RANDY NEWMAN - Short People
RANDY NEWMAN - Short People
Is it just me but is Randy Newman’s baiting of short people not dissimilar to the kind of Nazi propaganda which was spread in the 1930’s against the Jews? Utterly foundless, logically flawed and just hateful. I mean do short people really have special cars made just for them that go “beep, beep, beep“? No, and anyone who remembers the nightmare of the Nuremberg rallies will remember Hitler’s similar tirade about “J’dische Autos, die gehen Honkhonkhonk”. And yet we villify one as the ultimate evil, and celebrate the other as some kind of genius singer songwriter.
Would we have let Hitler write the music to Toy Story (”Sie haben einen faschistischer Diktator in mir”)? It certainly bares thinking about. In the end the kind of person who propgates such hateful discriminatory lies is doing so because they feel inadequate within themselves. Well I certainly won’t argue that Newman is not inadequate on the songwriting front. But will you all speak out when they start dragging the dwarves off to concentration camps?
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bobby on October 28th, 2006
yes it is just you. Why don’t you find an interest instead of complaining about music? You don’t have to listen to music you don’t like, no one is forcing you to, so why not get over it?
bobby 2 on October 29th, 2006
Youre a stupid bitch. Leave this planet. Daniel is short though…Haha. Loser.
Viviane on January 22nd, 2007
I hope your rant is satire… Because Short People certainly is. I’ve always seen it as poking fun at prejudice. I’m 4′11″ and was performing the song at karaoke bar the other night.
Hmm, I just reread your “rant”. It is satirical in intent. Not that funny to me, though. I also happen to be Jewish and find it insensitive to connect a humourous song to the Holocaust. Randy Newman is Jewish, but it seems that his family has been in the U.S. since the early 20th century, so they may have been spared the loss of close family (my family has been less fortunate).
While they were the primary victims of the Nazi ideology, the Jews were not the only ones. Other victims include Slavs, the Roma, gays (especially gay men), dissidents, the mentally ill, the disabled (physically & mentally), etc. And yes, dwarves were dragged off to concentration camps.
razia on February 15th, 2007
randy newman - with his lyrics on short people seems to have a big chip on his shoulder - maybe shorter people than him are better in most ways than he is - intellectually, financially, and better in looks, humaneness etc. This is his juvenile way of getting back at them! Ignore such stupidity.
simon zonenblick on June 26th, 2007
Randy Newman’s ”Short People,” is a satire on the futility and blindness of prejudice. If you trawl his back catalogue you will find many such examples: ”Political Science,” probably being his best remembered. His satire is not always jagged, often there is a sense of sympathy or even affection for the subject, but please take some time to explore the themes of an artist’s work before condwmning them, and you will see that Newman is an acutely intelligent writer who knows just how to hit hate where it hurts.
Richard on April 22nd, 2008
Mike Levine, the former editor of the Times Herald-Record of New York once wrote:
“I was sitting in a hotel room with a songwriter named Randy Newman. Robert Blake was on the TV and Newman didn’t like him. “I hate short guys who act tough,” he said.
A year later, he has a hit with a song that says, “Short people got no reason to live. Don’t want no short people . . .”
He told the world it was a parody of bigotry. I know better.”
I’ve heard many takes on this song (parody, satire, refers to small-minded, just a harmless bit of fun). It certainly doesn’t satisfy my understanding of satire and parody. Perhaps someone who understands these things a bit better can explain it.
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on April 22nd, 2008
i bet they can — which is why i hate people who understand things better
jim on April 26th, 2008
I hate this song. and I AM really enlightened to understand the satire in this song. My wife was in a bus with a bunch of junior high school track kids and the song came on the radio and they started to sing the song and point to one of the kids til he started to cry. I think a famous songwriter has a responsibility to be conscious of the type of message that can portrayed in a song to those that arent as enlightened as he (like 95 % of kids) He really sucks as a person AND a songwriter and really does not understand discrimination in its simplest form.I fi was him i would do all I could to keep this off the airways or turn the money he makes from it to something good to balance his karma.
ken fraser on May 16th, 2008
Randy Newman`s lyrics in Short People is just joking about children 2 or 3 year olds. No reason to live-they just enjoy life. Flat bone shoes-what the little ones wear and the rest of the lyrics-he`s only joking about little children that`s all. He said this once in a radio interview. Ken.
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 16th, 2008
Why did he say “ken” ?