Music / Roy Zimmerman

Roy Zimmerman (born October 7, 1957) is an American folk satirist who sings primarily political songs from a left-wing perspective. Before going solo, he was in a band called The Foremen.

Discography

• Comic Sutra (1998)
• Homeland (2004)
• Security (2004)
• Peacenick (2005)
• Faulty Intelligence (2006)
• Thanks for the Support (2008)
• Real American (2010)
• You’re Getting Sleepy (2011)
• The Faucet's on Fire (2015)
• Rize Up (2018)

Tropes Used by Roy Zimmerman

• Album Title Drop: The lyric “you’re getting sleepy” appears in the song “Vote Republican”. See Title Track for more examples.
• Anti-Christmas Song: “Christmas Is Pain”
• Apocalyptic Log: "End of the Ship" is about a shipwreck and ends abruptly with a gurgling sound.
• Armoured Closet Gay: "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual" is all about the eponymous pastor, a vocal opponent of gay rights, proclaiming that he was "completely heterosexual" after being caught paying male escorts for sex regularly and subsequently going to therapy.
  "He preached the gospel message of intolerance and self-loathing..."
• Artistic License – History: "Religious Freedom (to Burn Our Own Witches)". The witches in question refer to the people executed in the Salem with trials. Zimmerman admits that those executions were done by hanging, but "we are exercising our right to poetic license, (because what's more poetical than burning people at the stake?)"
• Audience Participation Song: "The Singalong Second Amendment"
• Bourgeois Bohemian: This stereotype appears in "To Be a Liberal":
  "I hit a speedbump and spilled my chai latte all over the hemp-covered seats in my Prius..."
• Double Entendre: "I'll Pull Out" contains several of these including the title which is a reference to both "Pulling Out" of Iraq and the Withdrawal Method.
  • In "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual:"
  "Now Ted would like you all to know the story has a moral...."
  "And of all the televangelists, his favorite is Oral."
• Driven to Suicide: The point of the "letter" sung in "Dear Number 1036924053887".
• Drugs Are Good: The Orange County Rolling Acres Senior Center Cannabis Club is a song advocating (or at least toying with the idea of) the legalization of medicinal marijuana for use by senior citizens.
• Fun with Foreign Languages: "Ingles" consists of this.
  "Ingles es la lengua madre - English is the mother tongue"
  "No se quien es el padre - I don't know who the father is"
• Heteronormative Crusader: Parodied in "Defenders of Marriage", critiqued in "Summer of Loving".
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: “Firing the Surgeon General” is a song made up of several euphemisms for masturbation.
• Hurricane of Puns: All of the lines in "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual" that don't fit under Hurricane of Euphemisms.
• Hypocritical Humor: in "To Be A Liberal":
  "And in yoga today, I got bent out of shape, ‘cause the guy doing bow-pulling pulls in front of me was intolerant... which I hate!"
  "I saved an endangered snail darter from being eaten by an endangered spotted owl that I saved from being eaten by an endangered mountain lion that I saved from being shot by a poacher... WHOM I HAD TO KIIIIIIIILLL!!!!... With kindness... Took a whiiiillle..."
• In the Style of: "What If The Beatles Were Irish?"
• Lightbulb Joke: In the song "Socialist!" Relating to how many socialists and capitalists it takes to screw in a lightbulb. Doubles as an Overly Long Gag.
• Long List: The final refrain of some versions of "X Is Completely Heterosexual" is many repetitions of the song title, each mentioning the name of a homophobic public figure who was later discovered engaging in homosexual activity.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Discussed in the song "Psychedelic Relic", a song about a drug addled aging hippie.
• Pedophile Priest: Referenced in the song "Love Your Neighbourhood Priest".
• Protest Song: Much of Roy Zimmerman's catalogue is this:
  • Criticism of George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, notably "Chickenhawk", "Thanks for the Support", "Saddam Shame".
  • "Hope, Struggle and Change" is a song written for Occupy Wall Street.
  • "Homeland Security" and "Hello NSA" both criticise the US response to 9/11.
  • "Defenders of Marriage" and "Summer of Loving" are songs defending gay marriage. The former parodies Heteronormative Crusaders, the latter discusses court case "Loving vs. Virginia" and compares it to the fight for marriage equality (he specifically acknowledges California's (eventually overturned) Proposition 8).
