I’ve always thought my most geek defining characteristic was not my love of comic books or sci-fi, but that of musical comedy. Sure, everyone enjoys watching a good parody on SNL or YouTube occasionally, but how many have their iPod full of comedic music albums?
Like most geeks I cut my death on the genre with the king, Mr. “Weird Al” Yankovic. Yes, you’ll find his complete discography on my iPod. While I find Al’s more recent work a bit disappointing (which I mostly blame on the fact that he is parodying current top 40 songs, which I hate), I can still put on Dare To Be Stupid and laugh my ass off. From “Weird Al” I would graduate (to a lesser degree) to Monty Python and Adam Sandler. But being Canadian I also stumbled across a musical trio from Kingston, Ontario called The Arrogant Worms!
I don’t remember now how it happened, but sometime in the mid-90’s I came into possession of the groups first two albums The Arrogant Worms and Russell’s Shorts. There were no parodies and they contained some very Canadian content with songs like “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate”, “The Canadian Crisis Song” and “A Night on Dildo” (not what you think Watson). (Later albums would feature songs that would get the Worms dubbed by some reviewers as having “too much Canadian content” such as “The Mountie Song”, “Rocks and Trees” (as in, we’ve got a lot of them), “We Are the Beaver” (our national animal), “Me Like Hockey”, “Proud to be Canadian” and “Canada’s Really Big” (we’re bigger than Australia, and it’s a continent).) But were these guys ever funny.
Some of my favorites include:
“I Want to Look Like Arnold”, about a man who’s had enough of being a couch potato and wants to look like his hero…
“Jesus’ Brother Bob”, from the perspective of Christ’s lesser known sibling.
“William Shakespeare’s in My Cat”, the Bard reincarnated.
“Great to Be a Nerd”, much like Weird Al’s White And Nerdy, a potential geek anthem.
As you can see, the topics of their songs are fast and no one is spared. While Canada gets it share of love (and jives) they also show their geek cred with the last song above as well as the likes of “Tokyo Love Song” (a man loses the love of his life when she is stepped on by Godzilla) and “Killer Robots from Venus” (they’ll invade Montreal, but also join the PTA “because they care”).
Give them a try. And for more on the Arrogant Worms but sure to check out their official site.
And if you like your musical comedy a little more R-rated and NSFW, be sure to check out the genius of Stephen Lynch. He also does a song about Christ’s lesser known sibling:
And one about Superheroes!
Gabbing Geek 
Ha! Never heard of these cats, but pretty funny!
LikeLike