It Hurts My Sensibilities So Good!


I am constantly amazed by what people consider good and what they consider bad. There is a tendency to immediately go to the extremes: "that, oh my God, this one song by [insert obscure band name here] is so fucking good it will blow your fucking mind!" and "Can you believe that [insert aging pop star's name here] put out a new record? It's like what Hitler would listen to if he were a thirteen year old girl!" You know what that tells me about your ability to reason? That you don't have one. We live in a world of love it or hate it, where every sandwich you eat must be an orgasmic experience that alters our perception of the universe with every bite. I want to tell you that that world only exists in theory. That back here on earth, there is such a thing as nuance and degrees of enjoyment, and that all of it is subjective.
Within the world of praise and badmouthing, there exists a strange limbo that seems to defy these laws of criticism. There are occaisions when the qualities that would normally prime a work of art for the severist of ridicule by first semester philosophy students strangely become widely accepted as being works of genius. There are very specific parameters to the success of the "It's so bad, it's good" label. I want to be clear that I am not talking about works of straight parody. In those situations, there are other rules to determine whether or not said work of parody is good. What I'm talking about it a song that, to any observer, appears to be sincere, yet that sincerity is misplaced on a laughably ridiculous piece. While this phenomenon can be found in any form of expression, it seems to be most highly focused on musical pieces. That could just be because music has a faster and farther reach than other forms of art. I don't want to go through a huge list of instances where the "so bad, it's good" element occur, but I would like to point out a single example that has recently come to my attention.

The song is called "Smell Yo Dick" and it is truly as bad as that title would suggest:


The reason I find this to be a model example is that, from what I can tell, there is no intended comedic element to this song. I don't recognize any tells that would tip me off to the fact that this is anything but a genuine attempt at writing a song about fear, dishonesty and jealousy. This is a rich and thoroughly explored topic with many possible consequences and solutions, yet the one chosen by the writer of this song, is to literally determine infidelity based on the smell of the accused member. There are a couple of things that this premise suggests: one, that it is possible to determine whether or not someone has had intercourse purely based on aroma of the penis, and two, that the accuser has enough experience with penile odor that she can assess whether or not the accused has had intercourse based on smelling his dick. I'm not sure that it is necessary to elaborate on why this is humorous. The ridiculousness of this song makes it a worthy candidate of being praised as awesome because of its badness, but only because the other elements of it hold up their part of the bargain. The word play, although based on private parts, is pretty good, as is the beat and melody of the chorus. To add to the fuel, it is a pretty simple formula that has been tested again and again by songwriters probably far less talented. In fact, I would say that in order to make a song about dick smell work on any level at all takes an amount of crafting that 80% of working musicians and songwriters don't have.
So why write this song? There is no way of knowing just by hearing it. Is this a song from personal experience like confessional poetry? Is it common knowledge among women that to test if your boyfriend has been cheating you smell his dick? If that is the case, why have I not heard of it before? So many inquiries into the human condition are expelled from this three and a half minute gold nugget. I can imagine this song being blasted in dive bars and being sung along to by hipsters at full voice-cracking volume. It truly is so bad, it is a beautiful American artifact. It rhymes "that" four times in a row. I rest my case.
What I'm saying is I don't understand how this is possible. Given what we know about subjectivity, loud douche-bags with ass holes for opinions, it is a gift that we are given at least a little breathing room for tiny lights into the minds of people who, for better or worse, are not operating even close to the same taste level as the majority.
I should also mention that we have also been given a big heads up on how to avoid conflict with suspicious significant others. Fellas.

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