For more than twenty years he has been releasing, to only marginal commercial and critical success, playful and transgressive albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness." He is also known in certain circles outside the U.S. as a producer. He is fascinated by identity, Japan, the avant-garde, time travel and sex. Live Momus shows are rare but when he does perform he often sings the crowd favourite 'maf' from the Stars Forever LP.
He wears a patch over his right eye because he lost the use of it after contracting acanthamoeba keratitis from a contact lens case washed with Greek tap water.
Nick Currie currently resides in Osaka, Japan.
Situation Comedy Blues
Momus Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The sound of common-sense falling apart
What's common-sense?
A million unthinking hearts
At the end of the working day
And who am I?
Call me the barman standing waiting for the workers
To drink their work away
I'm the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they've got plastered on the news
And I've got the situation comedy blues
What's the situation?
This man has been abandoned by his woman
What's the reason?
He's lost his sense of humour
This man is sober
And so he's gone to bed with another writer's scripts
And his wife has had to move in with her mother
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they've got plastered on the news
(You fed him laughter)
Has got the situation comedy blues
He's been devising a new series
Where the first man to appear is
Pakistani and the second is a queer
Who rings the bell in tights and biker's gear
And he tells them that he's sorry to disturb them
But the sari that the wife had on today was out of sight
And could he maybe borrow it tonight?
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they've got plastered on the news
(He's died of laughter)
Has got the situation comedy blues
So the Paki asks the queen in
To his brilliantly-lit kitchen
Where he demonstrates his do-it-yourself tools
He's the type who doesn't gladly suffer fools
But he electrocutes his finger in his biggest Black and Decker
When his wife appears in towel and rubber hat
And the bath she's running floods the neighbours' flat
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they've got plastered on the news
(This man is sober)
Yeah, the man who serves the laughter
To the workaholics after
They've got well and truly plastered on the news
Takes a break from the booze
I've been sitting here unhappily
Trying to write this comedy
When I hear a sudden laugh in the next room
And thinking it's my woman who's come home
I call her name expectantly and, glad that she's come back to me,
I throw away my trivialising pen .....
And then the television laughs again
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they've got plastered on the news
(This man is falling apart)
Yeah, the man who serves the laughter
To the workaholics after
They've got well and truly plastered on the news
(This man hits the booze)
OK, lets have a big laugh
Not just a ripple
Everybody
Applause
And cue commercial break
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Momus's song "Situation Comedy Blues" is a satirical commentary on the state of television humor and its detachment from reality. The lyrics start by questioning the nature of laughter and common-sense, implying that the humor in situation comedies has no basis in reality and is simply a way of escaping from the drudgery of everyday life. The barman in the song stands waiting for the workers to drink their work away, indicating that the audience for these shows is primarily people who have had a long day at work and just want to switch off their brains. However, the singer of the song, a comedy writer, finds himself struggling to come up with new material that is both funny and based in reality. His wife has left him because he has lost his sense of humor, and he finds it hard to come up with anything better than tired old tropes about Pakistani and queer characters.
The lyrics seem to suggest that the humor in situation comedies is not only detached from reality but also actively harmful. The drunkards of disaster in the song seem to be using laughter as a way of coping with the dire state of the world rather than actually addressing its problems. The comedy writer, on the other hand, is struggling to find humor in the real world and is forced to resort to borrowing other writers' scripts. The song's final lines suggest that even the singer has been caught up in the vicious cycle of escapist humor, as he too turns to drink to deal with his problems.
Line by Line Meaning
What's a laugh?
Asking to define laughter
The sound of common-sense falling apart
Laughter is the sound of losing logical thinking
What's common-sense?
Asking to define common-sense
A million unthinking hearts
Common-sense is the agreement between millions of people who don't think
At the end of the working day
This is the time when people need and search for laughter
And who am I?
Introducing oneself
Call me the barman standing waiting for the workers
I'm the bartender standing in wait for those who want to drink their work away
To drink their work away
An escape for workers who want to forget about their day
I'm the man who serves the laughter
The bartender is also the one who serves the customers with laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
Laughter is served to those who are hurt by the news
After they've got plastered on the news
The customers get drunk with the harsh reality they've just watched
And I've got the situation comedy blues
The bartender himself is influenced by the comedic representation of the news
What's the situation?
Asking to define the situation
This man has been abandoned by his woman
A man was left by his partner
What's the reason?
Asking to define the cause
He's lost his sense of humour
The man has lost his ability to appreciate or create comedy
This man is sober
The man is no longer drinking
And so he's gone to bed with another writer's scripts
The man is trying to find inspiration from other shows
And his wife has had to move in with her mother
The man's partner has moved out and had to stay with her mother
He's been devising a new series
The man has been working on a new show
Where the first man to appear is Pakistani and the second is a queer
The show's characters will be a Pakistani and a queer
Who rings the bell in tights and biker's gear
One of the characters wears tights and a biker's gear
And he tells them that he's sorry to disturb them
The queer character apologizes for disturbing them
But the sari that the wife had on today was out of sight
The comedy in the show is about the wife's sari
And could he maybe borrow it tonight?
The queer character asks if he could borrow the wife's sari
So the Paki asks the queen in
The Pakistani character asks the queen character
To his brilliantly-lit kitchen
The scene is set in a well-lit kitchen
Where he demonstrates his do-it-yourself tools
The Pakistani character demonstrates his tools in his kitchen
He's the type who doesn't gladly suffer fools
The Pakistani character is not very patient with dumb people
But he electrocutes his finger in his biggest Black and Decker
The Pakistani character hurts himself during his demonstration
When his wife appears in towel and rubber hat
The wife character enters in a towel and a hat made of rubber
And the bath she's running floods the neighbours' flat
The joke in the scene is that the bathroom is flooding
Takes a break from the booze
The bartender takes a break from drinking
I've been sitting here unhappily
The man is unhappy
Trying to write this comedy
The man is trying to write the show
When I hear a sudden laugh in the next room
The man hears laughter from the other room
And thinking it's my woman who's come home
The man thinks his partner has come back
I call her name expectantly and, glad that she's come back to me,
The man is happy to see her back
I throw away my trivialising pen .....
The man abandons the show he was writing
And then the television laughs again
The joke here is that the laughter comes from the TV and not from his partner
Not just a ripple
The joke needs to be a big one
Everybody
Everyone needs to laugh
Applause
Asking for a round of applause
Marie come back to me
The man is calling for his partner Marie to come back
Marie come back to me
The man is calling for his partner Marie to come back
Marie come back to me
The man is calling for his partner Marie to come back
Marie come back to me
The man is calling for his partner Marie to come back
Contributed by Eli L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Aldo Charles
on Morality Is Vanity
I’ve been listening to this song last two weeks.