Flavorwire

Whether or not Lady Gaga’s weird motorcycle hybrid album cover thingy was meant to be funny is entirely open for debate, but either way, the finished product is pretty hilarious. Apart from other examples of God-awful album covers (of which there are plenty), the whole thing got us thinking about musicians who are genuinely funny – often unexpectedly so, like Gaga herself, who has often displayed a pleasantly self-deprecating sense of humor in interviews. Read our selection after the jump. For the sake of this post, we’ve excluded actual comedians who also play music – so no Flight of the Conchords, The Mighty Boosh, etc. But even then, there are plenty to choose from.

Jens Lekman

For a man with a reputation as a bit of a latter-day Leonard Cohen, his songs gorgeously melancholy and lovelorn, Jens Lekman can be startlingly funny. He’s got a way with an unexpectedly hilarious couplet (take, for instance, “When people think of Sweden, I think they have the wrong idea/Like Cliff Richard, who thought it was just porn and gonorrhea,” or “She said it was all make-believe/But I thought she said ‘Maple leaves’/When she talked about the fall/I thought she talked about Mark E. Smith”). Live, he’s a consummate raconteur, illuminating his songs with anecdotes that are full of self-deprecating humor.