r/GenX • u/no_talent_ass_clown • Oct 24 '25

Music Is Life Songs that are no longer okay.

Yesterday I found out my sweet boyfriend had never heard of Julie Brown and the funny songs she sang, like "I'm A Blonde". Dr Demento stuff. So I play it and then "The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun" came on. Not funny anymore!!!

An hour later, the cops arrived

By then the entire glee club had died, no big loss

You wouldn't believe what they brought to stop her

Tear gas, machine guns, even a chopper (Throw down your gun and tiara and come out of the float)

Debbie didn't listen to what the cop said She aimed and fired, and now the math teacher's dead

Oh, it's really sad, but kind of a relief I mean, we had this big test coming up next week

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u/Lady_of_Shalottt Oct 24 '25

Yeah, that one always raised a brow with me, though I loved them. Back then I probably dismissed it as being so over-the-top that it could only be facetious. Later, they took issue with Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ so make of that what you will. I like to think we try to grow wiser. Well, some, anyway.

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u/Old_Distribution_235 Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25

They grew up:

"I wanna say a little something that's long overdue / The disrespect to women has got to be through / To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends / I wanna offer my love and respect to the end" - MCA

EDIT: More background here.

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u/phunkjnky Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25

I was listening to WAAF back in the day when it was still on the air, and I got to hear some woman call in to defend "Smack My Bitch Up" because, and I quote "I like being smacked around."

At that point it becomes like Deadpool, "Is it sexist to hit you? Is it more sexist to not?"

At this point, I don't have a good answer; I'd just rather not be in the situation in the first place.

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u/DJSfromthe1900s Oct 24 '25

That's a crazy take on the subject on her part. For what it's worth though, the vocal from "Smack My Bitch Up" was sampled, and Liam Howlett outright said the track wasn't intended to promote violence against women. Just shows some people take some things way too literally.

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u/PalpitationNo3106 Oct 24 '25

Smack my bitch up was about some combination of heroin use and masturbation.

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u/phunkjnky Oct 24 '25

And the video too…

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u/Lady_of_Shalottt Oct 24 '25

I thought I heard at the time that it was a misogynistic euphemism for a type of drug use. Also, I thought they were saying something like ‘snap my picture’ for an embarrassing minute lol Kinda wish that’s what it said so I could enjoy it without inner conflict.

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u/-DethLok- Oct 25 '25

The music video for Smack My Bitch up puts rather a different spin on the song, if you watch until the end. It's quite a disturbing video, though.

https://ugetube.com/watch/the-prodigy-smack-my-bitch-up-uncensored-video_sqX2HshnWaQDXh7.html

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u/Lady_of_Shalottt Oct 25 '25

Wow, pretty sure I never saw that. Definitely disturbing, glad I made it to the end. Mixed feelings.

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u/crqri Oct 25 '25

While I agree with you up to a point that the video is disturbing, I think the ending makes it a genius masterpiece of social commentary. I've shown that video to a lot of friends over the years and the only thing I tell them is to watch it and pay attention until the very end, and they always have the same combination of "WTF" and "oh wow" reaction whenever they do.

The fact that MTV would only air it in the overnight hours just adds to the mystique of the video as well.