Funny / The Smiths

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• From "Shakespeare's Sister":
  I thought that if you had an acoustic guitar
  Then it meant that you were a protest singer
  Oh I can smile about it now
  But at the time it was terrible.
• "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" is about the persistence of depression, but it takes a far more darkly funny and self-deprecating perspective than it gets credit for.
  I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
  and heaven knows I'm miserable now...
  • Later in the song, the narrator flees in terror from a woman who offers to sleep with him. What really makes it funny is how he makes it sound like it was the only rational thing to do.
• The narrator's absurd "Just Joking" Justification in "Bigmouth Strikes Again".
• From "The Queen Is Dead":
  I say Charles, don't you ever crave
  To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
  Dressed in your mother's bridal veil?
  —
  So, I broke into the palace
  With a sponge and a rusty spanner
  She said, "Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing"
  I said, "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano"
• "He killed a policemen when he was thirteen / and somehow that really impressed me..."
• The morbidly hilarious "Unhappy Birthday", in which the narrator matter-of-factly commits suicide halfway through.
  • From the same song: "I've come to wish you an unhappy birthday / 'cause you're evil and you lie / and if you should die, I may be slightly sad /but I won't cry."
• Morrissey's reaction to t.A.T.u.'s cover of "How Soon Is Now?":
  Interviewer: Did you hear t.A.T.u's version of 'How Soon Is Now'?
  Morrissey: Yes, it was magnificent. Absolutely. Again, I don't know much about them.
  Interviewer: They're the teenage Russian lesbians.
  Morrissey: Well, aren't we all?
• The band's appearance on the kid's show Charlie's Bus, which finds them joining a bunch of schoolchildren on board a double-decker bus. This scene is a particular standout:
  Young Girl: Where are we going?
  Morrissey: We're all going mad.
  Young Girl: I thought we were going to Kew Gardens.
  (Morrissey turns to the camera with a smirk)
• "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", where the narrator snarks constantly to their boss while talking about their desire for musical fame.
  "But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled
  Making Christmas cards with the mentally ill"
  —
  "Oh, I didn't realise that you wrote poetry
  I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry Mr Shankly"
  —
  "Frankly, Mr Shankly, since you ask
  You are a flatulent pain in the arse
  I do not mean to be so rude
  But still, I must speak frankly, Mr Shankly, give us money"
• "Vicar in a Tutu". Even title is funny in itself.
• "Bigmouth Strikes Again" is full of surreal humor
  Oh... sweetness, sweetness, I was only joking when I said
  By rights you should be bludgeoned in your bed
  —
  Now I know how Joan of Arc felt
  As the flames rose to her Roman nose
  And her Walkman started to melt
• Any of Morrissey's attempts at dancing.
  • For those mercifully unaware, Morrissey's dancing can and may include: Morrissey lying down on the stage, Morrissey ripping off his shirt, Morrissey being hugged by stage-crashing audience members, Morrissey brandishing placards and Morrissey throwing flowers at the audience, as well as overdramatic gesturing, unnerving hip gyrations and a blatant disregard for anything approaching gracefulness. A classic example of Morrissey dancing is The Smiths performing "Still Ill" on The Tube.

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