Spikes Jones, Allen Sherman, Stan Freberg, Yogi Yorgesson--these are just a few of the wonderful gems that have been unearthed over the years by the crazy Dr. Demento.  Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show (online and off) has been a favorite of mine for decades, and it is that show alone, I think, which has kindled such a devoted interest in novelty and comedy records.

High school kids bathe in the stuff.

Demento's fans have always plagued him with requests--petitions, phone calls, smoke signals, telegrammed threats, pushing their fave raves be it Rusty Warren's "Knockers Up!" or Jim Backus' "Delicious."  The market for this stuff are human beings trapped in a state of arrested development, and usually that means teenagers.

Demento has compiled many collections of this dumb music, and each one is an event that heralds a new level of tastelessness.  His packaged nonsense consistently serves as a wunnerful wunnerful introduction to what seems like a lost world of noise, gibberish, and loud burps. The selection of material on his collections has usually been determined by how successful it was on Demento's radio shows. (Napoleon XIV and R. Crumb always seem to be on them.)

For example, there's Possum's "The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati" (the answer record to "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago," which in and of itself is sufficiently demented--but in the world of novelty records there is always that step beyond) combines belches, groans, and screams to create the perfect horror-snot performance.  Not even grade-Z monster flicks were ever this appalling!

Then there's Ben Gay and the Silly Savages' "Ballad of Ben Gay," which belongs to the usual poke-fun-at-gays ilk, a genre so jam-packed with contenders that its equivalent can only be found in Helen Keller jokes.

Dumb discs of the demented variety are constantly be rediscovered, and a record can become "demented" even though its original intent was quite serious. The frustration here is that you have to listen to Dr. Demento's show in order to keep up.  (He's a great MC...kinda like what the Ghoul was for horror movies on TV.)

When bordom sets in, nothing but nothing beats a crazy record. Recorded dementia can cure zits, clear sinus passages, relieve back pain, and even stop constipation.  Hey, give it a chance!

Lots and lots of novelty records can be found regularly at the forever crazy POPKRAZY