old and funny

[navi tasan]

Which are correct:
1) They played some of their old funny songs.
2) They played some of their old, funny songs.
3) They played some of their old, funny, songs.
4) They played some of their old and funny songs.

Which mean:
a)That they have new funny songs and old funny songs and they played some of the latter
and which mean:
b) They played some of their old songs and their old songs were funny
and which simply mean:
c) They played some song which were old and funny (we don't know if they have new funny songs)

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[emsr2d2]

I know there's meant to be a standard order of adjectives but I've never been able to memorise it and I don't want to look it up so I'll just tell you this - the order is unnatural in BrE.

They played some of their funny old songs.

It doesn't matter what order the adjectives are in, though; we still can't tell if they also have new funny songs that they didn't play, if they have old non-funny songs that they didn't play.

 

[Roman55]

Yeah, I'd probably want to say funny old songs too, but that wouldn't necessarily mean that the songs were funny, or particularly old for that matter. They could be strange or odd or quirky, etc...

By saying old funny songs I think we can be sure that the songs are at least funny and old.

 

[GoesStation]

"Funny old songs" is the natural order in most cases. "Old funny songs" is OK if you're comparing those songs with more recent funny songs.

 

[Tdol]

With old funny songs, I get the idea that their newer songs may not be funny.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you all very much,

With old funny songs, I get the idea that their newer songs may not be funny.

Yes. That was the point. The newer songs may not be funny. I think that is probably the case, but as your 'may not' shows, it is not necessarily the case. Or is it?
What do you think about this one:
A) They played some of their old funny songs, then some of their old serious songs, then some of their new funny songs, but they didn't play any of their new serious songs.

Is there anything wrong with 'A'?

Gratefully,
Navi.