Funnyman was another character that Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came up with after being fired by DC comics.

Funnyman (comics)

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Funnyman #1 (Jan. 1948). Cover art by Joe Shuster.

Funnyman is a fictional comic book character whose adventures were published in 1948 by Magazine Enterprises.

Publication history

After leaving DC Comics and suing that company in a dispute over the rights to Superman, the character's co-creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, rejoined their former DC editor Vin Sullivan—who had bought their character and edited the earliest adventures—at his new company, Magazine Enterprises.

The duo's new creation, Funnyman, starred in a series that ran just six issues (cover-dated January–August 1948). The premiere issue was preceded the previous month by a black-and-white "ashcan" printing for copyright reasons.

A newspaper comic strip debuted in October 1948, but Funnyman also failed to find an audience in this format, and his strip was soon dropped.

Fictional character biography

Larry Davis is a red haired television comedian with mannerisms based on those of Danny Kaye. Larry's manager/agent June Farrell talks him into performing a superhero-like stunt in order to obtain publicity. This stunt goes wrong when Larry finds himself in a real crime scene. Larry stops this criminal, not knowing what he is doing is real until after the fact.

Discovering that he enjoys fighting crime, Larry begins a career as a costumed crime fighter under the alias Funnyman.

References

Funnyman appears to be based on comedian Danny Kaye. Not surprisingly in view of the fact that the same guys were the creators of Superman, his girlfriend appears to be another version of Lois Lane.

Wikipedia readily acknowledges the fact:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Kaye

Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; 18 January 1913 – 3 March 1987)^[1] was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. His best known performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire nonsense songs.
Kaye starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), and – perhaps his most accomplished performance – The Court Jester (1956). His films were extremely popular, especially his bravura performances of patter songs and children's favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his many years of work with the organization [he died in the next year].^[2]
^........Kaye was sufficiently popular that he inspired imitations:

The 1946 Warner Bros. cartoon Book Revue had a lengthy sequence with Daffy Duck impersonating Kaye singing "Carolina in the Morning" with the Russian accent that Kaye would affect from time to time.
Satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer's 1953 song "Lobachevsky" was based on a number that Kaye had done, about the Russian director Constantin Stanislavski, again with the affected Russian accent. Lehrer mentioned Kaye in the opening monologue, citing him as an "idol since childbirth".
Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster also fashioned a short-lived superhero title, Funnyman, taking inspiration from Kaye's public persona.