Being Funny In a Foreign Language
I’m having a bad day. It’s not bad because anything particularly bad is happening, but because something scary is. These kinds of things are inevitable, and no matter how much I prepare, I will be afraid nonetheless. I’m afraid to be young and inexperienced, while at the same time thanking god that I am so young, open-minded and ready to grow. It’s cruel how the years feel like they just slip through my fingers, things change before I’m ready and despite all my hard work, I am utterly unprepared, unqualified and frankly- terrified- of facing what life has to offer. Being afraid makes today a bad day, it’s my least favorite thing to feel. Fear makes us hate people and things. Fear makes us turn outward instead of in. Fear breeds pain, and all I want is peace.
Does one criticize a frog for spending its day on a lily pad? Does one denounce a flower for following the sun?
My dad and I laugh and unavoidably end up saying that we live in an economic prison. Not because we prefer to think of ourselves as victims, but because calling it what it is allows us the space to breathe and remember that it’s not our fault. The absurdity of the reality acts as a proverbial drink with dinner, taking the edge off an ever-sharpening knife, poised to eliminate those who attempt to dare to question the status quo.
Feeling torn between my calling (as anything but a capitalist pawn) and the necessity of playing the game to keep food on the table and gas in my car, let alone dream of any kind of future, I feel like a fish in outer space. I would even settle for a small pond at this point. My very real, very necessary, and very understandable desire to support myself puts me in a world where I wear a costume and learn stage directions to play the role of the perfectly moldable corporate youngling. Someone with “talent” and “intelligence.” Someone who has “so much potential.” Someone “worth investing in.” Sure, I’m flattered, and a small part of me is proud to be considered as such. Me, though? Inés? I have no ultimate interest in any of these things. But the food still needs to be on the table, and the gas still needs to be in my car.
Speaking words that are rarely ever my own, I am putting my best foot forward for myself and the family I want more than anything else in the world. I’m being funny in this foreign language, not for any personal curiosity, but as a means of survival.
The 1975
And it’s about time
And this is what it looks like
–
I’m sorry about my twenties, I was learnin’ the ropes
I had a tendency of thinking ’bout it after I spoke
We’re experiencin’ life through the postmodern lens
Oh, call it like it is
You’re makin’ an aesthetic out of not doing well
And minin’ all the bits of you you think you can sell
–
Whimsical, political
Liberal, with young people as collateral
You see, I can’t sleep ’cause the American Dream
Has been buyin’ up all of my self-esteem
–
I’m sorry if you’re living and you’re seventeen…
Happiness
She showed me what love is
I’m actin’ like I know myself
Oh, in case you didn’t notice
Oh, oh, I would go blind just to see you
I’d go too far just to have you near
In my soul, I’ve got this feeling I
Didn’t know until I seen ya
–
Why don’t you grow up and see?
Show me your love
Why don’t you?
–
Confidence is comical
And I’m, and I’m happy
That’s what I like
I’m happiest when I’m doing something that I know is good
That’s happiness for me
Looking for Somebody (To Love)
“You gotta show me how to push if you don’t want a shove”
Are the words of a young man already damned, l-l-l-looking for somebody to love
–
You should have seen how they ran when I was lookin’ for somebody to love
You should have seen it man, I was all bang, bang, bang, bang
Lookin’ for somebody to love
–
Somebody lyin’ on the field
Somebody cryin’ on the phone
Somebody pickin’ up the body of somebody they were gettin’ to know
Maybe we’re lackin’ in desire
Maybe it’s just all fucked
But the boy with the plan and a gun in his hand was l-l-l-lookin’ for somebody to love
Part of the Band
Enough about me now
“You gotta talk about the people, baby”
–
I can’t get the language right
Just tell me what’s unladylike
–
The worst inside of us begets
That feeling on the internet
It’s like someone intended it
(Like advertising cigarettes)
–
Am I ironically woke? The butt of my joke?
Or am I just some post-coke, average, skinny bloke
Calling his ego “imagination”?
Oh Caroline
If I’m undecided, will you decide for me?
–
‘Cause you’re on my mind
–
Getting suicidal, it’s honestly not for me
–
Oh, I’ve tried to find
Another name a thousand times
But the only one that rhymes
Is, “Oh, Caroline”
–
No, I don’t want to waste my life without you, baby
I’m In Love With You
I can summarise it for you
It’s simple and it goes like this
I’m in love with you, I- I- I- I- I
–
Yeah, I got it
I found it
I’ve just gotta keep it
“Don’t fuck it, you muppet”
It’s not that deep
Well, I’ve been countin’
My blessings
Thinkin’ this through
It’s like: one, two, yeah
–
I’m in love with you…
All I Need to Hear
I get out my records
When you go away
When people are talking
I miss what they say
–
So tell me you love me
‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear
–
I’ve been told so many times before
But hearin’ it from you means much more
Wintering
He’s got a funny way of using the same four chords for every song he makes
–
Oh, Dad’s an Otis Redding at a wеdding type guy
With the best voice you ever heard
He said, “Give me a date I can work on, my heart hurts”
I get home on the twenty-third
–
Now Mum’s not a fan of that line about her back
She said it makes her sound frumpy and old
I said, “Woman, you are sixty-four years old”
–
And it’s Christmas so this is gonna be a nightmare
I just came for the stuffin’, not to argue about nothin’
But mark my words
I’ll be home on the twenty-third
Human Too
I thought I’d done anger
I thought I’d done shame
But I’ve always been the same
–
I’m sorry that I quite liked seein’ myself on the news
And I’m sorry that I’m someone that I wish I could change
But I’ve always been the same
–
And don’t you know that I’m a human too?
–
Oh darlin’, that’s what humans do
So tеll me you’re human
About You
With nothing to do, I could lay and just look in your eyes
Wait And pretend
Hold on and hope that we’ll find our way back in the end
–
And I’ll miss you on a train, I’ll miss you in the mornin’
I never know what to think about
I think about you
–
Do you think I have forgotten
About you?
When We Are Together
“I’m better at writin'” was just a way to get you bitin’
Oh, the truth is that our egos are absurd
I thought we were fightin’
But it seems I was gaslightin’ you
I didn’t know that it had its own word
–
You still ask about the cows, wearin’ my sweater
It’s something about the weather that makes them lie down
The only time I feel I might get better is when we are together
<3 i
