Divided Against Myself

Last night I heard "The Only Gay Eskimo" on the radio. Here are the lyrics so you can follow along.

At first, I thought: Great! Another stupid offensive song! Let's make fun of the Inuit! And gay people! What a great idea! And let's use the fact that they have funny names and do funny things as the main hook for our humor!

Seriously: this is a song with the depth of Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun but without the humor.

But then it got to the end and almost redeemed itself. At the end the singer repeats the chorus in a variety of musical styles -- "Like Bob Dylan! Like the Proclaimers would do it! Like Ric Ocasek from The Cars" and when he hit the last line, in true Cars fashion --

I'm the only gay eskimo
I'm the only one I know
I'm the only gay eskimo
And she used to me mi-i-i-ine

, I laughed. I couldn't help hyself. This sad and offensive song ends in very accurate and funny musical parody.

Today I looked the artist up and the song apparently originates with a comedian named Phil Nicol, but it's been covered at least once. Here's an interview with Phil Nicol where he talks about his show.

And now I'm torn: because the multilevel irony that Nichol describes is exactly the kind of thing I find the most funny. But I've gotten into trouble more than once in my life by indulging my taste for irony and being misunderstood by serious people. Since then I've toned down my humor.

So I'd probably enjoy a Phil Nicol show. But then I would feel like I must be compromising some of my principles, or at least playing into his hands-- after all, the stylistic parody at the end of "Only Gay Eskimo" is a deliberate attempt to soften his character:

— play them my own weird songs — and then make them comfortable, as when I play versions of my I’m the Only Gay Eskimo song as done by Dylan, Morrissey, Elvis, Björk ...