An Excerpt from My Upcoming Book In Her Own Key: Rethinking the History of Women in Music (2027)
A NEW BOOK? ALREADY?
A NEW BOOK? What about the other one?
My teaching memoir, Red Pens, Blue Screens will be released and available next week. Really!!! However, my attention also tends to drift to my other passion, and….
I’m currently completing a book about the history of women in music, scheduled for release in 2027. Since the world seems especially heavy lately, I thought perhaps everyone could use a laugh. The following is a slightly abridged excerpt from a chapter exploring humor, satire, absurdity, and comic subversion in women’s music.
“Women Aren’t Funny?” — A Historically Poor Prediction
John Belushi famously told Lorne Michaels, the creator and longtime producer of Saturday Night Live, “Women are just fundamentally not funny.”
A few days later, Belushi met Gilda Radner.
I want to take a little time here to celebrate women in music who are funny—or at least have some very funny songs and moments. For me, they are pure gold.
Music criticism often gravitates toward the serious: heartbreak, rebellion, political unrest, longing, transcendence. But humor matters too. Some of the funniest songs ever written are hidden in plain sight inside pop, punk, alternative, and experimental music.
Joyful Absurdity: The B-52’s and Debbie Harry
The The B-52’s remain one of the great examples. Yes, Fred Schneider is hilarious, but Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson contribute enormous comic voltage themselves. The warbles and yelps in “Rock Lobster” were only the beginning. Listen to “Dance This Mess Around,” “Legal Tender,” or “Song for a Future Generation.” When Cindy deadpans lines about chihuahuas and Chinese noodles with complete sincerity, the commitment itself becomes part of the joke.
Debbie Harry often wielded humor more sharply. In songs such as “Rip Her to Shreds” and “Sunday Girl,” wit hides beneath glamour. One girl is described as “cold as ice cream but still as sweet,” while elsewhere listeners are advised to “deteriorate in your own time.” Sharp? Absolutely. Funny? Also yes.
Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, and the Art of Quirk
Then there is bassist Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and later Tom Tom Club. Watching Weymouth bounce gleefully through “Psycho Killer” in Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense remains one of the pure joys of live performance.
Tom Tom Club songs such as “Wordy Rappinghood” and “Genius of Love” sound like your funniest friends hanging around at 2 a.m. saying ridiculous things while somehow stumbling into brilliance.
Self-Deprecation, Vernacular, and Comic Observation
Even tragic artists often wield humor masterfully. Amy Winehouse brought biting self-awareness to “Rehab” and “You Know I’m No Good.” Self-deprecation remains one of humor’s oldest traditions.
And speaking of comic vernacular brilliance, Missy Elliott’s “Work It” may be one of the funniest hit songs ever recorded. As an English teacher, I treasure these grammatical rebellions—though my students occasionally look alarmed when I announce that I’m about to “get my nails did.”
Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett also specializes in sly observational humor. She can transform mundane anxieties into punch lines, including the fear that an overgrown yard might make neighbors suspect you are running a meth lab. That strange mixture of deadpan detail and existential unease gives her songwriting enormous charm.
Flo & Joan, Kristin Key, and Internet-Era Musical Comedy
Over in England, the musical comedy duo Flo and Joan deliver razor-sharp harmonies and exquisitely awkward humor. In one song, a narrator remains haunted for life after accidentally shaking someone’s thumb instead of their hand and saying “Mice to meet you.” In another, they unleash a glorious barrage of alliteration involving a lemon-loving woodland woman. Their work proves that linguistic precision can itself become comedy.
Meanwhile, performers such as Kristin Key and Carrie Blanton continue blending songwriting with stand-up-style humor for modern internet audiences. Key often focuses on lesbian identity and relationships, while Blanton delivers incisive political satire through acoustic songwriting. Both represent newer evolutions of the musical-comedy tradition in the TikTok and Instagram era.
Punk Rock, Muslim Women, and One of the Funniest Shows in Years
One of my favorite recent discoveries is the British series We Are Lady Parts, created by Nida Manzoor. The show follows an all-female Muslim punk band in England. Read that sentence again. Tell me you expected that premise.
The series is hilarious, musically excellent, and surprisingly moving. More importantly, it demonstrates how music can become a vehicle for rebellion, identity, absurdity, and empowerment all at once. And make sure you play “Bashir with a Good Beard” very loud.
So to the late Mr. Belushi, I say—respectfully and historically—you were wrong.
And I suspect he figured that out pretty quickly himself.
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