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Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:25 pm
by mrmeadows
Now, I'm loving the new album, but is it just me or is there a lot more bathroom humor here than in his previous releases?

Perform This Way: "Excuse me, who cut the cheese?" (albeit in French)
CNR: "...excretes diamonds every day..."
TMZ: "...picking up dog poop..." / "...peeing in the bushes..."
Craigslist: "...blonde half-Asian with a bad case of gas..."
If That Isn't Love: "...warm your hands inside my butt crack..." / "..spastic bladder..." / "...if you cut the cheese..." / "...big fat turd..." -- and honorable mention to the "Mamma Mia"/"diarrhea" lyric rhyme fake-out.
Whatever You Like: "...when I buy you bathroom tissue I always get the two-ply..."

Not to be a fuddy-duddy, but most of these aren't even necessary. The ones that don't bother me too much are in "TMZ" and "Whatever You Like", since they are fairly organic to what is being sung about. But all the other references seem a little more gratuitous and just there to get a cheap, juvenile laugh. I guess the worst offender is definitely ITIL, which is a shame because despite that it's one of my favorite songs on the album. I just think it might have been my VERY favorite song if he had cut down on the toilet jokes and limited them to maybe just one or two references (but FIVE?!?)

Anyway, I just don't think Al needs to resort to this so much. I can't think of any other ALbum with such a tonnage of bathroom humor*. I hope it's just a coincidence that there was so much on this album and that he reigns it in a bit on #14.

(But again, this is just a minor quibble and observation....I still love these songs!)

* "A Complicated Song" notwithstanding, where a full 1/3 of the song is constipation jokes.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:00 pm
by Bruce the Duck
Yeah, I noticed that too. Most of it isn't too bad. But I find any reference to " cutting the cheese" to be really corny and lame, and here we have that phrase twice in the same album.

But I don't know if this album has any more toilet humor than other albums. "Poodle Hat" has a lot as well. You already mentioned "A Compilcated Song," but just off the top of my head, there's

"dogs that crap and pee" in CP
"your eyes are even bluer than the water in my toilet" in WBUL
"the Frenchies think that my poop don't stink" in GIF

There's probably more than those.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:09 pm
by mrmeadows
Yeah, I guess it just jumped out at me more in this album. Again, I probably only noticed because there was just so much of it in ITIL.

I give him a pass on the WBUL lyric. That's actually a great line in that song! And similar to the TMZ and WYL examples, the "dogs that crap and pee" line in CP actually DOES describe the Ozzy show, so that didn't bother me. I guess that shows bathroom humor can be okay if it's not so gratuitous.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:31 pm
by OneWAY
Well, Al translating the French line in PTW the way he did was self-referential. My guess is that he wanted to see how many people would catch on to the phrase being used twice and almost "disguised" on the same album.

I found it strange how many odd bathroom humor references were in "If That Isn't Love," but its strong recurrence is probably on purpose the same way that it was in "A Complicated Song." (Better yet, "Wanna B Ur Lovr.")

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:01 pm
by AlejandraDD
I know it's an expression, but can anyone explain me what does cheese have to do with actual farts? I mean, cheese smells like cheese, and farts smell like fart. Clearly not the same.

Yeah, I know I can probably google it and find the origin of the expression in something that happened 100 years ago or something, but it's something that's been kinda bothering me for some reason

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:17 pm
by giantlobsterrobot
Especially in ITIL, such a great song had the butt crack and sunset lines in there that just took me out of the song with a "What? That was odd." He has an 8 year-old daughter... and I have a 7 10/12 year-old son... and guess what... If I was to write a song that I wanted him to think was funny, mentioning hands in a butt crack and farts and poop would make him laugh. I wonder if he did it for a laugh from Nina.
I put a line in one of my songs specifically for my son. "Climbing down your chimney, now my booty's on fire!" That was 100% for him.
I wouldn't put it past Al to try and get a quick laugh from Nina.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:27 pm
by mrmeadows
Well sure...I guess if I were still the age when I first discovered Al (8 or 9 years old), I'd think those sorts of jokes were hilarious! I guess I just felt like Al's songwriting kind of matured (at least little) along with me. But yeah, now that he's got a kid it's a good point that maybe he put that stuff in there for her benefit.

I guess at the end of the day, his demo is still primarily pre-teen kids. . .not 37 year-old men. :|

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:27 pm
by crazygurl14
He has to have a talking point for when he is with her and her friends

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 11:30 pm
by Alinite27
Yeah, I think that, in part, more of it on this album does somewhat have to do with Nina.

But, you still have to consider a large part of Al's audience and target. While it's clear that he appeals to everyone, it's obvious that one of his main target demographics is kids around that age. It's around the age where I first started listening to Al and I'm sure many kids are the same.

I do agree, though, it was a little overused on this album. But, I just shrug it off and once I've listened to the songs a bunch of times, those lyrics will just blend in.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:15 am
by WAYFan
Where's the fakeout in ITIL? If I replace Mamma Mia with diarrhea, it doesn't really enhance the line. Is that right?