The 17 best funny songs of all time

Admit it — you sing this song every time you’re on a boat. Maybe even when you’re not on a boat. This gem from The Lonely Island garnered a Grammy nomination in the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category. The guys and T-Pain made this SNL Digital Short a ridiculous, infectious hit in 2009, and we’re still looking for any opportunity to get down with Auto-Tune on a watercraft.

Floating on top of a cloud of pretty guitars, this Flight of the Conchords number has instrumentation worthy of a good gig rather than a good giggle. Sack off the funny-as-funerals ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ and listen to the Kiwi boys’ tune about a far more appealing Mrs Brown instead.

Featuring a twentysomething Jimmy Fallon, with Prince-esque falsetto, dumb lyrics about being a boyfriend and an uncredited Zooey Deschanel, ‘Idiot Boyfriend’ is properly ridiculous. It’s also ridiculously catchy, and became part of Fallon’s Grammy-nominated lolz album ‘The Bathroom Wall’.

Mixing the instrumental from ‘Beverly Hill Cop’ with a lewd, crudely animated amphibian shouldn’t have worked. But humans are human, frogs are crazy, and this novelty hit led to compilations, ringtones, millions of sales and 1.5 billion views online. Never underestimate the power of an insidiously annoying cartoon…

London don Jimothy Lacoste has made a name for himself – literally and figuratively – with low-key musings on fashion and life in the Big Smoke. ‘Subway System’ sees him compliment the London underground for being 'fast, like it’s just sniffed cocaine'. Though accurate, we can’t see that line being used by TfL any time soon.

... As in Schnappi, the tiny German crocodile. Bouncing along with a pop backing so sweet it deserves its own sugar tax, his single ‘Das Kleine Krokodil’ conquered Top Tens around continental Europe back in 2004. More innocent times, right?

Its chorus is about as coherent as a mate’s K-hole ramblings, but back in 2002 we all – ahem – relished this one for its ‘Macarena’-style backing and ludicrous lyrics. Supposedly it’s about a Spanish guy called Diego trying to sing along to ‘Rapper's Delight’ but mincing the words. Yeah, idk.

Chuck Berry’s only number one Billboard Hot 100 single is all about the double entendre. The tune is about a young boy and his “ding-a-ling”: a toy consisting of “silver bells hanging on a string”. Sounds innocent enough, but most listeners will giggle knowingly when Chuck sings about playing with his ding-a-ling in school, holding it during a fall, and protecting it with both hands while swimming through dangerous waters. It caused a commotion back in the day, but today it just brings a laugh.

This Croydon lad’s novelty grime tune went platinum at the start of last year, garnering a mad 325m YouTube views. The tune goes off with its Giggs’s instrumental – and, for those who know, the ting goes ‘skrrrahh, pap, pap, ka-ka-ka, Skidiki-pap-pap, and a pu-pu-pudrrrr-boom’.

Yes, it’s about a dick in a box, and yes, it’s a classic. Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake joined forces for The Lonely Island’s debut single, which teaches us that no present is more special than, erm, a package in a package.

We could put together a whole list of the best Weird Al songs. How can you pick just one amongst hilarious tracks like “Fat”, “Eat It”, “Amish Paradise”, “Like a Surgeon”, “Smells Like Nirvana” and the list goes on… “White & Nerdy” is one of the funniest though, as Weird Al takes on Chamillionaire, rapping about comic books, riding a Segway, wearing braces, and owning a fanny pack.

Roll Safe - Fire in The Booth

Before Big Shaq came the lisping made-up grime failure played by Kayode Ewumi. His iconic ‘Fire in the Booth’ freestyle led to viral fame, a BBC3 spin-off and that meme where he looks really wise.

You must have been hibernating if you haven’t heard this one – this gelatinous castrato bear has racked up over 1.7 billion (!) views online. According to its creators, Gummibär is still watched more than one million times a day, every single day. Let that sink in, while the boppy backing sinks into your skull for days.

This one ain't about scoring a really ace mark, but is about going from your twenties into (shudder) your thirties. It's a killer duet to capture this inevitable rite-of-passage: 50% optimism, 50% screaming frustration and 100% ukulele-flecked catchiness.

Crooned by a Russian baritone singer from the ’70s, this song originally featured lyrics about a cowboy riding a horse, but these were later abandoned in favour of nonsensical la-las, dah-dahs, and lolololols. It led to a lot of internet lololols too, prompting this rather excellent viral sing-along version.

No prizes for guessing this minute-long song’s narrative – it’s all about defecating on your mother (and your father, too, for good measure). Part of rubbish punk band Terminal Margaret’s repertoire in the ‘Boosh’ episode ‘Journey to the Centre of the Punk’, it ends with the head-spinningly meta line: ‘I did a shit on your shit.’ Nice.

We had to include a second Lonely Island song, ’cause every ditty is so darn witty. ‘Semicolon’ sees the boys and Solange try to prove their grammar chops through the use of semicolons, but actually reel off perfect examples of how to use a colon. D’oh!