I'm Pathetic. Specifically, Empathetic.

This is at least a decade late, I'm sure, but that's sort of my style when it comes to pop culture... I had Smelly Cat stuck in my head all day today. You know, the ridiculous song from Friends. Here, see how long you can keep it stuck in yours:

Terrible, right? Ridiculous? Stupid? If you don't think it's any of those things, you can definitely call it silly, right? Even I can agree to that. But do you know what else? I think it's brilliant. And, brace yourself... It's incredibly sad.

When I asked my parents (after belting out the chorus four or five times at the dinner table), "But don't you just feel a little sorry for the creature?" my mother's reply was something about its not being real, and Dad said the reason for the cat's being smelly is that it is actually dead. Proving not only that my dad is hilarious, but also that I can empathize with anything. But think about it...

It's not your fault.
The cat's flaw is that it is smelly. That's quite obvious. But there's nothing the cat can do about this, much like most of us people can't do a whole lot toward repairing our own flaws. It's not my fault I don't like being around people, even people I like, for too long or too many days--I'm just an introvert. It's not the smelly cat's fault its owners are feeding it something horrible and refuse to take it to the vet to resolve the issue. You probably have flaws that aren't your fault, too.

Maybe you still have a hard time empathizing with a cat that everyone avoids because of its smell. Maybe you say, "Yeah, but it's still a cat." Yes it is. But what if I tweaked the lyrics of the chorus (I haven't put enough time in to figure out a verse) just a little bit? How would you feel about a song that goes a little more like this: "Chubby kid, chubby kid, what are they feeding you? Chubby kid, chubby kid, it's not your fault." Oh snap. Things just got real. Now it's a song about childhood obesity. Now it's about parents' responsibility for the appropriate diet and exercise of their children. Maybe it's even a little bit about the bullying the kid has to endure because of his/her size and weight. Now that hits home, right?

In my mind, the smelly cat is a symbol for all of that. The song is sad because it's not about a stinky feline, it's about being rejected for the flaws we can't change.

And that's what happens when a literature nerd takes something entirely out of context. Seriously, this was a silly song written by Phoebe about a smelly cat. That's all.

But, like I said, I can empathize with anything. And I'm a little bit more like Jules from Cougar Town:
(You have to click the link because this one wouldn't embed)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUCdzmFe8XU
I wanna write music that matters, Jeff.