I think it's odd that no one else has come up with this interpretation, so maybe it's completely off, but here goes:
The first verse is about the monotony of life in suburbia and how an unnamed father "hates his children for being green when he is grey" and his wife only talks to "people far away."
Next thing we hear about is a "big surprise" told to several people, presumably a family since they're on a couch. From the first verse, it seems like a logical conclusion that the father committed suicide (or possibly just walked out on them). We get more and more evidence for this as the song goes on... "Was it really such a sad event" if he was miserable anyway? Camera clicks can't capture someone who no longer exists, and numbers on birthday cakes don't exist either... And I read "you should act your age" as someone else's words about how irresponsible a father is for taking his own life, though I may be reading into it too much.
Then they're hungry for a holiday to take their minds off the loss, and they go caroling and people give them money out of sympathy (By the way I'm fairly sure the line is "With silver coins they filled our coffee can.") The mannequin-man might be a metaphor for how the father felt living there... He prefers a place of permanence (state of death) to dealing with the choices life throws at him.
Even if my interpretation is reading too far into it, I'm fairly confident saying that the whole song is a reflection on the notion of giving up. The father figure clearly gave up in some way, whether suicide or leaving or something else, and mannequin man just stands in place rather than striving for anything better, because it's the easy thing to do. The final line tops it off: "You dreamt of mountains but sometimes a hole is more comfortable." That seems pretty clear to me..
I think it's odd that no one else has come up with this interpretation, so maybe it's completely off, but here goes:
The first verse is about the monotony of life in suburbia and how an unnamed father "hates his children for being green when he is grey" and his wife only talks to "people far away."
Next thing we hear about is a "big surprise" told to several people, presumably a family since they're on a couch. From the first verse, it seems like a logical conclusion that the father committed suicide (or possibly just walked out on them). We get more and more evidence for this as the song goes on... "Was it really such a sad event" if he was miserable anyway? Camera clicks can't capture someone who no longer exists, and numbers on birthday cakes don't exist either... And I read "you should act your age" as someone else's words about how irresponsible a father is for taking his own life, though I may be reading into it too much.
Then they're hungry for a holiday to take their minds off the loss, and they go caroling and people give them money out of sympathy (By the way I'm fairly sure the line is "With silver coins they filled our coffee can.") The mannequin-man might be a metaphor for how the father felt living there... He prefers a place of permanence (state of death) to dealing with the choices life throws at him.
Even if my interpretation is reading too far into it, I'm fairly confident saying that the whole song is a reflection on the notion of giving up. The father figure clearly gave up in some way, whether suicide or leaving or something else, and mannequin man just stands in place rather than striving for anything better, because it's the easy thing to do. The final line tops it off: "You dreamt of mountains but sometimes a hole is more comfortable." That seems pretty clear to me..
Anyway, it's an absolutely beautiful song.
I thought of this same meaning. ^___^ Thanks for writing it out for me.
I thought of this same meaning. ^___^ Thanks for writing it out for me.