Freberg, genius of comedy and commercials, dies at 88

LOS ANGELES – Stan Freberg, the spirited comic genius who lampooned American history in his landmark recordings “The United States of America” and was hailed as the father of the funny commercial, died Tuesday. He was 88.

His face might not have been as recognizable as other humorists’, but Freberg’s influence was arguably greater, thanks to a huge body of work assembled over 70 years that encompassed radio, television, comedy albums, advertising jingles and nightclub performances.

“He’s an American institution,” film historian Leonard Maltin once said. “His name has become embedded in our culture like Mark Twain’s.”

Freberg continued to work almost until his death. In November, he took in “The Genius of Stan Freberg,” a retrospective hosted by Harry Shearer and attended by “Weird Al” Yankovic, the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz and others.

In recent years he was a panelist at the Comic Con pop-culture convention, and in 2011 he released a new comedy recording, “Songs in the Key of Freberg.”

He had his greatest impact through comic records and syndicated radio shows that began in the 1950s and continued into recent years. His masterpiece was the pioneering concept album “Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America.”

After much success lampooning American pop culture, Freberg began to turn his attention in the late 1950s to advertising.

He won nearly two dozen CLIO awards, advertising’s equivalent of the Oscar, leading the industry publication Advertising Age to declare, “No one label fits Stan Freberg. But the father of the funny commercial seems a fitting epithet.”