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Waiting For The Punchline Lyrics
You might say hey, I lost my sense of humour.
I'm quite surprised I didn't lose it sooner.
Why waste your breath on anything less than talk so trivial,
as a man who ran out of material.
Why did the chicken go across the road?
To get to the other side.
I'm still Waiting For The Punchline.
Whoever said the grass always grows greener on the other lied.
I'm still Waiting For The Punchline.
The good old days, I was known to wear a smile
like all good things they've gone out of style.
I will admit, usually a quick wit.
I found bemusing
what used to be, no longer are amusing.
It's nothing that you said, no nothing that you did
must have been a bad joke.
That's gone over my head.
What me worry, another tragedy,
the latter of time, equals comedy.
Why can't I get to the other side?
I'm quite surprised I didn't lose it sooner.
Why waste your breath on anything less than talk so trivial,
as a man who ran out of material.
To get to the other side.
I'm still Waiting For The Punchline.
Whoever said the grass always grows greener on the other lied.
I'm still Waiting For The Punchline.
like all good things they've gone out of style.
I will admit, usually a quick wit.
I found bemusing
what used to be, no longer are amusing.
must have been a bad joke.
That's gone over my head.
What me worry, another tragedy,
the latter of time, equals comedy.
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I’ll take a stab at this one: the song seems clearer when you consider the band’s own mood at the time they were creating the album this hidden track is from. They were riding high on the success of Extreme II: Pornagraffitti. But when their third album, III Sides to Every Story came out, it was the height of the grunge era, and suddenly Extreme was part of a musical movement that was in rapid decline. The third album tanked and ticket sales wained. All these fans they had turned out to be not very devoted, their seemingly fickle tastes turning to the next big trend. Extreme felt disillusioned and angry, wondering what all the hard work was for. The result was the Waiting for the Punchline album, full of stripped down, angry music that ironically sounded like the grunge music that stole pop metal’s crown. This song seems to me to exemplify that disillusionment: the protagonist answers the question as to why he finds nothing funny by saying “why waste your breath with anything less” (less than sincere humor and laughter), “then talk so trivial as a man who ran out of material” (any attempt to sound happy or humorous would just be empty and pointless- so why say anything at all if it can’t be nice?) Then that chorus: “why did the chicken cross the road to get to the other side? I’m still waiting for the punchline. Whoever said the grass grows greener on the other lied.” We crossed the road for what seemed the obvious, big career that should have made life better, only to find out it wasn’t. Feels like there should be some kind of joke, here, but we’re missing it. The rest of the song pretty much restates this feeling; “the latter (tragedy) plus time equals comedy”— a cynical statement of ‘maybe we’ll all be laughing about it later’ that the singer doesn’t really believe. He ends with “why can’t I get to the other side”— why can’t I get to that elusive greener grass that seems to be there, but just hasn’t been? It feels to the protagonist as if they’ve been the subject of some cosmic joke that they do not at all find funny. Anyway, that’s how I always took the song. It’s an obscure one, granted, so I’m not expecting any further input, but I would love to hear if anyone, perhaps from Extreme’s small but devoted fan base that I know is out there, might have something interesting to throw in. This is actually my favorite Extreme album overall, so any discussion about it is very welcome!