Junkie (1976)

 After hearing this on the radio today, I thought I'd try to find our next item on YouTube. Sure enough, there is a clip, from The Rich Little Show.

Singer-songwriter & radio personality Larry Groce hit the top 10 with "Junk Food Junkie". He may be better known for his work on National Public Radio, where he's been hanging his shingle since "Junk" left the charts.

Until today, I hadn't even heard this song. Sounds like Groce was making mockery of health food mavens like Euell Gibbons, and celebrating the sweet tooth we all have.

Rockin' Funnies: Amish Paradise (1996)

 "Weird" Al Yankovic got in trouble with the late rapper Coolio over this next item.

Less than a year after Coolio released "Gangster's Paradise", off the "Dangerous Minds" soundtrack, Yankovic came up with "Amish Paradise", the 1st single off "Poodle Hat". Coolio wasn't digging, since there was a misunderstanding when Yankovic tried using the usual protocols. The two would ultimately settle their issues well before Coolio passed on.

Florence Henderson (ex-The Brady Bunch), who had a recurring gig on Dave's World, is the guest star in "Amish Paradise".

As we all know, Yankovic finally mastered his rap skills with "All About The Pentiums" 3 years later.

Rockin' Funnies: Take Off (1981-2)

 Spun off from SCTV, Bob & Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas) became one of the hottest acts at the end of 1981. "The Great White North", itself spun from a skit of the same name, led to a hilarious satire of "The 12 Days of Christmas", and the novelty single, "Take Off", which peaked at #16 on the Hot 100 in the spring of 1982.

Rush bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee was a grade school pal of Moranis, and was invited to appear on the album. "Take Off" got a ton of airplay here in the 518, featured nightly on WTRY's evening program with DJ "Boogie" Bob O'Neil, for example.

As was the case with "12 Days", Moranis & Thomas didn't make a music video, so the audio will have to suffice.

Rockin' Funnies: If U Want Free Speech, Go To Russia (1990)

 In between seasons 1 & 2 of The Simpsons, Harry Shearer found time to record this novelty single, "If U Want Free Speech, Go To Russia". Shearer, also 1/3 of Spinal Tap, never shot a music video, but the single was readily available, with a sleeve illustrated by Simpsons creator Matt Groening.

In trying to avoid using any of his character voices, Shearer comes across sounding like 70's 1 hit wonder CW McCall, in this writer's opinion.

A little levity in the midst of a winter storm.

Rockin' Funnies: Just Lose It (2004)

 Eminem got into some hot water over "Just Lose It", the first single from 2004's "Encore". Seems Eminem ruffled the feathers of one Michael Jackson, one of the stars he impersonates in the video, along with MC Hammer and Pee-Wee Herman, making mockery of Jackson's legal troubles and the infamous Pepsi commercial shoot 20 years earlier.

Dr. Dre, Paris Hilton, and Erik Estrada are among the guest stars.

Rockin' Funnies: Jungle Boogie (2015)

 Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem, aided by Sam the Eagle, put a humorous twist on Kool & The Gang's iconic "Jungle Boogie".

Like, crazy, man.

Rockin' Funnies: You're So Vain (1973)

 A year after Carly Simon's iconic "You're So Vain" topped the charts, some genius thought it might be a good idea to include that on an album of covers by the stars of TV's The Odd Couple, Tony Randall & Jack Klugman, in character as Felix Unger & Oscar Madison, respectively.

The joke was that this was given to Oscar. This plays like a scene from the show.

There were musical numbers on Odd Couple, which we'll feature down the line. This, however, is the only track from "The Odd Couple Sings" currently available on YouTube.

Rockin' Funnies: Leader of The Pack (1985)

 Twisted Sister's cover of The Shangri-Las' "Leader of The Pack" was the 1st single from 1985's "Come Out & Play".

Wacky, in a Looney Tunes kind of way.

