The phrase “comic genius” is tossed around rather freely these days. But one person to whom it genuinely applied was Stan Freberg, who has died at the age of 88.
Freberg was responsible for some brilliantly funny recordings in the 1950s and 1960s.
Perhaps you need to be a little on the old side (or “elderly,” as his censor below prefers) to fully appreciate him, but these are some of my favorites:
Here he makes fun of political correctness before there was such a thing as political correctness:
Here’s his take on the once bizarrely popular Lawrence Welk TV show:
And here he is having trouble with a loudness-averse bongo player on “The Banana Boat Song” (great animation):
