No you didn't misconstrue but by cherry picking you omitted my mention of Gashlycrumbs (admittedly misspelled as "Ghastly") which is the type of blackly humorous imagery I think the song does evoke.
I don't actually know what "gashlycrumbs" is. Could you enlighten me?
Saying "Hooray" when someone you (in this case the song's narrator) dislike dies will be seen as funny by some, not by others. I think Morrissey was doing his own, darker take on his beloved Redondo Beach.
It isn't funny, when seen in isolation. What makes the song funny is that unless you want to understand it as a serious and straightforward expression of murderous hatred, it only makes sense as a completely over-the-top expression of the extremity of sentiment that can result from strong drives like desire or jealousy. As such, it's not unlike
The Boy Racer or
It's not your birthday.
While it is of course not the case that only one interpretation is correct, I don't see how you can possible escape from the fact that the reading you offer of it is fundamentally contradicted by the lyrics themselves. The girl is not depicted as "attention-starved", but as attention-addicted -
Always looking for attention/always needs to be mentioned/who does she think she should be?. Her demise is greeted with a jubilation that is so unreserved and so excessive that it rules out any notion of implicit sympathy, and is in itself comical -
The sky went mad with stars/as an outstretched arm slowly disappears/Hooray.... Any remaining doubt on that point is squashed by the denial even of any basic empathy with her plight, as if her drowning was the natural consequence of a character flaw:
It was only a test/but she swam too far against the tide/she deserves all she gets.
Finally, the focal point of the lyric is not the girl but the lifeguard, to whom it seems to be directly addressed, often in the form of an intimate whisper that seemingly attempts to convince him not to bother with her. The extreme juxtaposition of his predicament (had a busy day) over hers (drowning) is another overtly comical piece of hyperbole that also squarely places the emphasis of the song on the I-person's obsession with the lifeguard and the resulting treatment of the girl as no more than an unwelcome nuisance.
All of which again makes it an excellent example of the futility of making any basic distinction between "funny" and "serious", because this highly humourous lyric makes a number of extremely serious points. Above all, it slyly transmits the utter selfishness of an obsessive desire that will brook no obstacle and no competition, told from the inside rather than as an outward observation.
I don't see why a poll on which is Morrissey's most humorous record on a Morrissey forum is "hilarious". I agree that it's hard to quantify art but people compare the amount of humour, and many other elements, in music, art and books all the time, yes?
Well, apart from anything else, how is a poll about which record is
most humourous supposed to tell anyone anything about whether or not Vauxhall is the
least humourous? Beyond that, how exactly is "humour" defined? And again - now for the third time - how is it possible to make a basic distinction between "humorous" and "serious" in lyrics which usually employ humour as a part of the process of making very serious points?
I agree with your point that it's not a binary argument of less humour=more serious -- I think Vauxhall is less humorous & more serious / somber / elegiac / reflective.
With respect, that seems to be insufficient, because it doesn't account for the way in which humour is used as a means to make serious points (which basically contradicts
any elementary distinction between "humourous" and "serious").
Also that makes it rather difficult to get just what you're aiming for, because you have throughout treated the issue as if less humour meant more seiousness. If it doesn't, then what exactly is the question you're asking? If Vauxhall is liked because it has (in your opinion) less humour? Or if it is liked because it is more serious? If its greater seriousness doesn't consist in there being less humour, then what
does it consist in? And why then are we discussing the degree of humourousness at all?
As another poster mentioned it was regarded as his swan song at the time, even by Morrissey himself for a short period. My impression is that lyrically and thematically he was in a creative space quite removed from the puns, bawdy humour (nothing like "explosive kegs" to debate over), and arch wit found on other records so there's simply less of it (I do like the example from Why Don't You Find Out...).
Well, this is where we simply disagree. I think puns, bawdy humour and arch wit are markedly present on Vauxhall, as it is on every other album he's made. Don't you think it may be the case that you're simply approaching the record in a way that doesn't really allow you to see them like that? Of course, you can approach it in whatever way you like, we all do. But when we get to the point where we discuss in a public forum whether there
is less humour on the record, then things are on a different footing.
cheers