Rockin' Funnies: I Love Rocky Road (1983)

 2 years after Joan Jett & The Blackhearts took "I Love Rock & Roll" to the top of the charts, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied it to celebrate a particular flavor of ice cream. Dr. Demento appears briefly as a cashier, while Al's band play soda jerks in "I Love Rocky Road":

Literally sweet music.

Musical Interlude: Keep Fishin' (2002)

 Rivers Cuomo and Weezer are real pop culture fans.

8 years after using footage from Happy Days for the video for "Buddy Holly", the band joins up with the Muppets for "Keep Fishin'". 

The plot? Drummer Patrick Wilson is being held prisoner by an infatuated Ms. Piggy, who goes full diva when she reaches the stage. At least the Muppets were able to lend some help, including Animal on drums, until Wilson joins the party. For this, they recreated the set of The Muppet Show.

Video Valentine: Earth Angel (1970)

 Now, this is performance art.

Tiny Tim will forever be remembered for "Tiptoe Through The Tulips", but in an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1970, Tim decided to try to change things up by changing his vocal style for a cover of the Penguins' 1955 hit, "Earth Angel", backed by the all-female group, Enchanted Forest. He reverts to his familiar falsetto about halfway, and his breakdown is just funny. Even Sullivan's digging.

Rockin' Funnies: Another One Rides The Bus (1981)

 "Weird" Al Yankovic had already gained fame on Dr. Demento's radio show with his parody of the Knack's "My Sharona", entitled, "My Bologna". 2 years later, having graduated from college, Al landed on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow to perform "Another One Rides The Bus", a satire of "Another One Bites The Dust", which was a hit for Queen off 1980's "The Game". Drummer Jon Schwartz is the lone backup here, the beginning of a partnership still going strong 41 years later.

Rockin' Funnies: Bob (2003)

 There was a time when "Weird" Al Yankovic had decided to take his videos private, which meant that some of the ones we had here were unfortunately shown the door, or we went to Dailymotion to replace them.

With the release of a Netflix bio of the master satirist, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, it seems the restrictions have been lifted. To test this, we present 2003's "Bob", a homage/satire on Bob Dylan. The video is a stylistic send-up of 1967's Subterranean Homesick Blues", my favorite Dylan song.

Celebrity Rock: Hey, Jude (1970)

 Ladies & gentlemen, Pat Paulsen & The Fathers.....

This was taken from Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour. Like, who knew Pat could sing, much less play the piano (or at least pretend to do that much)? Not exactly brunch time at the Senior Citizens Center, but well, that was the joke.

Names making news

 Empty-G loves playing the stereotyped dumb blonde in public, because you'd think she'd know by now one simple truism in Congress, and I stressed this when Tabloid Carlson got the Dunce Cap on Sunday.

You don't mess with Alex From The Block!!

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Valedectorian of the Class of 2020 from Gracie Allen University (people of a certain age will get the joke), was in Texas over the weekend, and once again went after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, this time questioning the NY Congresswoman's intellect.

Jealous much, Empty-G?

AOC owns a degree in International Relations & Economics from Boston University, so I'm pretty sure she could carry on stimulating conversations with barflies hoping to emulate the cast of Cheers were she still a bartender. Unfortunately, any rebuttal she has for Empty-G will go right over the Georgia Peach Pit's head. Not that hard to do.

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After Eminem's performance at the Super Bowl Halftime spectacular last week, Rudy Goofiani, who should not be heard nor seen, whined on his radio show about Eminem taking a knee in support of Colin Kaepernick.

Stephen Colbert had fun with that, dubbing over some lyrics from Eminem's 2002 hit, "Lose Yourself" (from "8 Mile"), and mixing in some Goofiani footage.

At least Eminem knows Stephen's got his back.

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HBO's Last Week Tonight should have a sanitized syndicated version for those unwilling to subscribe to HBO. It's either that, or host John Oliver should get a media pass to do some press conferences.

