I really like the comedy band Ninja Sex Party. It’s a good band. Members Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht portray the characters Danny Sexbang and Ninja Brian, respectively, and the band’s songs chronicle their adventures. These chronicles, per the name, are usually about ninjas, sex or parties, but every chronicle serves to flesh out the two characters. I’m going to rapid-fire some opinions about Ninja Sex Party and character-driven comedy, so strap in. Are you strapped in? You are? Are you in a car? You shouldn’t be reading the paper while driving. You’re in the passenger’s seat? You shouldn’t be reading the paper while denying your driving friend the very same pleasure. Feel free to read this column aloud to the driver so they may too revel in my coolness.
Sex is funny. Society’s been pretty adamant about normalizing sex and making it a more approachable topic, which is a good thing. But I suspect sex will never fully lose its status as taboo, simply because of its nature. It will never not make people feel uncomfortable. That being said, sex jokes will probably never not be deemed immature. These double negatives are really taking a toll on me, let me tell you. I’ll never not hate having to write a double negative. Sex is funny, but overt or crude sex talk is usually not welcomed in conversation. I touched on this in last week’s column, but the dynamics between a character delivering a joke and a person delivering a joke are radically different.
We can laugh when characters are immature, but we do not laugh when people speaking to us are immature. Whether we’re embarrassed by them or we simply don’t want to encourage them by laughing, we don’t respond well to crudeness in conversation; it’s a matter of saving face. But characters like Danny Sexbang, the hypersexual Jewish ex-ninja, grant us the comfort to laugh at their expense. Artists like Avidan and theoretical physicist Wecht, along with other comedy bands like Tenacious D and Steel Panther, grant us the window we need to peer into the ironies of sexuality.
Danny Sexbang is romantic, but he’s incredibly shallow. He strives for greatness, but he tries to one-up Ninja Brian whenever he gets the chance. He’s an imperfect and generally unlikable character, and that makes him an excellent outlet for sexual comedy. We can laugh at his immaturity, arrogance and rudeness without feeling uncomfortable.
I’m not a huge fan of The Lonely Island. Despite its rocking tunes and dope jams, I can’t say I’m as attached to it as I am to Ninja Sex Party. Part of this, I feel, is precisely because of the consistency of character in Ninja Sex Party. Each song contributes to Danny Sexbang’s depth of character: Songs like “Cool Patrol” and “Attitude City” showcase Sexbang’s warped perception of himself; songs like “Road Trip” and “Dragon Slayer” convey just how sleazy Sexbang can be; and songs like “Party of Three” and “Best Friends Forever” flesh out the murderous relationship between Sexbang and Ninja Brian. The presence of a through-line between each song and album makes the jokes feel less gimmicky and more organic because they’re spoken by a well-developed and familiar character. And it’s hard to make sex jokes feel organic. That sentence sounds nasty to me for some reason. Something about the word organic. Yuck.
Ninja Sex Party is a band that rewards its listeners for coming back. Despite the minutes-long nature of its songs, the band crafts a character who feels timeless. The songs play like episodes, and their lyrics detail their adventures. It’s a method of storytelling that’s hard to come by: a short-form, musical, comedic character study.
Also, the band members wrote an almost 9-minute rock opera called “6969,” so you know they’re talented.
Michael Smith is a mechanical engineering junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
