Okay, now I've read Achewood. For those who don't know, it's a very strange but very funny webcomic about stuffed animals who live in the underground city of Achewood. It's just as often disturbing and melancholy as it is hilarious, but definitely worth a read. I recommend that you start with the Party storyline, as it's about the time when it really got going. It doesn't exactly make itself likable instantly, but give it a few strips and you won't regret it.
Okay, so here's a line-by-line deciphering of the song:
Where I'm livin' it's hard to say
Wasting my time at the corner of dude and catastrophe
The Dude and Catastrophe is the bar where most of Achewood's main characters hang out.
Woke up by the pool again.
Must have played the fool again.
Ray Smuckles has a pool in his backyard. The protagonists sometimes hold parties here, get drunk, and pass out.
[...]Step over with big trepidation,
lift up the top off the meat cooking station
to discover my homie Todd!
Todd is an extraordinarily stupid squirrel who gets himself killed repeatedly and (through sheer dumb luck) manages to make it back from the afterlife each time.
I said “oh my God,
what grim façade
do you meet me with in my wakefulness?”
I had too many Stellas & they all was crisp;
The cast of Achewood are quite fond of crispy stellas, and they're mentioned relatively frequently throughout the comic's run.
must I rise up in the morning with my squirrel desisted
from the world, insisted as I did
this instant that
him up in heaven again is premature?
"Again" because Todd has died before.
If only reality would concur!
Poke him with the tongs, dude won’t wake up.
Put him on the lawn, Ray’s about to cook a steak up
Ray likes steaks probably more than he likes Todd.
he never learned to whistle.
It's the sort of weird thing that comes to mind when someone dies; the various miniscule things they never had a chance to do. Todd's inability to whistle is, if I remember correctly, brought up in an early strip.
He ain’t a lawn clipping; we been knuckleheads since old times.
"Knuckleheads since old times" is Achewood slang. Another reference to the comic and the distinctive way the characters speak.
Dig out the batting helmet and the bat
Possibly a reference to Stoned Lightning, the baseball team of stoners Ray created.
‘cause we’re all about to have a funeral and that’s that.
We’ll do it after breakfast. We’ll do it up proper.
We’ll drop all his ashes out the airwolf copter,
Ray bought the Airwolf helicopter off of eBay and uses it to rescue Philippe from drowning. Now it's being used for a different purpose.
all singing up dirges, all spreading out blossoms,
Again, usage of Achewood slang. This hints that Roast Beef is the one narrating, since he's the character who most frequently uses the "all , all " format.
and it’s g-gonna b-b-b-be frikkin awesome.
Todd had a stutter and was the only character to use the word "frikkin."
six bong rips later, we ain’t going to the helipad,
standin’ ‘round hella sad,
wonder where them Stellas at...
They got high instead of having a funeral for Todd. More references to the way the characters talk ("hella sad") and crispy, crispy Stellas.
and said “man why he even got to do a thing
like pass out on the Bar-B-King?”
Man Why You Even Got To Do A Thing is a magazine written by Roast Beef (later defictionalized by the author and made into a short-lived online 'zine). This confirms that the song is from Roast Beef's perspective.
I’m trying to bring from like recesses in my mind
a word or two that wouldn’t prove unkind.
Aligned as he was with the less-than-angelic,
trafficking black tar smack & psychedelics
in that little-ass van of his, and drunk doing it,
Todd was a drug dealer who drove a very tiny van. One strip featured him getting in the world's most adorable drunk driving accident.
knowing what the right thing to do was but eschewing it,
it’d seem pretty probable [that] flames are audible.
That’s the duty that Todd’ll pull,
not just in death, but in after-that, like the bat
out the h-e-double-vertical-slat,
‘cept inbound in the case of this rodent,
like when he got peeled-out on and ‘sploded,
or in fact when he got shanked in the joint.
Todd's going to hell, but he's already been there several times before, and Roast Beef suspects that this won't be the last time.
Hella causing me to wonder if there’s even a point
to our shephardly tending
of his life’s ending!
He'll probably be back again.
I bet he’s chilling at Friendly’s
Friendly's is a restaurant in Hell. If you correctly answer a riddle hidden on the menu, you get to come back to life.
and gonna be back in the neighborhood shortly,
discussing how awesome it is to be portly,
This is referencing a background story arc where Todd became obese and was extremely proud of it.
reporting the slant he just got on with Blister
Blister is a minor character and one of the few willing to hang out with Todd.
The dude’s a bucket kickster when he has to be
and this one wasn’t like a masterpiece
He's died more stylishly before.
so yes we’re depressed but not drastically,
livin’ at the corner of dude and catastrophe.
Roast Beef has clinical depression- the temporary death of a cokehead squirrel isn't really going to make things much worse for him.
This was actually the song that got me into Achewood. Great comic, great song.
Okay, now I've read Achewood. For those who don't know, it's a very strange but very funny webcomic about stuffed animals who live in the underground city of Achewood. It's just as often disturbing and melancholy as it is hilarious, but definitely worth a read. I recommend that you start with the Party storyline, as it's about the time when it really got going. It doesn't exactly make itself likable instantly, but give it a few strips and you won't regret it.
Okay, so here's a line-by-line deciphering of the song:
The Dude and Catastrophe is the bar where most of Achewood's main characters hang out.
Ray Smuckles has a pool in his backyard. The protagonists sometimes hold parties here, get drunk, and pass out.
Todd is an extraordinarily stupid squirrel who gets himself killed repeatedly and (through sheer dumb luck) manages to make it back from the afterlife each time.
The cast of Achewood are quite fond of crispy stellas, and they're mentioned relatively frequently throughout the comic's run.
"Again" because Todd has died before.
Ray likes steaks probably more than he likes Todd.
It's the sort of weird thing that comes to mind when someone dies; the various miniscule things they never had a chance to do. Todd's inability to whistle is, if I remember correctly, brought up in an early strip.
"Knuckleheads since old times" is Achewood slang. Another reference to the comic and the distinctive way the characters speak.
Possibly a reference to Stoned Lightning, the baseball team of stoners Ray created.
Ray bought the Airwolf helicopter off of eBay and uses it to rescue Philippe from drowning. Now it's being used for a different purpose.
Again, usage of Achewood slang. This hints that Roast Beef is the one narrating, since he's the character who most frequently uses the "all , all " format.
Todd had a stutter and was the only character to use the word "frikkin."
They got high instead of having a funeral for Todd. More references to the way the characters talk ("hella sad") and crispy, crispy Stellas.
Man Why You Even Got To Do A Thing is a magazine written by Roast Beef (later defictionalized by the author and made into a short-lived online 'zine). This confirms that the song is from Roast Beef's perspective.
Todd was a drug dealer who drove a very tiny van. One strip featured him getting in the world's most adorable drunk driving accident.
Todd's going to hell, but he's already been there several times before, and Roast Beef suspects that this won't be the last time.
He'll probably be back again.
Friendly's is a restaurant in Hell. If you correctly answer a riddle hidden on the menu, you get to come back to life.
This is referencing a background story arc where Todd became obese and was extremely proud of it.
Blister is a minor character and one of the few willing to hang out with Todd.
He's died more stylishly before.
Roast Beef has clinical depression- the temporary death of a cokehead squirrel isn't really going to make things much worse for him.
This was actually the song that got me into Achewood. Great comic, great song.