Funny Business

One of the major criticisms of rock music has always been its lack of respect for any authority. It openly mocks the powers that be, and is snide and sarcastic in general. It has fun, but also makes fun and pokes fun.

But sometimes when rock is being the class clown, it’s actually funny. Novelty songs have been part of all music from time immemorial, and that’s no less true of rock.

And yet, the Rock Hall has never seen fit, in its three decades-plus of operation, to even nominate a novelty act.

Granted, there are only a handful of novelty acts that might even qualify. But that just makes their exclusion all the odder.

Rock is supposed to thumb its nose at the establishment. People were worried, when the Hall was opened, that putting rock in a museum might make it codger-ly and stodgy. Did their worries come true?

Rock laughs at everything, even itself. By inducting even one novelty or parody act, the Hall would indicate that it understand this, that it acknowledges the place of comedy in rock… and that it’s not afraid to crack a smile now and then.

https://www.change.org/p/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-weird-al-yankovic-for-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame