Funniest opera & musical songs

"He Had Refinement" from DL fave Shirley Booth from "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" from back in 1950. A lady in my building was in the chorus and sang this at a party!

You might be new to opera, but "Platee" is not in the standard repertoire.

When I attend a performance of Handel's Messiah I always smile when the chorus sings All We Like Sheep. I hear it as "Oh we like sheep ".

I love "Glitter & Be Gay," but I've only ever heard two women recorded who get get the full humor out of it: June Anderson 9first and foremost), and Madeline Kahn (Kristin Chenoweth came close, but as usual overdid it).

Comic songs from musicals I otherwise love that are genuinely funny:

"Then You May Take Me to the Fair" from "Camelot"

"Just You Wait" from "My Fair Lady"

"Adelaide's Lament" from "Guys and Dolls"

"Conga!" from "Wonderful Town" (but Roz Russell is the only one I've ever heard make it really funny)

"His Love Makes Me Beautiful" from "Funny Girl"

"The Cookie Chase" from "Anyone Can Whistle"

"Poor Baby" and "The Little Things You Do Together" from "Company"

But the funniest song I've ever heard from a musical is undoubtedly "Babette," from "One the 20th Century" as sung by Madeline Kahn

"A Weekend In The Country" from A Little Night Music

Getting Married Today, from "Company."

5 of my favorites (yeah, yeah, I know I'm a little late to the thread):

"Little Tin Box" (FIORELLO!)

"Hate Song" (THE MAD SHOW)

"Not on Your Nellie" (DARLING OF THE DAY)

"The Money Rings Out Like Freedom" (COCO)

"A Big Black Lady Stops the Show" (FAME BECOMES ME)

"Turn It Off," and "Hello," from "The Book of Mormon"

"To Keep My Love Alive" from " A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."

"The Best Way to Lose a Man" from "Wonderful Town."

"I Can Cook, Too" from "On the Town."

"Always True to You (In My Fashion)" from "Kiss Me, Kate."

"You're Nothing Without Me" from "City of Angels." I love the wordplay.

I Love to Laugh/Mary Poppins

A Little Priest from Sweeny Todd never falls to get a chuckle, except from that horrible film version.

Robert Preston's "Ya Got Trouble" from THE MUSIC MAN makes me laugh every time I hear it.

I reckon that's my Number One rib-ticklin' number from a show.

"I Cain't Say No" from "Oklahoma."

R8 Also from City of Angels. Phil Donahue’s stage isn’t the best setting for the song but it is Randy Graff who originated the song and performance.

You Gotta Have a Gimmick, from Gypsy

"Motherhood" from Hello, Dolly!

"The World's Inamorata" from Lady in the Dark

"Paris Original" from HTSIBWRT

"Veronique" from "On the Twentieth Century"

"My Philosophy" from the revival of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

"Springtime for Hitler" from "The Producers"

[quote] You might be new to opera, but "Platee" is not in the standard repertoire.

The OP didn't say at any point it had to be.

Get over yourself, Blanche.

Mr. Livingston from Happy Hunting (Merman)

You Took Advantage of Me from On Your Toes (Stritch sounds like she's drunk as the song builds.)

Why do the Wrong People Travel from Sail Away (also Stritch)

I'm Unlucky at Gambling (Fifty Million Frenchmen)

Nobody's Chasing Me & I Sleep Easier Now (Out of this World)

Oh Diogenes (The Boys From Syracuse)

Wild About You (Louisiana Purchase)

My Mother's Wedding Day (Brigadoon)

Go Visit Your Grandmother (70 Girl 70)

Everybody's Girl (Steel Pier)

Show Off & As We Stumble Along (Drowsy Chaperone)

Blue Bird Song (Show Girl)

Death is Such an Odd Thing (Dance of the Vampires): video on yt.

If I Can't Sell It (Black and Blue)

Sweet Georgia Brown (Bubbling Brown Sugar)

Adelaide's Lament (Guys & Dolls)

Hostess With the Mostess (Call Me Madam)

I've Still Got My Health (Panama Hattie)

I Can Cook Too (On the Town)- check out Nancy Walker video on YouTube for Come Up to My Place.

You Gotta Gave A Gimmick never fails to get huge laughs from an audience. The Farmyard audition scene with Dainty June and co. always gets big laughs when the audience realizes Rose is using the same material from when they were kids but just slightly tweaked.

Can That Boy Foxtrot always makes me laugh when I hear someone solid do it.

Any song Dorothy Loudon sang usually gave me some laughs. She was a ham, but she knew how to find the humor in anything. She could turn around and break your heart with something like Fifty Percent.

R20 Her version of Losing My Mind mixed with You Could Drive a Person Crazy in one of the best Sondheim concerts is both hysterical and heart wrenching. From Ballroom, I also love A Really Nice Crowd as well as I Wish You a Waltz.

From Do I Hear a Waltz, What Do We Do? We Fly! and This Week Americans are very funny. The reprise of the later is wicked because it exposes the character's hypocrisy.

"What a Lovely Day for a Wedding" -- Allegro

"I'll Never Be Jealous Again" -- The Pajama Game

"Drop That Name" -- Bells are Ringing

"Please Hello" -- Pacific Overtures

"Conga!" -- Wonderful Town

"I Love To Cry At Weddings" - Sweet Charity

"I've Got A Little List" - The Mikado

"Everybody Ought To Have A Maid" - Forum

"Was I Wazir" - Kismet

"Bosom Buddies" - Mame

I Never Do Anything Twice (Sondheim wrote it for the film the Seven Percent Solution, but it's in Side By Side By Sondheim)

Better With a Man (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder)

You Were Dead You Know (Candide)

Screw Loose (Cry Baby)

Almost the entire score of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

I'm Breaking Down (Falsettos)

Agony (Into the Woods)

Keep It Gay (The Producers)

"Forget About the Boy" - Thoroughly Modern Milllie