Stan "Freeb" Freberg's 7-decade career made a huge impact in American comedy, especially in novelty songs. Everyone from Weird Al to Roseanne to Steven Spielberg all considered Freeb a huge influence.
Freeb also is largely responsible for shifting advertising from the straightforward pitches of the 50s to using humor, now ubiquitous. Here's Freberg as villainously incompetent network exec J.B. Toppersmith on The Weird Al Show:
His soap opera parody "John and Marsha" consisted entirely of just those two names said in different inflections:
His Dragnet v. St. George mashup:
His beatnik interrupting The Banana Boat Song:
Cosmik Debris did a great interview with him a while back.
