Page 3 of 9

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:47 am
by Bruce the Duck
No way! Racist jokes are still the best!

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:11 am
by Big Spoon

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 6:31 pm
by cromulnt
I seem to be one of the few people who doesn't like "If That Isn't Love". Aside from the music teetering the line between catchy and annoying, I think the bathroom humor has a lot to do with it. The song as a whole just feels like a particularly crude take on his twisted love/relationship song formula, which is perhaps getting a bit overused. In particular, the sunset joke just seems like a cruder version of the Charlize Theron joke from "Close But No Cigar".

I don't have a problem with the other examples, though. The ones in "TMZ" and "Whatever You Like" fit the concept of the song (and I think it's a stretch to call the second example "bathroom humor" anyway). And I find the ones in "Perform This Way" and "CNR" to be funnier and not as gratuitous. In general, I think jokes about "crap and pee" shouldn't be off-limits as long as they are executed well.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:16 pm
by WeirdAbbott
As far as the bathroom humor goes (apparently, I'm somewhat of an expert), I think they're all done ok. In ITIL, I think that because there are so many other things in that song that the main character does, I completely forgot about the bathroom humor by the time the next line rolls around.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:54 pm
by Bruce the Duck
To me, it seems as if some of the jokes in ITIL were chosen because they rhyme with better lines. For example, the line that goes "I'll hold the ladder" is one of the most clever lines in the song. The preceeding line about the "spastic bladder" isn't nearly as clever, and was likely chosen because he needed a funny line to rhyme with "ladder", and "bladder" is the most obvious choice.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:23 pm
by TMBJon
I am so glad this thread was created because it definitely caught me as a big surprise after listening to the album once through. Two fart jokes and one usage of the word "turd." I don't know. To me this is welcoming the type of negative review where someone makes fun of the fact that he is "more than 50 years old and still doing jokes about farts and turds" or something to that effect.
It definitely takes me out of the song, especially during If That Isn't Love. It just seems like Al was going for a cheap laugh when he probably could have replaced both lines with something more creative. The rest of your instances didn't really bother me too much, just the two in ITIL.
Also, just for the record, "Excusez-moi, qui a pete?" is really just French for "Excuse me, who farted?" rather than "Who cut the cheese?" That was just Al's choice of words for the on-screen lyrics.
Well, Well, Well wrote:al's best song was recorded in a bathroom it is only fitting these jokes pervade his work.
A very good point. Thank you for bringing this up here.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:27 pm
by Kevbo1987
The bathroom humor definitely bugged me during "If That Isn't Love." It's really a great song, but the line about making a gorgeous sunset look like a giant turd really caught me off guard and distracted me from the rest of the song. It just seems sophomoric and really unnecessary. Having said that, the line about cutting the cheese didn't particularly bug me, and the rest of the album was more or less free of bathroom humor. I still really like "If That Isn't Love," but I just wish he had left that part out.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 5:18 am
by PlayAWarGame
See, it doesn't hurt the song for me because I see the singer of ITIL as being unsympathetic, so making sophomoric comments is in-character.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:18 am
by Orthography Enthusiast
I was a little surprised at how much bathroom humor there was too. I know Al said he went a little further in that direction on Poodle Hat so people wouldn't think he'd lost his edge after becoming a father, and then regretted it when that was the only thing the morning zoo disc jockeys picked up on. Then he turns around and does the same thing again. I've already said it in another topic, but I think ITIL was trying to be a different song, a slightly more emotionally real version of his classic twisted love song (i.e., the ladder line) and then Al just conked it on the head and shoved it back in the box with Complicated Song and Confessions, Part 3. I dunno, maybe the friends Al uses as a sounding board to try out new songs are all just big fans of fart and poop jokes.

Re: Bathroom Humor

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:35 pm
by NMRodo
I think the majority of the bathroom humor in ITIL in included to build up to the omelets line... the turd line is inexcusable, though.

I don't really mind the rest of the bathroom humor on the album.