A massive satirical deconstruction of one of President Donald J. Trump's most egregious gaffes and its cultural fallout namely Trump inquiring at a public coronavirus task force meeting press conference on April 23rd, 2020 about whether it was feasible to fight the coronavirus by injecting disinfectant into the body of infected individuals. Health departments, officials, and manufacturers of cleaning products had to issue statements warning people NOT to do this. Some government agencies were flooded with calls inquiring whether chugging bleach was a good way to fight the virus and at least one person tried it iirc. Trump later, and to this day, insisted he was somehow being 'sarcastic' when he made the original comments even though video of the event belied not a trace of sarcasm in his voice or manner.
The track opens with a remix (by NCN) of the Talking Heads song 'Making Flippy Floppy' from their 1983 album 'Speaking In Tongues'. The song seems sometimes eerily relevant to the events we're matching it to almost 40 years later with references to getting in line (something people are needing to do to get tested, which was just referenced right before by Trump though this wasn't consciously planned in the editorial process). Another line that seems relevant and seems to refer to Trump's incessant bragging about what a great job his administration is doing dealing with the crisis despite actual lackluster or even dismal results is the lyric 'Everything looks impressive / Do not be deceived'.
Other references in the song to doctors (who Trump is addressing) and of course the line 'Our President's crazy / Did you hear what he said?' (which admittedly is why the song was chosen) make the song seem prescient.
The original lyrics seem to be intended to be deliberate nonsense and might be creating a 'tea leaves' type of effect. The song was performed in the subsequent Talking Heads concert film titled 'Stop Making Sense'.
After this, we hear Trump's denial that he was serious about his comments to reporters the next day, a brief interlude of 'The Coffin Dance' created by Maestro Ziikos, humorous commentary by late night talk show hosts Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel, the collage piece called 'Trump Disinfectant Remix' by WTFBrahh and then the song 'A Spoonful of Clorox' by Randy Rainbow which is a parody of the song 'A Spoonful of Sugar (Helps The Medicine Go Down)' from the Disney film 'Mary Poppins'. The video version of this song can be found here:
youtu.be/DPDPzbLFeP4
The track ends with a song parodying the song Lola by The Kinks by Founders Sing called 'Lie-Lie-Lie-Lie Lysol.'
from
Death, Taxes and Empathy (Part 1),
released October 28, 2020
Talking Heads; Donald Trump; CBS Los Angeles; Maestro Ziikos; Seth Meyers; Jimmy Kimmel; WTFBrahh; Randy Rainbow; Founders Sing; The Kinks