Funny / Steely Dan

• The liner note essay for the 1998-2000 CD remasters. You have to buy 8 CDs to read the whole thing (each CD is accompanied by the part of the essay about that album), but boy is it worth it. A highlight is the Aja section of the essay, which contains an angry conference call between Becker, Fagen, the music writer who wrote the original liner notes, and a hapless real estate agent who accidentally found his way into the conversation.
• The pretzel cart on the cover of Pretzel Logic has a misspelled sign advertising "Hot Pretzles". One wonders if this was why Becker and Fagen chose that particular pretzel cart, considering their general meticulousness.
• Quite a bit of their songs' lyrics:
  • "Cousin Dupree," a song about a twenty-something loser trying to hit on his cousin.
    Janine: Maybe it's the skeevy look in your eye, or that your mind has turned to applesauce, the dreary architecture of your soul-
    Dupree: But what is it exactly turns ya off?
  • "Kid Charlemagne" snarks at its drug dealer main character, asking "did you feel like Jesus?" This is sort of funny, but it becomes hard not to burst out laughing when Donald Fagen sings "Is there gas in the car? Yes, there's gas in the car!" Owsley Stanley, the man "Kid Charlemagne"s story is based on, was caught by the police after his car ran out of gas.
  • The lyrics to the title track of "Gaucho" are frequently humorous in a way reminiscent of Frank Zappa (who Becker and Fagen were fans of): "Why is he standing in your spangled yellow poncho, and your elevator shoes" and "No he can't sleep on the floor, what do you think I'm yelling for?" are two lines that spring to mind.
• During live performances of "Hey Nineteen," the band will vamp for a bit while Fagen or Becker tells a long-winded tale which eventually culminates in a reference to tequila. Specifically, that special kind of tequila. Which he can't quite remember the name of. Maybe the backup singers know.
  "The Cuervo Go-o-old!"
• Most of the songs on their 2003 album, Everything Must Go, are at least chuckle-inducing.
  • Pixeleen
    Our man Abu squeezes off twenty tracer rounds
    And that's when she jumps the turnstile
    And as she clings to the roof of a speeding train
    The Double A down to Sheridan Square
    Her cell phone rings
    It's, like, her stupid father
    be in the door by ten
    again
  • The Last Mall, a gleefully sarcastic song about shopgoers preparing for an imminent apocalypse.
    Attention all shoppers
    It's cancellation day
    Yes, the Big Adios
    Is just a few hours away
    It's last call
    To do your shopping
    At the Last Mall
  • Slang of Ages (one of the only tracks where Walter Becker sang lead vocals), which is about an older man trying to impress a younger woman by using woe-fully uncool, outdated slang. Eventually the girl just up and leaves, leading to this gem:
    Hey, where'd she go?
    Damn, she skipped dimensions!
    Was it something I said?
• Their website contains many pieces from Becker and/or Fagen that are as funny as many of their songs. Those Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pleas from the 1990's mentioned on the main entry are a good example.
• The live version of "Bodhisattva" from 1974 that was put on the B-side of both "Hey Nineteen" and "Time Out of Mind" and later reissued on the Citizen Steely Dan box set. Or more specifically, the introduction. They had one of their roadies, Jerome Aniton, deliver it. He had a bit of a fondness for alcohol. He was also under the impression that he was working for a singer named Steely Dan (or Stevie Dan), despite being constantly corrected. Highlights from his two and a half minute speech:
  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! We're glad you made it here tonight.
  Because you're gonna miss out...You can tell your friends tomorrow
  That they're gonna miss out on a (bleep)damn good thing we gonna give you tonight
  Mr. Magnificent One is here. The Beautiful One is here...
  The One and Only One, Mr. Steely Dan whatever!
• For fans of Black Comedy, there's "Everyone's Gone To The Movies", a song about an ephebophile who invites the neighborhood kids to his house to show them porno movies. What takes it into being especially funny is the chorus, from the point of view of the clueless parents:
  Everyone's gone to the movies!
  Now we're alone at last!
• From the Classic Albums episode for Aja, we're introduced with Donald and Walter sitting behind a soundboard while the opening to "Black Cow" plays...at which point Donald begins gleefully rapping "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)" (a song that prominently features "Black Cow"'s opening).
• The Two Against Nature concert DVD features Don and Walter hosting a hilarious piss-take of your typical zero-budget public-access cable show. The crowner has to be when they confront bassist Tom Barney with the philosophical implications of musicians who own dozens if not hundreds of instruments.