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Can it work? I'm talking about lowbrow scat/dick humor here, not the more punning and ironic stuff in the lyrics of Motorhead, Skyclad, etc. I'm posing the question in the context of Gwar, Lich King, Scatterbrain, SOD, "Kraf Dinner", Shat, etc.

I'm going to open the discussion by saying NO, metal is partly defined by its seriousness. Which is not to say that unintentional humor can't result. By all means, it can and it does...

Growing up with, and worshiping crossover bands like SPAZZTIC BLURR, WEHRMACHT, DEHUMANIZERS, LUDICHRIST, SWEATY NIPPLES, early MR. BUNGLE etc I can't help subscribing to The Late Master Zappa's notion that Humor DOES belong in [Heavy] Rock'n'Roll on some fundamental, mischievious level..

metal is partly defined by its seriousness

..hold a very serious truth. There's however some brilliant, very sublime moments in Metal History where blunt, dumbed-down, low-brow humor have saved the genre rather than diminished it. I'll just namedrop "Disgusting Semla" for the time being and get back on the subject after a good night's sleep..

Well, I put a lot of humor in the concept and lyrics of my band. I think what's important is being serious when it comes to writing the music, and I think that's where sometimes bands like Gwar fail. The music gets as stupid or even more than the lyrics. For example, I always say that we're not a joke band, but one with a sense of humor. We take metal seriously otherwise we wouldn't be doing it, but I'm a person with a lot of sense of humor and it's almost impossible for me not to include it in something I do.
There you have bands like Autopsy, Macabre and Pungent Stench, who always had sense of humor in their lyrics (and the last two sometimes even in the music) yet they're cult bands and 100% real metal for sure (I'm just talking about Death Metal 'cause it's what I know more about). So I would say yes, humor can be included into metal without any problem.

Dan's avatar reminded me that Quorthon would give fake names which really either were funny or insulted the interviewer. It was funny and it seemed to work.

in HM I appreciate bands that take their humor seriously, like Carnivore for example.

I certainly don't see it as central to Metal, but it certainly plays or can play a part. I laugh a lot with Carnivore and Macabre, to bring up two names that were mentioned. 'Kraf dinner' (also mentioned) is in my opinion a perfect example of an amazingly killer song totally ruined by stupid lyrics, so that didn't work for me.
At its inception, humour even had a place in Black Metal (my definition of it): 'Teacher's Pet'!

It is qute funny. I never thought it would be such of an issue, but "Black Metal Sucks" tune from the new LICH KING album generated a grandiose amount of all sorts of responses. I personally always tried to not to take such things seriously and to see them from the funny side, but there were a lot of people who couldnt do that with that song.

The really funny thing is I get tons of black metal folks asking me which band the closing sample is, without realizing it is still LICH KING... I think Tom Martin should make a black metal side project, he would be very successful at it

Don't forget the glorious Mentors with songs like "Golden shower", "Herpes Two" or "Hetrosexuals Have the Right to Rock". Not very sophisticated, but hey, who cares?

I also had a good laugh with Nanowar from Italy with their Iron Maiden parody "Number of the Bitch" But usually I don't buy any fun album, because good music is timeless, jokes are not.

And yes, I love the Carnivore lyrics, perfect fit for their music.

Well, if you're going into joke bands such as Nanowar or Judas Prost, you always have Massacration from Brazil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaZ_jP11oG4

Well, a ton of Thrash bands, mostly from the US East Coast scene were hugely based on humour and politically incorrect innuendo...

When I first got into metal, Gwar was one of my favorite bands, so of course I think humor can work in metal. I still think that the music on some of their early albums is really good, especially Scumdogs of the Universe and America Must Be Destroyed. I'd rather listen to them than a lot of "serious" thrash metal bands.

I like what Gezol from Sabbat has to say on the subject: "Metal isn't a joke, but the boundary that lies between these two is rather subtle. If you make one wrong move, it becomes a joke. That's why metal can't be understood by anyone except someone who has a real sense of humor."

DaN wrote:early MR. BUNGLE

Do you mean The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny
demo? It's the only good thing I've heard from them..

Lawnmower Deth.