ABSTRACT

The study of television and music has expanded greatly in recent years, yet to date no book has focused on the genre of comedy television as it relates to music. Music in Comedy Television: Notes on Laughs fills that gap, breaking new critical ground. With contributions from an array of established and emerging scholars representing a range of disciplines, the twelve essays included cover a wide variety of topics and television shows, spanning nearly fifty years across network, cable, and online structures and capturing the latest research in this growing area of study. From Sesame Street to Saturday Night Live, from Monty Python to Flight of the Conchords, this book offers the perfect introduction for students and scholars in music and media studies seeking to understand the role of music in comedy onscreen and how it relates to the wider culture.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Music in Comedy Television

chapter 2|12 pages

And Now for Something Completely Different (Sounding)

Monty Python’s Musical Circus

chapter 3|16 pages

That Junky Funky Folk Vibe

Quincy Jones’s Title Theme for Sanford and Son

chapter 4|14 pages

Once in a Lifetime

Music, Parody, and Comical Incongruity in The Young Ones

chapter 5|15 pages

The Mockumentary Sitcom

The Discomfort of Fake Realism

chapter 6|17 pages

“Must Hear TV”

Scrubs and the Pop Soundtrack

chapter 7|12 pages

Music in Comedy Television from the Composer’s Perspective

Getting “the Answers You’re Not Looking for” in an Interview with David Schwartz

chapter 8|12 pages

“I Told You I Was Freaky”

Gender, Genre, and Parody in the Songs of Flight of the Conchords

chapter 9|13 pages

The Lonely Island’s “SNL Digital Short” as Music Video Parody

Building on Saturday Night Live’s Legacy

chapter 11|13 pages

Inverting Expectations

Mozart in the Jungle and Humor with Classical Musicians

chapter 12|16 pages

Pure and Simple

Music as a Personal and Comedic Resource in Car Share