9. Father John Misty - “Pure Comedy”
Love him or hate him, you can’t help but admit that Father John Misty has a knack for penning songs that serve to confuse the muscles of your face and catch it somewhere between a perpetual cringe and a smirk. Almost all of his songs possess a heavy dose of cynical witticism, but this jam in particular takes it a step further, creating a full-blown anthem of ironic nihilism.
Even before ever seeing this video, the content and general melody of this song made me imagine some sort of political event. Now I feel like it could go either one of two ways. It could either be played over a video of Trump’s greatest “hits” as president (with the audio silent but replete with subtitles for emphasis), or it could be adopted by a leftist as their campaign song, fully embracing the irony and using it as a commentary on the dismal state of our present. Because make no mistake, we live in dismal times. And I don’t mean that solely in the sense that we have Donald fucking Trump as our president and that all sorts of reactionary hate and anti-intellectualism has been given new life, but rather in the sense that we’ve been in dismal times for awhile now. Obama’s presidency was simply like slapping a layer of fresh paint and carpet onto a old and decrepit apartment. We’ve been in dismal times for awhile now – late capitalism, where all that matters is profit, perpetual undeclared war, poisoning and destroying the environment and ourselves, and gutting civil and worker rights.
It’s a shit show, an absolute shit show, and finally realizing it and seeing it for what it is, along with the accompanying dread, anxiety, and helplessness, can be enough to permanently destroy you, or at the very least destroy your spirit (which is just as bad or possibly even worse). In such times, songs like this act as a salve, or a sense of catharsis – a gasping breathe amidst the heavy and suffocating discomfort of the present. I know it’s escapism, or perhaps even the elitism that those on the left are so often accused of, to take pleasure and refuge within the vaguely highbrow and ironic humor of such songs (or comedy), but sometimes imbibing in such release is all that you can do to maintain your sanity, and in the end I suppose its better than retreating into a complete state of depression or nihilism. The world needs us. Humanity needs us. And not because we’re better or more deserving than anybody else, but because the alternative perspective certainly has no interest in hearing anybody’s opinion other than their own, especially if it challenges the acquisition of capital or the dominance of white supremacy. Silence and inaction are no longer an option. After all, we owe it to ourselves, the voiceless, the future – and yes, even our stubborn adversaries, to at least attempt to correct our current course.
