Laughing With
Thanks to Mike for highlighting Regina Spektor’s performance of “Laughing With” last Friday on The Late Show. Great song, fascinating lyrics. Amazing, the places where questions of theodicy will make an appearance…
Here’s the lyrics:
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poorNo one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God when it’s gotten real late and their kid’s not back from that party yetNo one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say “We’ve got some bad new, sir,”
No one’s laughing at God when there’s a famine, fire or floodBut God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to chokeGod can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa ClausGod can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha haNo one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’ve lost all they got and they don’t know what forNo one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyesBut God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they’re about to chokeGod can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa ClausGod can be so hilarious
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a warNo one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a warNo one’s laughing at God in a hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a warNo one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God
brilliant. thanks for linking to this. i am quite impressed. not enough artists [maybe this guy] are writing this good of lyrics these days.
This is the guy from Pedro the Lion right? Very interesting song…
(Another song with interesting lyrics I came across recently is called “For Beginners” by M. Ward.)
wow – what great lyrics — I’ll have to go hunting for a recording of this one! Thanks for sharing it
AMAZING. Thanks, Ryan!
He is from Pedro the Lion but is now releasing new stuff under his name. His new album is supposed to drop in August last I heard. The M. Ward song also has interesting lyrics.
I still find it weird the song was played on Letterman. Here is an hour of low brow humor and now listen to this slow thoughtful song. Odd, but I guess I wouldn’t have heard of it otherwise.
Yeah, it’s a bit weird to see a song with that kind of a theme followed by “have a lovely weekend and stay tuned for Craig Ferguson.” I guess you just have to take the good wherever you can find it…
Ryan, thought you might like this rendition of a couple of great songs:
Wow! Great stuff Dave, thanks for sharing it!