Richard Cheese

In the beginning there was nothing. Dr. Demento said, “Let there be comedy!” And there was. While the good doctor has since all but disappeared from the small cabal of artists who set their comedic timing to a metronome, his disciples have pressed on. Personal tragedy has kept Weird Al Yankovic out of the studio recently, but Richard Cheese, the un-Sinatra, has stepped forward to keep audiences laughing. Cheese croons his way through modern pop songs, setting their often profanity-filled lyrics against a lounge-act backdrop. Eleven new covers complement some of Cheese’s classics, such as Snoop’s “Gin and Juice.” What the album lacks, of course, is original material, but there’s no denying that it offers some serious belly laughs. This should do nicely until the second coming of Weird Al.