Music in Comedy Television: Notes on Laughs ed. by Liz Giuffre and Philip Hayward (review)

The Routledge Music and Screen Media Series is producing a growing literature on music in media such as film, video games, and television, with more being released each year. Music in Comedy Television: Notes on Laughs, edited by Liz Giuffre and Philip Hayward, is the third in the series to focus on television. The goal of the collection is to bring together music, television, and comedy scholars to create an interdisciplinary book that appeals to students and instructors regardless of their disciplinary affiliation. While not expressly stated by the editors, one change from previous volumes is the elimination of musical scores, which is likely an attempt to broaden the appeal beyond musicologists.

The collection is not divided into sections, but the chapters flow in a roughly chronological order based on their case studies. Apart from Carlo Nardi’s chapter and co-editor Liz Giuffre’s interview with composer David Schwartz, each chapter focuses on a single television series, examining how music is used, how music creates comedy, and how music relates to larger cultural issues such as education, masculinity, and race. The authors provide enough contextual information so that even if the reader has not seen the series, there will be no difficulty following their arguments. While the case studies are restricted to series from English-speaking countries–a limitation acknowledged in the introduction and preface–the breadth of the case studies as well as the collection’s historical insights into television is a great starting point for studying music in comedy television.

After a brief introduction by Giuffre, Kathryn A. Ostrofsky’s chapter ‘Sesame Street as a Musical Comedy-Variety Show’ examines the interplay between education, sketch comedy, and music in a series aimed at children. The chapter’s primary focus is on the format of Sesame Street–how the show imitates sketch series and how these sketches appeal to children of various ages–but Ostrofsky’s specific examples focus on musical numbers. While music can feel secondary to the chapter at times, Ostrofsky’s argument that Sesame Street not only spoofed popular culture, but enhanced media literacy and created new cultural forms for children is well-documented and rings true.

‘Would the sketch still “work” without the music?’ is a central question of Liz Giuffre and Demetrius Romeo’s chapter, ‘And Now for Something Completely Different (Sounding): Monty Python’s Musical Circus’ (p.34). After a fascinating discussion of Monty Python’s Flying Circus’s title theme–both how it prepares audiences for the comedy stylings of the troupe and its pragmatic origins–the authors trace the evolution of music throughout the first season. The primary focus is on ‘The Lumberjack Song’, which is the musical climax of the first season as well as the first sketch for which the authors would argue for music’s inherent role.

In ‘That Junky Funky Folk Vibe: Quincy Jones’s Title Theme for Sanford and Son’–a chapter that works both as a history lesson and a musical analysis–Amedeo D’Adamo paints a vivid backdrop to the 1972–1977 series. Woven throughout the discussion of the title theme, D’Adamo describes the social atmosphere of America in the 1970s and the many ways Jones communicated the appeal of the series across racial divides. Digging deeper into the musical aspects than any of the other authors, D’Adamo details the theme’s orchestration; its funk, blues, and Gutbucket inspirations; and how it relates to other themes composed by Jones.

The only chapter to deal with the 1980s is ‘Once in a Lifetime: Music, Parody, and Comical Incongruity in The Young Ones’ by Philip Hayward and Matt Hill (indeed the collection on the whole largely elides the 1980s and 1990s). The Young Ones being a strong representation of the beginnings of alternative comedy on British television, Hayward and Hill detail the irony and meta-humour of the series, particularly focusing on the character of Rick who fancies himself a part...