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Interpretations:Hearing Aid

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I always thought it was some old person trying to convince everyone else he's still worth something.

This seems to me like another one of Flansburgh's cryptic anti-work songs. "Frosty the Supervisor" could be the narrator's boss, whose job is the most important thing in his life and who does not have a family. The narrator can sometimes find the time to feel bad for his boss, but generally believes he chose that life for himself. The narrator has "turned off (his) hearing aid," e.g., tuned out the problems and complaints of others; he admits that his apathy is reprehensible, but suggests that swift and decisive punishment ("the electric chair") wouldn't quite match the crime of bloblike passivity. Instead, he commits a kind of psychological suicide, plunging himself into his work and calling for more coffee, boss, more coffee.

I believe Flansburgh means for this song to function as our own "hearing aid"; that we need to wake up and start realizing what is really important in our lives. Of course, a lot of coffee is fueling this interpretation, so who knows.


Is it me, or does the "backwards" message leading in to this song actually say the same thing forwards and backwards:

backwards

forwards

And does the voice say "Oh Lucifer, your mercy?" This kinda freaks me out...


Fortunately, my room has rubber lining the walls. ---AbsolutelyMyMood 14:15, 28 Jul 2005 (EDT)

I noticed a lot of lyrical parallels in this song to various lyrics by the Smiths, as well as mythology surrounding that band. Smiths leader Morrissey used to wear a hearing aid as a fashion statement. Also, "A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours" by the Smiths includes the lyric, "They said, there's too much caffeine in your bloodstream," which parallels "more coffee for me boss." "Frosty the supervisor" echoes the subject of the Smiths song "Frankly, Mr. Shankly." The rest of the lyrics are reminiscent in a less specific way of Morrissey's songwriting.

Flans's vocal delivery seems to be in Morrissey's drawling, morose style. The sampling in the background of the song also mirrors various Smiths songs which use found sound, but the ska-ish intro does not really correlate at all. - Sam, 17 Dec 2005

It isn't saying 'Lucifer, your mercy'... I think it's saying 'Mercy' backwards instead...

The recording is definitely saying "Your mercy," first backward, then forward. This I have concluded after 16 years of being disturbed thoroughly by it. No CLUE where it could've come from. I assume it's a TMBG-recorded thing. Sounds like Elvis, though...?

It's literally a palindrome! Since "Your mercy" is played forwards then backwards, it says the same thing both ways. Oh, btw, I agree with the 'Flanburgh cryptic anti-work' lyric theory mentioned above (Anony Mouse)

I think that it's about how we can't all constantly focus on everything bad in life, (like Frosty the Supervisor's lonliness), because then we'd become hypercritical of ourselves (the electric chair's not good enough), and sometimes we have to "turn off our hearing aids" and ignore it.

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