This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mr. Horrible
Mr. Horrible
Telephone call for Mr. Horrible
But before he can talk to the ugliness men
There's some horrible business left
For him to attend to
Something unpleasant has spilled on his brain
As he sponges it off they say
"Is this Horrible?
Is this Horrible?
It's the ugliness men, Mr. Horrible
We're just trying to bug you
We thought that our dreadfulness
Might be a thing to annoy you with"
But Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
"Would you mind if we balance this glass of milk
Where your visiting friend accidentally was killed?
Would it be okay with you if we wrote a reminder
Of things we'll forget to do today otherwise,
Using a green magic marker, if it's alright
On the back of your head?"
Mr. Horrible
Mr. Horrible
We're not done with you yet Mr. Horrible
You have to try on these pants so the Ugliness Men
Can decide if they're just as embarrassing as we think
We have to be sure about this
But Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
Someone keeps moving my chair
Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
Mr. Horrible
Telephone call for Mr. Horrible
But before he can talk to the ugliness men
There's some horrible business left
For him to attend to
Something unpleasant has spilled on his brain
As he sponges it off they say
"Is this Horrible?
Is this Horrible?
It's the ugliness men, Mr. Horrible
We're just trying to bug you
We thought that our dreadfulness
Might be a thing to annoy you with"
But Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
"Would you mind if we balance this glass of milk
Where your visiting friend accidentally was killed?
Would it be okay with you if we wrote a reminder
Of things we'll forget to do today otherwise,
Using a green magic marker, if it's alright
On the back of your head?"
Mr. Horrible
Mr. Horrible
We're not done with you yet Mr. Horrible
You have to try on these pants so the Ugliness Men
Can decide if they're just as embarrassing as we think
We have to be sure about this
But Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
Someone keeps moving my chair
Mr. Horrible says, "I don't mind
The thing that bothers me is
Someone keeps moving my chair"
Lyrics submitted by Irrational
Someone Keeps Moving My Chair Lyrics as written by John Linnell John Flansburgh
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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It's totally a coincidence since Flood came out in 1990 and "Office Space" came out in 1999, but occurs to me that you could almost make this part of the album into a little theme song trilogy: Someone Keeps Moving My Chair = Milton, Hearing Aid = Peter, Minimum Wage = Lumburgh (cracking the whip). Just a little goofy thought, funny how it kinda works though. Heh.
this is a creepy and fun song at the same time. all these odd/disturbing things seem to surround him yet all he can complain about is that somebody keeps moving his chair.
disturbing... i wonder if his friend's death was accidental, or if it was caused by the ugliness men. something was spilt upon his brain... wouldn't his skull have to be open? maybe this song is about being sedated during an operation of the head. ah its hard to tell, the lyrics are nicely vague.
I think it's basically about a guy, a businessman of some sort I assume, who is being bothered and frustrated by a bunch of annoying co-workers, probably his superiors. They meet with him, and are totally rude and insensitive. But the guy can't protest about any of the things that really bug him, so he just feigns outrage over his chair being moved.
I think this is a song about a man whose friend was killed (obvisously) and that kinda hollowed his emotions so nothing else that was done to him affects him emotionally except something petty like some1 moving his chair.
I'm more with JJ than anyone on this. although, i'm pretty sure the lyrics say the Ugliness Man, and that they were calling him the Ugliness Man, as well as Mr. Horrible. bt i always got the idea of this being at a bussiness office, with annoying co-workers.
Rodan2000
The thing you always have to remember is, TMBG don't often make sense. What I can tell is, people are annoying this guy, and he's kinda too focussed on his chair to notice. They probably meant it literally, in an effort to make as little sense as possible.
For some reason this song reminds me of the movie Office Space. And Milton in particular.
Green magic marker/something unpleasant = acid (to me)
Acid has the strange ability to rid you of your cares
i agree w/ j.j. The dead friend thing is just a thing they're bringing up to pick on Mr. Horrible