It’s hard to overstate the absolute stranglehold that comedy songs had on the generations of the past. Sure, the new generation has their Bo Burnhams and their Jane Wicklines, but believe me when I say, this is a different game. This isn’t smart, self-deprecating, introspective comedy over minimally tickled ivories. It was an era of fully studio produced, thoroughly and proudly stupid full songs.
You may have heard, come the holidays, the song “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” For a period of time, this was not a simple seasonal type of light chuckle, but a year-round genre that led to middle-schoolers laughing so hard they couldn’t breathe. At their root, there was a singular man behind the curtain, responsible for the discovery and distribution of the kind of songs you’d make up, bored, in the back of math class — which is a complimentary description, to be clear.
That man was Dr. Demento.
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The Dr. Demento Show premiered in 1970 and spent only the briefest of periods as a run-of-the-mill rock program before Dr. Demento, aka Barry Hansen, decided that people might like the comedy and novelty songs he had a passion for collecting and cataloguing on his own time. From that switch until today, he spent 55 years of his life playing songs like “99 Words for Boobs” while his peers were spinning Led Zeppelin.
His influence was a bit underground, given the fact that most of these songs weren’t the sort of things you’d tune into in polite company, but his name was a badge to those in the know. For those who lived through the age of KaZaA, Napster and LimeWire? There might not have been someone more frequently erroneously credited for writing comedy songs than Dr. Demento.
His best known contribution, though, comes in the form of one artist you’re likely familiar with even now: “Weird Al” Yankovic. In a strange parallel to the relationship of Eminem and Dr. Dre, Dr. Demento was the man behind the behemoth of parody songs. Not only did he debut Yankovic’s first song, but he funded Yankovic’s first ever EP, “Another One Rides the Bus.”
Now, his work is done. He’s announced that after 55 years, he’s retiring and his show is going off the air. To your years in service of being incredibly stupid in the best way, Dr. Demento, I salute you. I hope you’re sent off with some sort of 21-fart-sound-effect salute.
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