From the album ‘The Poison Boyfriend‘ (1987).
Lyrics
What’s a laugh?
The sound of common-sense falling apart
What’s common-sense?
A million unthinking hearts
At the end of the working day
And who am I?
Call me the barman standing waiting for the workers
To drink their work away
I’m the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they’ve got plastered on the news
And I’ve got the situation comedy blues
What’s the situation?
This man has been abandoned by his woman
What’s the reason?
He’s lost his sense of humour
This man is sober
And so he’s gone to bed with another writer’s scripts
And his wife has had to move in with her mother
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they’ve got plastered on the news
(You fed him laughter)
Has got the situation comedy blues
He’s been devising a new series
Where the first man to appear is
Pakistani and the second is a queer
Who rings the bell in tights and biker’s gear
And he tells them that he’s sorry to disturb them
But the sari that the wife had on today was out of sight
And could he maybe borrow it tonight?
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they’ve got plastered on the news
(He’s died of laughter)
Has got the situation comedy blues
So the Paki asks the queen in
To his brilliantly-lit kitchen
Where he demonstrates his do-it-yourself tools
He’s the type who doesn’t gladly suffer fools
But he electrocutes his finger in his biggest Black and Decker
When his wife appears in towel and rubber hat
And the bath she’s running floods the neighbours’ flat
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they’ve got plastered on the news
(This man is sober)
Yeah, the man who serves the laughter
To the workaholics after
They’ve got well and truly plastered on the news
Takes a break from the booze
I’ve been sitting here unhappily
Trying to write this comedy
When I hear a sudden laugh in the next room
And thinking it’s my woman who’s come home
I call her name expectantly and, glad that she’s come back to me,
I throw away my trivialising pen…
And then the television laughs again
And the man who serves the laughter
To the drunkards of disaster
After they’ve got plastered on the news
(This man is falling apart)
Yeah, the man who serves the laughter
To the workaholics after
They’ve got well and truly plastered on the news
(This man hits the booze)
OK, lets have a big laugh
Not just a ripple
Everybody
Applause
And cue commercial break
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Marie come back to me
Momus 