In the same (jugular?) vein - Bongwater - novelty band?

Heh. See my edit. Sometimes.

Heh. See my edit. Sometimes.

Heh indeed. Though I think both might argue "performance art" vs. "novelty".

Which brings us (or me at least) to the question of Laurie Anderson. I'd definitely say not a novelty act, though some of her songs are funny enough to qualify.

Part of the problem is this:

I say, "No, it's too awesome to be a novelty song!"

Novelty songs can be awesome! Famously, a lot of novelty bands featured top notch musicianship. Notably Spike Jones band. And the Bonzo Dog Band isn't only a novelty band, though songs like "The Intro and the Outro" work perfectly well as novelty. I mean Monty Python Sings is an album full of novelty songs but they're brilliant and hilarious and have that dark, Python undertow.

"Dick in a Box" is another recent classic novelty song, and video. It's not a song parody, but it does parody boy band video conventions.

No, not really with the boy band video conventions, but it does parody the immediate pre-grunge era top 40 music video style effectively.

I'd definitely say not a novelty act, though some of her songs are funny enough to qualify.

Right. "O Superman" is a serious song, but it was a hit as a novelty. Dry irony can be mistaken.

Oftentimes the novelty of the song is that it's an unfamiliar genre. The first rap hit, "Double Dutch" was sold as a novelty. "Stars on 45" were also considered novelty songs. Cut-ins were novelties.

but it does parody the immediate pre-grunge era top 40 music video style effectively.

Yeah, I guess boy bands didn't really sport that beard that Justin was wearing in the video.

So it sounds like a humorous video for a non-novelty song can also create a novelty. Maybe the classic example is David Lee Roth's medley of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody." Where the song itself is sung pretty straight-forwardly, but the video parodies everyone from Willie Nelson to Boy George.

But where does that leave something like "Centerfold"?

Maybe the classic example is David Lee Roth's medley of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody."

That is a good example. But a lot of videos are novelties or have parodic elements even when the song isn't. There are like five or six videos I can think of offhand that played off the Robert Palmer Zombie Girl Supermodel look.

But where does that leave something like "Centerfold"?

As with most genre taxonomies it's rarely an either/or question but a matter of spectrum and degree.

I wouldn't call that song a novelty, though the J. Geils Band did do some novelty songs, my favorite being "No Anchovies Please."

So what does a band have to do to be pegged with the "Novelty band" label? Just one novelty song? One popular novelty song? Or does having a large existing oeuvre of "serious" songs before releasing a novelty song protect a band from the "novelty band" label?

Was David Bowie considered a novelty act (due to "Laughing Gnome") before Space Oddity or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars came out?

Was David Bowie considered a novelty act (due to "Laughing Gnome") before Space Oddity or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars came out?

No, he was considered a failed mod, Anthony Newley copycat and a twee-as-fuck folkie.