You're Disturbed

You're probably familiar with that song by James Blunt called "Beautiful." And if you're not, well, consider yourself lucky. When you hear it, it sounds like a sappy love song, kind of a modern day "Mandy." In fact, a recent British survey placed the song fourth on a list of the 100 Most Annoying Things.

But if you stop and really, REALLY listen to the thing, you realize that it actually borders on being, well, disturbing. That's when you realize that the guy is not simply singing to his girlfriend. No, he's actually singing about his obsession with some woman he saw on a freakin' subway train. And if you watch the video, your first thought is to call a suicide hotline on this poor slob's behalf! During the course of the song, the guy takes off his sweatshirt, tee shirt, shoes, and empties his pockets. Then he neatly arranges everything, stands up, and procedes to jump off a bridge.

Yeah, freakin' romantic, ain't it?

Despite all that, there's an upside to the song. It's gone on to spawn some great parodies, including "Your Cubicle" and "You're Pitiful." MadTV did a great spoof of Blunt's video. And someone named Kevin Sage laments that the girl he thought was so beautiful turned out to be a guy.... In which case I can certainly understand his jumping off a bridge.