Suicide is Painless
M.A.S.H. Lyrics


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Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

Suicide is painless (suicide)
It brings on many changes (changes)
And I can take or leave it if I please

The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger
Watch it grin

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
Is it to be or not to be
And I replied oh why ask me?

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please





And you can do the same thing if you please

Overall Meaning

The M.A.S.H. theme song, "Suicide Is Painless," presents a thought-provoking view of depression and suicide. The song's lyrics reflect the dark, bleak, and despondent mood that comes with the subject matter. The first few lines of the lyrics refer to the singer's clarity of his future, an awareness of his destiny, which is "pains that are withheld for me." This implies the presence of difficulties, hardships, and struggles that will come in his life, indicating the hopelessness he feels.


In the chorus, the artist makes a simple but profound statement that "suicide is painless," which has been interpreted differently by listeners. Some people believed that the line means suicide is a means of escaping pain, ignoring the suffering one may cause family members, and friends to experience as a result. Others have suggested that the line refers to the idea that suicide is free from any pain, emotionally or physically, bringing about feeling indifferent to these different states of pain. Thus, suicide may sometimes appear to be an appealing solution to one's problems.


The artist then concludes with, "And you can do the same thing if you please," reinforcing the idea that suicide can be seen as an option to fix unending problems, as if it was a matter of individual choice. The motif of death and its inevitability is touched upon as well, as in the last verse where the "sword of time" metaphorically represents the pursuit of life until it reaches its final stage, and "the pain grows stronger" becomes inescapable, almost desirable due to the overwhelming pain.


Overall, the song expresses a rather learned, clinically accurate, and somewhat bleak perspective on depression and suicide, leaving more questions than answers about the topic.


Line by Line Meaning

Through early morning fog I see
From my vantage point, I can see through the fog of confusion and anticipate what lies ahead.


Visions of the things to be
I have clear perceptions of what the future would bring.


The pains that are withheld for me
I am aware of the dark and painful times that will come, and I cannot escape them.


I realize and I can see
I understand the grim inevitabilities of life and the inescapability of suffering.


That suicide is painless
Suicide, as an escape from this suffering, appears to offer a painless and straightforward solution.


It brings on many changes
Taking one's life would bring about a surprising number of alterations, including the cessation of all pain and the finality of it all.


And I can take or leave it if I please
I always have the choice to either end the pain or to continue living with it.


The game of life is hard to play
Life is an arduous journey full of challenges and obstacles that we must face.


I'm gonna lose it anyway
No matter how skilled we are, death is an inevitability and one that we cannot escape.


The losing card I'll someday lay
One day, everyone must accept their fate and accept that they have lost the game of life.


So this is all I have to say
All of this leads me to believe that ending one's life is a viable solution to the pain of mortality.


The sword of time will pierce our skins
The passage of time is like a sharp blade that cuts through human flesh, leaving wear and tear that is inevitable and not easily reversible.


It doesn't hurt when it begins
At first, we may not feel the effects of aging and change, but they will catch up with us eventually.


But as it works its way on in
The pain and damage will accumulate gradually over time, taking a toll on the psyche and the body


The pain grows stronger
With each passing day, the emotional and physical pain of life increases, making it harder and harder to bear.


Watch it grin
It seems as if the universe itself is mocking us as we struggle with the inevitable pain of life and as it closes in on us.


A brave man once requested me
Someone once asked me, bravely, to explain the purpose of living in the face of so much pain and inevitable loss.


To answer questions that are key
He wanted the answer to the question that everyone asks at some point or another - why live in the face of such pain and despair?


Is it to be or not to be
Is it better to live and endure the pain or to simply end it all and escape it?


And I replied oh why ask me?
I have no clear answer to this question, but it seems to me that simply ending it all could be a viable option.


And you can do the same thing if you please
Ultimately, the decision rests with each individual. You can end your own pain if you so choose, or you can choose to continue living despite it all.




Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Johnny Mandel, Michael B Altman

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@moontiger6393

@@roymarius1634 It was the mentality of Paul Erdős, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century, and arguably the most ingenious and dedicated problem solver and poser in all of human history, quoting from Paul Hoffman's biography, "The man who only loved numbers":

' "The game of life," Erdős often said, "is to keep the SF's score low. If you do something bad in life, the SF gets two points. If you don't do something good that you should have done, the SF gets one point. You never score, so the SF always wins." ' [SF here was the way Erdős referred to God, calling him the Supreme Fascist. This may seem cynical, but Erdos was known for his amusingly original words to refer to many things, so this may be considered playful eccentricity]

And yet even with this view, Erdős dedicated his life to the truth and achieved far more than many ever will. The way I see it, accepting that life is a losing game isn't a loser's mentality, it's just an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation. We will all die far before we can achieve, learn and experience everything we are capable of. From birth, we are all making choices that clip off more and more possibilties until we have no choices left at the end, and so we cannot avoid failing to achieve many of the things which we could possibly have done. We lose no matter what.

