# Funniest single line in a song?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 5, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773 "2003-10-05T23:47:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/101 "2003-10-31T22:02:43Z")

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“Industrial Disease” by **Dire Straights**

“Two men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong”

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/102 "2003-11-01T00:16:50Z")

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In _Love Is the Seventh Wave_, Sting starts repeating lyrics from _Every Breath You Take_, but finishes off with: “Every cake you bake, every leg you break”.

I loved the original line in Disney’s _Aladdin_ before the PC Police made them change it: “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face / It’s barbaric, but, hey, it’s home!”

And, from _Existential Blues_: “Some girl with psychic powers, she said ‘T-Bone, what’s your sign?’ / I blinked and answered ‘Neon’, I thought I’d blow her mind.”

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/103 "2003-11-01T00:23:28Z")

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Two by Dylan:

From Talking WWIII Blues

- I lit a cigarette on a parking meter.  
Just a normal day
- 

And Bob Dylan’s some number dream (the one from Bringing it all Back Home)

- who directed me down to the Bowery slums  
where people carried signs around  
saying Ban the Bums \*

And Tom Lehrer, on that wonderful protest song Smut (he’s for it.)

- 

When correctly viewed  
Anything is lewd  
I can tell you things about Peter Pan  
And the Wizard of Oz, there’s a dirty old man  
\*

And finally, though this is not really a line, at the end of Amarok, by Mike Oldfield (about 58 minutes into track one) he has a Margaret Thatcher imitator talking about endings. She finally does a clunky jig, followed by the sound of glass breaking as she dances right out a window.

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**Author:** ![wakimika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f08c70/32.png) [@wakimika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wakimika)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/104 "2003-11-01T01:24:00Z")

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Reading this thread made me pull out some old **Zappa** albums. _Joe’s Garage_, a triple album, tells the story of Joe and his quest to understand his sexual identity, amongst other things.

In the song _A Token Of My Extreme_, Joe goes to visit L. Ron Hoover at The First Church of Appliantology. L.Ron informs Joe that he is a latent appliance fetishist. Joe protests that he has never been attracted to “a toaster or a color tv”, which leads to this exchange:

Joe: Are you telling me  
I should come out  
Of the closet now  
Mr. ron?

L.Ron: No, my son!  
You must go into  
The closet  
That’s where they all live  
So if you want an  
Appliance to love you  
You have to go in there  
And get you one  
A latent appliance fetishist…it still kills me.

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**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/105 "2003-11-01T05:55:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chupacabra \*  
> \*\*I’m surprised nobody has gotten to these lyrics yet :
> 
> _I left the cake out in the rain,  
> And I worked so hard to make it,  
> And it took so long to bake it,  
> And I’ll never have that recipe again, oh no!_
> 
> From **MacArthur Park**  
> written, in all seriouness, by Richard Harris.\*\*

Actually, sung by Harris, but written by [Jimmy Webb](http://dav4is.8m.com/Music/macarthur.html).

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**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/106 "2003-11-01T06:39:29Z")

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From **Big Bottom** by **Spinal Tap** :  
_My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo  
I like to sink her with my pink torpedo_

From **Mable** by **Goldfinger** :  
\*Then on Tuesday mable left me  
I heard she’s going out with Charlie  
She saw his package from what i know she said:  
“that looks like a tube of cookie dough!” \*

Penis humor. Good stuff.

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**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/107 "2003-11-01T07:15:36Z")

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Sorry, another **Barenaked Ladies** song again…_ **Grade 9** _–

“…and I went to the high school dance/My dad said I had to be home by eleven/Oh man, I’m gonna miss _Stairway to Heaven_!”

I laughed out loud when I heard that line. It’s so typical of my high school dances in the 80s when _Stairway_ was always the last song (my first slow dance, BTW 🙂 ). But, pretty much, the whole song is hilarious.

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**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/108 "2003-11-01T15:41:41Z")

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Now, there’s only two things in life  
But I forget what they are…

```
                          - John Hiatt
```

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**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/109 "2003-11-01T16:33:41Z")

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**Sheryl Crow’s** “All I Wanna Do”:  
“He was high on intellectualism/  
I’ve never been there, but the brochure looks nice.”

**Elvis Presley’s** “Suspicious Minds” Live Aloha from Hawaii:  
Instead of singing, “Because I love you too much, baby.”

He sings, “I hope this suit don’t tear up, baby.”

**KISS’s** “Beth”

“Beth, I know you’re lonely,  
And I hope you’ll be allright.  
Cause me and the boys  
Will be playing all night.”

This is funny on two levels. First, the melody is so lovely and on its face seems to be a love song to Beth…but really it’s more of a “fuck you” song. He certainly makes it clear where his priorities are, doesn’t he?

The other reason I find it funny is because it’s KISS, for pete’s sake. One wonders what it is they’re doing all night because clearly it isn’t writing inspired lyrics. Maybe they’re exchanging makeup tips?

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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funniest-single-line-in-a-song/205773/110 "2003-11-01T21:12:17Z")

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Well, the humor in this line is about 80% delivery, so do yourself a favor sometime and listen to the whole song (which completely rocks, by the way: it’s the song playing in the background in “Fight Club” when they enter the club and head downstairs)

Tom Waits, “Goin’ Out West”

\*I don’t need no make up  
I got real scars  
I got hair on my chest  
\*\* I look good without a shirt \*\* \*

Really, ya gotta hear it to appreciate it…

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