ABSTRACT
Those who laughingly sneered at metal over the nearly half-century of its existence could never have guessed that the genre was peppered with so many instances of intentional humor. The types of humor in metal are incredibly varied, ranging from spoofs, puns, satire, and Bakhtinian black humor. Examples of metal’s humor are found in obvious places like lyrics, but others are more or less hidden in plain sight and/or sound such as on album covers and videos, the juxtaposition of a song’s lyrics and music, and in aspects of the performance including props and costumes. Also examined is the relationship of metal’s humor to its genre codes and subcultural audience.