But in accepting this fact, perhaps we will realise that if nothing else, we are still free to choose between resignation to total failure, or struggling to the very end to do the absolute best that we can do, even if we will still die with so much undone. This I believe is the way Erdős saw things. He died at a conference of a heart attack at the age of 83, almost certainly doing significant mathematics the same day, to the very end he didn't let the SF get any easy points. Indeed, this was basically how he had hoped to die:

'I want to be giving a lecture, finishing up an important proof on the blackboard, when someone in the audience shouts out, 'What about the general case?'. I'll turn to the audience and smile, 'I'll leave that to the next generation,' and then I'll keel over' - Paul Erdős

Is that the sign of a loser's mentality?



@nicholasbettencourt788

Lyrics:
Through early morning fog I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize and I can see

That suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it
If I please

The game of life is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The losing card I'll someday lay
So this is all I have to say

Suicide is painless (suicide)
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it
If I please

The sword of time will pierce our skins
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it
If I please

A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
"Is it to be or not to be?"
And I replied, "Oh, why ask me?"

Suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it
If I please

And you can do the same thing
If you please



@jonnnyren6245

"War isn't hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell."

"Well, boys, it would be hard to call what we've been through fun, but I'm sure glad we went through it together. You boys always managed to give me a good laugh right when I needed it most. Never forget the time you dropped Winchester's drawers in the O.R. 'Course I had to pretend I was mad at ya, but inside I was laughing to beat all hell."

"Frank, do you know what a hero is? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he's somebody who's tired enough and cold enough and hungry enough not to give a damn. I don't give a damn."

"Minding my own business is a full-time job. In my spare time, it's my hobby. I can't divide myself emotionally. I couldn't break my word to Peg, and not because God will send me to Hell without an electric fan or because it's not the right thing to do. I simply don't want to."

"Great little war we have here."



All comments from YouTube:

@justdope1963

'The game of life is hard to play. I'm gonna lose it anyway.' That hits me every time I hear it.

@mikeyates7931

AMEN

@roymarius1634

It is literally the mentality of a loser.

@hittaman8067

@@roymarius1634 so true bro pure sign of defeatism

@johnyzero2000

@@roymarius1634 Please don't volunteer at a suicide prevention center.

@moontiger6393

@@roymarius1634 It was the mentality of Paul Erdős, the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century, and arguably the most ingenious and dedicated problem solver and poser in all of human history, quoting from Paul Hoffman's biography, "The man who only loved numbers":

' "The game of life," Erdős often said, "is to keep the SF's score low. If you do something bad in life, the SF gets two points. If you don't do something good that you should have done, the SF gets one point. You never score, so the SF always wins." ' [SF here was the way Erdős referred to God, calling him the Supreme Fascist. This may seem cynical, but Erdos was known for his amusingly original words to refer to many things, so this may be considered playful eccentricity]

And yet even with this view, Erdős dedicated his life to the truth and achieved far more than many ever will. The way I see it, accepting that life is a losing game isn't a loser's mentality, it's just an acknowledgement of the reality of the situation. We will all die far before we can achieve, learn and experience everything we are capable of. From birth, we are all making choices that clip off more and more possibilties until we have no choices left at the end, and so we cannot avoid failing to achieve many of the things which we could possibly have done. We lose no matter what.

But in accepting this fact, perhaps we will realise that if nothing else, we are still free to choose between resignation to total failure, or struggling to the very end to do the absolute best that we can do, even if we will still die with so much undone. This I believe is the way Erdős saw things. He died at a conference of a heart attack at the age of 83, almost certainly doing significant mathematics the same day, to the very end he didn't let the SF get any easy points. Indeed, this was basically how he had hoped to die:

'I want to be giving a lecture, finishing up an important proof on the blackboard, when someone in the audience shouts out, 'What about the general case?'. I'll turn to the audience and smile, 'I'll leave that to the next generation,' and then I'll keel over' - Paul Erdős

Is that the sign of a loser's mentality?

38 More Replies...

@DANMINARD

This sounds like the Beach Boys gave-up surfing

@dxo8809

It brought on many changes.

@gerwinnus

I fuckin' laughed so hard xD

@milenkocovic

Brilliant joke 😊 Bravo

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