  • "X Is Completely Heterosexual" (there are versions where X is Ted Haggard, Mark Foley, Larry Craig and George Rekers) criticizes those who publicly attack gays, but are closeted themselves.
  • "Creation Science 101" protests against the creationist movement, specifically the attempts to teach creationism in US public school science classes.
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Done intentionally in the introduction to "Real America":
  Now, the Tea Party, pause for a laugh... (audience laughs) Worked again.
• Religion Rant Song: "Jerry Falwell's God" is a type 3 Take That! at Jerry Falwell.
• Self-Deprecation: "This Machine" contains a number of shots at his own song.
  "This music is the spirit of hope and change, yes it is. 'Cause whenever people hear it they hope it changes!"
• Song Parody: "Eine Kleine Barackmusik" is a take on Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" With Lyrics
  • "TrumpPence" parodies "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins.
  • "The Shady Bunch" to The Brady Bunch theme song.
  • "Pixie Man" to "Dixieland".
  • "The Liar Tweets Tonight" to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
  • "Four Seasons Total Landscaping" to "Highway 95 Revisited"
• Spiritual Successor: to Tom Lehrer.
  • Perhaps more to Woody Guthrie.
• Spoof Aesop: "This Machine", which has him realise that "do good in the world" and "love each other" makes two messages, so he runs them together into "do each other".
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: "Dick Cheney":
  [spoken] "I'm not gay and I know it comes as a huge surprise to a lot of you who I've hit up on... But there is one guy who could convert me...."
  "Dick Cheney, ain't he, the sexiest man alive?"
• Subject 101: "Creation Science 101"
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion:
  • “Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual”
  Zimmerman: Now Ted's a little haggard, but he's thankful for the schism,
  [audience laughter]
  Zimmerman: [speaking] "You're right, but wait for it."
  [sings] And you might find it hard to swallow...the syllogism...
  • "Real America"
  Where no one uses profanity,
  Because they're so full of sh-Sean Hannity.
  • "Religious Freedom (to Burn Our Own Witches)"
  So We the People formed a nation and the Bill of Rights ensures
  I’m free to practice my religion, and you’re free to practice mine
  Ain’t that divine?
  • "Summer of Loving"
  Find a white dress or a tux
  It ain't nobody's business who a person marries
• Take That!: Mostly lobbed from left to right, be it in mocking creation scientists, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh or Mitt Romney.
  • If Roy gets a good opportunity to take a potshot from left to left, though, he'll take it.
• That New Heavy Metal: "To the Victims of This Tragedy We Send Our Thoughts and Prayers", which is about right wing politicians and pundits who urge violence against people they dislike but claim that mass shootings are caused by, among other things, rap and heavy metal instead.
• The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: Parodied in "Think Different"; the title references an Apple slogan.
  "Think Different, cos some 24-year old silk suited substance abuser who'd shove his mother down an escalator for a shot at the Nabisco account told you to!"
• Title Track: "Thanks for the Support," "The Faucet's on Fire!," and "Peacenick," on their respective albums.
• Too Much Information: The song "T.M.I." is about a guy who has some unfortunate conversations with random strangers about their problems.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Firing the Surgeon General", referring to Jocelyn Elders being relieved of command for controversies, including a suggestion that sex education cover masturbation. The song is full of references to yanking it.
• War Is Hell: "I Won't Be Home For Christmas", "Thanks for the Support" and "The Last Man".
• You Are Number 1036924053887
• You Know Who Said That?: This appears in "That is The War On Terror":
  "There's this great quote about war, and I'm tryin to remember who said it, the people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders, you just tell them they're under attack, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, now who said that? Oh yeah, it was Hermann Goering.
• You Put the "X" in "XY": In "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual":
  He was one in a million or more aptly one in ten
  Some folks say he put the "men" in "amen".

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