999,978: The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band — Hunting Tigers Out In 'Indiah'

The problem with novelty songs is that they tend to be "wacky". I can't stand "wacky". I'm a fan of the straight man. Nothing's funnier than a right-thinking, upstanding citizen in the eye of a hurricane. Jerry Lewis wasn't funny, Dean Martin was. John Cleese as the ridiculous Frechman wasn't funny, Graham Chapman's King Arthur was. If I could differentiate between the Smothers Brothers, then I'd mention them, too.

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (later shortened to The Bonzo Dog Band, sadly) were a bunch of weirdos with horns and old-timey dance hall sweat in their veins, combined with the comic sensibilities of The Firesign Theatre, which is to say: They smoked tons of pot and thought any authority figure was surely retarded. Here, the Bonzos play the elephant-riding stiff-lippers, oblivious to the world's dangers. It could be seen as the first-person version of John Lennon's "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill." The Beatles loved these guys, which is whatever, I guess, but notable; they were the house band for the filming of The Magical Mystery Tour.

Personally, I can't get enough of British goofballs satirizing the upper crust in the crassest way possible. Maybe this is what Cabin Boy would have been, if Chris Elliot had an ear for WWII-era British standards, and the desire to lampoon colonialism.

Hunting Tigers Out In India - ...