Love him or hate him but Ricky Gervais is back on the screens this summer. As of today (19th August) David Brent moves out of retirement and into our cinema for the new film, David Brent: Life on the Road.
David Brent is up there with some of the funniest comedic / parody acts out there, but where does he stand in our top 10 most hilarious comedy & parody music acts?
10. Flight Of The Conchords
“You’re so beautiful, like a tree, or a high-class prostitute.”
Perhaps the hipsters choice of parody act. But it just wouldn’t be right to leave out a band who can mimic the likes of Bowie, Prince and The Pet Shop Boys so well!
9. “Weird Al” Yankovic
Personally, this writer finds him a little overrated. It’s a bit like Lee Evans’ stand-up. It’s quite funny, but when you’ve got every Tom, Dick, and Harry sharing his videos and forcing the same five jokes onto you, it quickly turns into something that just isn’t funny anymore.
8. Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap is pure comedy gold; there’s a reason so many major artists reference that film. It’s closer to the truth than some like to admit. But the best scenes in the movie are the dialogue, which we can all quote. The music almost feels a little secondary, thus explaining their lowly 8th place.
7. The Shirehorses
The Shirehorses are most definitely an acquired taste, but there’s something brilliant about the way they use mundane subjects to turn big hits into parody songs.
6. David Brent
“She’s not dead!”
We all know a complete tosser who happens to have a conveniently placed guitar around him at all times, ready to play his latest tunes to anyone who even feigns to register an interest. The songs are always crap, but you don’t want to burst the guy’s ego.
David Brent is that tosser, just in office clothing.
5. Garfunkle and Oates
Well, they just bloody are, aren’t they!
4. Tenacious D
It may be a little less funny with the passing years, but we could safely bet you that you could do a complete run-through of the lyrics to Tribute to this day!
3. The Mighty Boosh
The Boosh are just so absurd that nothing comes close. What goes on in the mind of Noel Fielding? Is it all peacock dreams or is there a darkness that fuels his music? Are we talking rubbish to fill the word count? Probably!
2. Monty Python
The kings of comedy could also write a funny ditty too. Maybe this was where Noel Fielding gathered his absurd ideas?
1. The Rutles
Typically when a parody gets too close to reality, it loses its humor. In this instance, it just builds the laughs. Neil Innes (of Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band fame) wrote all the tunes from his memories of Beatles songs, choosing not to listen back to the source material during the writing process. Thus the songs sound close enough to The Beatles while giving them the room to add some Python style surrealness to the whole project. The film All You Need Is Cash also features cameos from George Harrison and Mick Jagger among others.