Like other comics, Oliver stays on top of the issues that Fox Shmooze would rather gloss over or misrepresent, in the latter case their ongoing misinterpretation of critical race theory, which is a college level course not taught in high schools, but Fox Shmooze and the GOPers don't want you to know that. They want to control your children's educational narrative, if you will.

Uh, dummies, there's also such a thing as libraries that have reference materials you can't censor, so there. This week's episode is on YouTube presently, but due to the coarse language, we can't post it here. We'd likely lose it anyway once WarnerMedia decides to pull it.

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It's not enough that Johnny Knoxville will be at Wrestlemania in Arlington on April 2-3 to satisfy Vince McMahon's obsessive need for mainstream attention.

Boxer and YouTube star Logan Paul has signed on to team with The Miz (Mike Mizanin) to take on Rey Mysterio and his son, Dominic (Oscar & Dominic Gutierrez) at the big dance. Miz was on the losing end last year with then-partner John Morrison vs. Damian Priest and Bad Bunny. Celebrity heels, on the other hand, don't win. Then again, celebrities are likely to go 0-2, if rumors are true that Knoxville is to challenge Sami Zayn, who regained the Intercontinental title on Smackdown on February 18 (show was taped a week earlier due to the Saudi trip). I don't think McMahon wants to put one of his major titles on Knoxville. Vince Russo, he's not.

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Some years ago, Donald Trump purchased the Turnberry golf course in Scotland, occasional site of the British Open.

Now, Trump is negotiating with the organizers of a Saudi golf league to host events at his American courses, including Doral and Bedminster, and maybe at Turnberry, too. I guess he sees how well the Saudis have treated his pal McMahon, and wants some of that action. Australian Greg Norman is the commissioner of the nascent league. The PGA, however, is threatening lifetime bans to any player that jumps to the new league. Why worry? With Trump involved, the Saudi league will fold in about 5 years or less.

Rockin' Funnies: Witch Doctor (1958)

 From The Ed Sullivan Show:

Ed welcomes David Seville (Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.), the man who'd later introduce America to Alvin & The Chipmunks. Here, though, we've got "Witch Doctor". Don't know who the woman is in the video. 

Edit, 11/5/23: Had to change the video. Ed's intro is deleted.

Rockin' Funnies: Funky Gibbon (1975)

 The British comedy trio, The Goodies, initially released "Funky Gibbon", a spirited novelty track, during season 5 (or, as the British call it, series 5) in 1975, where it went all the way to #4 on the UK chart.

This clip comes from the episode, "Almost Live", which closed season 6 a year later.

As their show's theme song says, "goodie goodie yum yum".

Citizen Pampers doesn't want to be an actor anymore......

 Former President Donald Trump, with his sense of reality still skewed due to his over-inflated ego, decided to resign from the Screen Actors Guild earlier this week, after someone tipped him to the news that SAG was going to expel him from their august body due to his many presidential sins, specifically inciting a riot at the Capitol last month.

SAG President Gabrielle Carteris (ex-Beverly Hills 90210) tweeted her thanks on behalf of the group.

Basically, America's Oldest Baby opted for one of the oldest cliches in the book, unwilling to let SAG have the last word with him, although they did. Remember, this delusional geriatric doesn't like anyone telling him he's wrong. Spoiled children that never grow up are like that.

Nearly 40 years ago, Blotto had the perfect song for this sort of scenario. Many thanks to fellow blogger Chuck Miller for the inspiration:

And you wonder why they wanted to excise his scene in "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York".......!

Update, 12:39 pm (ET): Farron Cousins offers his take:

Yeah, he said it. Trump channeled his inner child, as usual.....!

Rockin' Funnies: If Only I Had Listened to Momma (1979)

 From season 5 of Laverne & Shirley:

Lenny & Squiggy's band, Lenny & The Squigtones, is more than just the two BFF's (Michael McKean & David Lander) in "The Fourth Annual Shotz Talent Show", as they've gotten some backup while Squggy sings lead on "If Only I Had Listened to Momma":

In memory of Lander, 73, who has passed away due to complications from MS.