Funny Little Things

Song Meaning

The lyrics present a stark, almost cartoonish, juxtaposition of a seemingly idyllic natural scene with a brutal, violent impulse. We first see "Fifteen birds in five fir trees" caught in a "fiery breeze," a picturesque image that quickly turns unsettling when we learn these birds "had no wings." This fundamental lack of a defining characteristic immediately casts them as oddities, prompting the central, chilling question: "Oh, what shall we do with the funny little things?" The narrator then launches into a barrage of violent culinary suggestions, detailing a gruesome process of cooking and consumption. The imagery escalates from simple roasting and stewing to more extreme descriptions like "beards blaze and eyes glaze" and "skins crack." This graphic depiction of destruction, culminating in the stark declaration "So the Dwarves shall die! (Ha ha ha...)" reveals the underlying menace and dark humor at play. The laughter at the end underscores a disturbing glee in this imagined violence. The true effectiveness of these lyrics lies in their abrupt tonal shift and the unsettling ambiguity of the "funny little things." The contrast between the initial pastoral setup and the subsequent graphic violence creates a sense of unease. The lack of wings on the birds makes them vulnerable and strange, and the narrator's immediate leap to extreme violence suggests a deep-seated, perhaps irrational, hostility towards anything perceived as different or helpless. The lyrics don't offer a clear narrative, but rather a disturbing psychological snapshot.