Rock and Roll is many things: Cool, loud, in-your-face, and, sometimes funny.
One of the best examples of this comes via The Offspring, whose fifth studio album, Americana, was released on November 17, 1998. The album was a big hit for the band. Americana sold 198,000 copies in the United States during its first week of release. It went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. Five million copies alone were sold in the United States.
Dexter Holland summarized the album’s overall sentiment in a 1998 interview with Billboard. At the time, he said, “I was thinking about how today’s America is distorted really. It’s not Normal Rockwell anymore; it’s Jerry Springer.”
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Out the gate, Americana got a lot of attention thanks to its lead single, “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy).” The single made fun of posers and was rather ahead of its time for making fun of white people for appropriating Black culture. Not only was the song hilarious, but its music video was in heavy rotation on MTV and truly complemented the track. (Side note: After a re-watch, the video still holds up all these years later. It was one of many music videos at that time directed by McG.)
This has us thinking about other funny rock songs in history. They have been sprinkled throughout the decades. Some of these funny rock songs were all about getting laughs. Meanwhile, others had a hidden meaning or served as commentary on society. Then again, some of these songs were just plain weird. (Looking at you, Frank Zappa!)
In honor of the anniversary of Americana, here are just five of our favorites. (For the sake of this list, we’ve omitted notable comedy acts, like “Weird Al” Yankovic, who are known for their humor. This list focuses on acts that weren’t exclusively known for their comedy.)
