The Grateful Dead as improv comedy

Breaking out of the Romantic and tragic frames

One of the Grateful Dead’s most endearing qualities is their self-deprecating sense of humor.

They are easy to make fun of, too.

The music is a fair target for mockery, as Conan O’Brien did in a monologue: “The Grateful Dead are planning to release an 85-disc anthology of their musical career. The project has been delayed because The Dead haven’t decided which song to release.” The Onion took a similar tack in Our Dumb Century.

Here’s a darker joke:

What’s the one thing that can kill Chuck Norris?
Playing keys for the Grateful Dead.

The fandom is the subject of plenty of jokes too:

How many Deadheads does it take to change a lightbulb?
One to fix the new one and 50,000 to follow around the burned-out one.

And, of course, the Deadheads love a good inside joke.