# Sarcastically Cheery Songs for the Apocalypse
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 10, 2002, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202 "2002-07-10T06:01:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/1 "2002-07-10T06:01:37Z")
Pardon me for posting, but…Inspired by the [happiest sounding songs with the saddest lyrics](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=124368) thread, and in no small part by the ending of “Dr. Strangelove,” I wanted to ask…what normally cheery song/s would YOU play during the end of the world, or any similar event of mass carnage, just to appreciate the irony? I once read an article by a video-game columnist who mentioned that he liked playing Sinatra’s “My Way” while waging wars of global conquest in “Civilization.” My personal picks tight now would be Peter Gabriel’s “When You’re falling” or Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Well, that last choice isn’t very original, if you know the reference. 😉 )
Any other suggestions?
Ranchoth
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/2 "2002-07-10T10:29:57Z")
“Shiny Happy People” - REM
“Shiny”, of course, referring to the healthy radioactive glow of the “Happy People”.
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### Author:  [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/3 "2002-07-10T10:36:04Z")
“It’s the end of the world as we know it”.
And the faster version of “Blue Moon” at the end of American Werwolf in London.
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### Author:  [@Tir\_Tinuviel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tir_Tinuviel)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/4 "2002-07-10T10:59:16Z")
“Death is not the End” - Nick Cave… happy and bouncy! 😉
“Ballad of Marie Curie” - Army of Lovers… has references to glowing in the dark and being radioactive…
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/5 "2002-07-10T11:00:55Z")
“Maybe” by the Inkspots.
🙂
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### Author:  [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/6 "2002-07-10T12:14:56Z")
“We Will All Go Together When We Go” by Tom Lehrer
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### Author:  [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/7 "2002-07-10T12:31:43Z")
B52s ‘Love Shack’
“The whole shack shimmied!
Everyone moving around and around!”
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/8 "2002-07-10T13:18:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \*
> \*\* or Ray Charles’ “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Well, that last choice isn’t very original, if you know the reference. 😉 )
> Ranchoth \*\*
I know the reference, & thought of it right off, when I first saw the thread title.
You have good taste in anime.
Seen it in the theatre, yet? It’s worth it to see the Ziggurat collapse on the big screen.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/9 "2002-07-10T15:00:12Z")
“Christmas at Ground Zero” by Weird Al
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### Author:  [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/10 "2002-07-10T15:02:56Z")
“Party at Ground Zero” by Fishbone. Sure, it’s more of a Cold War song, but it’s one of my favorites:)
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/11 "2002-07-10T15:29:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> “Christmas at Ground Zero” by Weird Al
Second that.
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/12 "2002-07-10T15:29:13Z")
**The Future’s so Bright I Gotta Wear Shades** by Timbuk 3
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/13 "2002-07-10T15:53:58Z")
“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, by Eric Idle of Monty Python
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### Author:  [@Broodha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broodha)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/14 "2002-07-10T17:11:04Z")
Meeting the criteria of happiest sounding, saddest lyrics, I nominate:
“Bad Moon Rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival
“Til’ the Morning Comes” by Neil Young
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### Author:  [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/15 "2002-07-10T20:49:43Z")
I was just discussing this with a friend who’s very into goth/darkwave/synthpop/industrial/etc. - she just realized that a lot of the music that she found so cheery, most people find quite dark. 🙂
That being said, I’d have to second:
**"It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)" (R.E.M.)**
as well as,
**"The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" (Timbuk 3)**
…and add some of my own…
**"99 Luftballons" (Nena)** - I’ve recently read the literal translation of the lyrics in a quest to settle a disagreement w/ the abovementioned friend. (She swore the chick had suicided in the '80’s - she’d heard that from many people. I disagreed, looked it up last night, found the woman’s alive, & called to gloat. My friend was out on a date, so really, who am I to gloat, but that’s neither her nor there, is it?)
Anyway, I’ve always liked the sound of the original version more than the English lang. one despite my lack of translation skill; I got the gist & that was enough for me.
**"Time Bomb" (Rancid)** - Doesn’t have to do with nuclear destruction, but it’s a peppy song with depressing lyrics, as is…
**"Date Rape" (Sublime)** - I mean, she gets the asshole in the end, but even that’s depressing.
And who could forget…
**"Don’t Worry, Be Happy" (Bobby McFerrin)**? There’s a sarcastic little nugget.
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### Author:  [@Crepitus\_Fremitus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crepitus_Fremitus)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/16 "2002-07-11T14:06:54Z")
If I get the drift of your original post, you’re looking not for songs ABOUT destruction and apocolypse, but disgustingly happy and cheerful tunes which would be so incongruent with these circumstances as to come full circle to be the ONLY thing that would truly capture the awsome moment. Right?
Well, I’ve always thought “The Happy Wanderer” would be perfect for such an occasion.
It’s a disgustingly, idiotically, imbecilicly cheerful song, espescially when sung by a choir of children, which it always is.
[Just the lyrics](http://www.brave.com/bo/lyrics/happywan.htm)
[More to the point](http://members.ozemail.com.au/~adamv/html/body_the_happy_wanderer.html)
I particularly reccommend the MIDIs on that second one, esp the “revolting, yet putrid” version.
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### Author:  [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/17 "2002-07-11T14:24:56Z")
Randy Newman, “Political Science”. “Boom goes London, Boom Paris, more room for you and more room for me…”
Tiny Tim, “The Icecaps are Melting”. “The icecaps are melting, ho, ho, ho, ho, all the world is drowning to wash away the sins…”
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/18 "2002-07-11T15:30:00Z")
Another vote for Tom Lehrer’s **We Will All Go Together When We Go** , which he deliberately wrote as an upbeat end-of-the-world song, in the style of the Revivalist hymns (“This might more aptly be called a SURvivalist hymn,” he noted).
It’s a pretty bouncy and catchy song.
“…When the air becomes Uranious
We will all go simultaneous…”
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### Author:  [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/19 "2002-07-11T16:08:02Z")
I think “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” by BJ Thomas would be a pretty inane yet appropriate song to enjoy Armageddon with. Take a look at some of the [lyrics](http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/raindrop.htm):
[ul][li]_Talks to the sun about not getting the job done_. Obvious reference to nuclear winter.[/li]
[li]_Raindrops keep falling on his head_. The unending rain from too much pollution, a la _Bladrunner_.[/li]
_Eyes soon turning red_. Too much smoke from all the destruction.[/ul]Yeah, that’d be my song. _Nothin’s worrying me…_
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2002, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sarcastically-cheery-songs-for-the-apocalypse/118202/20 "2002-07-11T20:08:14Z")
_Road to Nowhere_ by Talking Heads
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