6 Songs That Take Their Comedy Movies To A Whole New Level
Maybe it’s because most comedians want to live out their secret dreams of becoming rock stars, but movie comedies about musicians are almost foolproof. One of the main reasons they always rock? All of these comedies have at least one kick-ass musical number that has us jumping out of our seats. Here are ComedyNerd’s choices for the best songs in our favorite comedies about music.
School of Rock
There’s a lot to choose from in the Jack Black blockbuster, including some sweet AC/DC covers and Joan Cusack rocking out to Stevie Nicks on the jukebox. But we have to go with the climactic Battle of the Bands rocker, Teacher’s Pet. Somehow, the fact that we believe that it could have been written by either The Who or a bunch of prep school kids says it all. The opening riff? Chills. And every solo melts our face off.
A Mighty Wind
A Kiss At the End of the Rainbow, a heartfelt dip of sweet chocolate performed by Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, was nominated for an Oscar and probably should have won. (Shoutout to castmate Michael McKean and his wife Annette O’Toole for writing it!) But for pure comedy’s sake--and this is a movie about how ridiculous the folk music scene can be -- we’re partial to any song by the Main Street Singers. Give us the sheer goofiness of The Good Book Song.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Giving The Lonely Island a budget and an R rating is one of the smartest things that ever happened to comedy. The movie’s plot points can be hit-or-miss, but Conner4Real’s pop song parodies are dead-on bullseyes. Every one is a banger, but we’ll go with Finest Girl (Bid Laden Song) with the Vanessa Bayer cameo we didn’t know we needed.
This is Spinal Tap
Popstar’s spiritual rockumentary godfather is full of can’t-miss rockers, often so close to actual heavy metal songs that the movie’s original audience sometimes thought they were watching an actual documentary. Big Bottom and Hellhole still hold up but as a comedy centerpiece, nothing can compare to the minimalist bombast of Stonehenge.
That Thing You Do
Tom Hanks’ directorial debut was so funny and assured that it was a mystery why he didn’t get behind the camera again for a couple of decades. His comedy about the One-ders (pronounced Wonders) has one main song, also co-written by Hanks, but it’s a helluva ditty. The scene where drummer and Hanks-doppelganger Guy Patterson decide to propel a ballad into an all-out bop makes us believe these guys can take on the world.
The Blues Brothers
Let’s be honest -- neither John Belushi nor Dan Aykroyd were great musicians. And most of the killer musical numbers in The Blues Brothers belong to actual artists like Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin. But in one climactic song, Belushi and Aykroyd catch lightning in a bottle and bring the off- and onscreen audiences to their feet. Everybody does indeed need someone to love.
For more ComedyNerd, be sure to check out:
The Hilarious Show About The Least Funny Thing Ever
8 Comedy Greats Who Have Never Hosted SNL
25 Homer Simpson Moments For The Ages
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Top image: Universal Pictures
