Reading his sheet music can be almost as much fun as watching him perform. I can remember seeing one piece with a tempo note that read, "Mit Schlag" [1]. I laughed so hard I couldn't see.
[1] For those who don't speak German, this phrase literally means, "with impact" but idiomatically it means "with whipped cream." It's generally used when ordering desert.
An amusing moment in my college years was when a roommate was trying to broaden his mind by listening to classical — but unwittingly downloaded PDQ. It sounded _almost_ authentic, but had the classic Schickele twists that gave it away.
I’ve not heard much of his music (I must remedy that), but I remember hearing one of his pieces (perhaps on Prairie Home Companion?) which was an operatic setting of a joke (“transporting gulls across a staid lion for immortal porpoises”) and it elucidated so much of how opera worked structurally that I never got from listening to actual operas. There’s a lot of education hidden in the jokes.
I played his Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano in college. At the time I knew all about PDQ Bach, but I wasn't aware of his serious compositions until I played the piece. It was really quite lovely.
[1] For those who don't speak German, this phrase literally means, "with impact" but idiomatically it means "with whipped cream." It's generally used when ordering desert.