When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
Interpretation
In challenging times, humor becomes a coping mechanism to deal with absurdity.
David Byrne's quote suggests that when situations become overwhelmingly absurd or ridiculous, individuals often resort to humor as a way to cope with the chaos. It highlights the idea that laughter can serve as a refuge, allowing one to navigate through difficult circumstances by finding something to laugh about within them.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, a speaker might use this quote to emphasize the importance of finding humor in tough situations.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
We don't make music, it makes us
It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
Superheroes? In New York? Give me a break!
An ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country.
I didn't tell any of my friends that I wanted to be a comedian, because I was superstitious. I thought if I told people, it wouldn't happen. So I kept it all in my head for years and years.
I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.
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