Human of the Year Lyrics

Lyric discussion by GabrielDeRose 

Cover art for Human of the Year lyrics by Regina Spektor

Please forgive me before I even state this (it may rise some anger from some people) but I feel this song could be about the Pope. The Pope is just a man just like anybody else. The pope has fears. The Pope is not above other human beings, even if we say he is. All mankind are his brothers.

Gabriel, I completely agree with you.

However, I also agree with what has been said earlier; I think "Human of the Year" is a - yes, "sarcastic" - song that, in a broader sense, criticizes the over-idolization - "worship"? - of human icons.

Clearly, there is no better example of an elected, worshiped, and celebrated human-figure, occupying a position of great honor, and chosen by a sacred body, (the "cathedral" that represents the Catholic Church), from among old men with balding spots, than the Pope.

But I suppose part of the beauty...

I was thinking the same thing too, and it was actually the name that reminded me of it because Pope John Paul II's birth name was Karol Wojtyla. The guy in this song is Carl Projecterinski. Karol and Karl sound very similar, and -ski is a very Polish ending to a surname, and JPII was Polish.

But icons are more of an eastern tradition, not so big (as far as I know) in Roman Catholic tradition. Also, there is a yearly winner of Human of the Year. A new pope only comes in when the old pope dies.

But other...

Icons are pretty big in Roman Catholicism (I know because I am Catholic), but unlike what a lot of people say about us, we don't actually idolize these icons; they're just there to remember holy people who have gone before us and they're made of gold out of respect and reverence, but not for worship.

Perhaps they're previous "humans of the year?"