YMMV / Randy Newman

• Complete Monster: In "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)", God himself is a cackling narcissist endlessly laughing at the joke he's played upon humanity, committing atrocity after atrocity—-like the pointless murder of Israel's children, the burning of cities and an existence full of "squalor and filth and misery"-—while saying man means utterly nothing to him. The reason why he "loves" mankind, as God concludes, is because of the blind reverence they show toward him, even as he continues to torment them endlessly.
• Covered Up: Not unlike Bob Dylan, Newman is better known as a songwriter and composer than he is a performer, with many of his songs becoming big hits when other artists re-record them. "You Can Leave Your Hat On" is a popular example.
• Fridge Horror: In-Universe with "Only a Girl." By the end of the song, he realizes she only likes him for his money.
• Genius Bonus: The bridge of "Political Science" describes sparing Australia the wrath of "the big one." While Australia doesn't use nuclear power, it exports uranium to other countries which do. Perhaps Newman felt it wouldn't be a fair fight to nuke them as well?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The line from "Short People," "They got little baby legs that stand so low/Gotta pick 'em up just to say hello," predicted the "How to talk to short people" meme.
• Misaimed Fandom: Newman is arguably a textbook case: for every fan that gets he's being sarcastic, there are two that don't. Largely it's thanks to his tendencies to compose piano ballads, usually in old-fashioned styles like ragtime, that make his music seem like easy listening. It doesn't help that the irony is sometimes very subtle: "Jolly Coppers On Parade" is a good example.
• Nightmare Fuel: "In Germany Before the War", a solemn, melancholic song about a child murderer.
• Recycled Script: Some feel he has a tendency to recycle his songs' themes, though this is largely with his film songs and scores, and less so with his independent albums. This is not to say he doesn't do this on his albums. "A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country" borrows nearly the entire melody from "If I Didn't Have You."
• Spiritual Successor: Motion picture scoring-wise, he's basically the modern day Elmer Bernstein, whom Randy had worked with on ¡Three Amigos! with Elmer writing the score and Randy writing the songs.
• Values Resonance: "Political Science" could be seen as a pinpoint satire of the American political climate at the height of The War on Terror...if not for the fact that it was released during The Vietnam War. The singer bemoaning how, "Noone likes us, I don't know why...All around, even our old friends put us down" reflected how Anti-American rhetoric and protests against the perceived excesses of the War on Terror became common even in steadfast American allies like the United Kingdom. The mention of bombing France reflected the anti-French sentiment that briefly surged among American conservatives in 2003 as a result of France refusing to support military force being used against Saddam Hussein.^note Some extreme voices on the American Right were actually advocating for the United States to invade France when the anti-French backlash was at its fever pitch. Remember when we briefly ate "Freedom fries" and "freedom toast" and shared "freedom kisses" with others? He advocates sparing Australia, which was one of the few countries that supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The singer then excitedly proclaiming "WE'LL SET EVERYBODY FREE!!" as the United States nukes the world into oblivion reflects George W. Bush's now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech and how his administration continued to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as bringing "freedom" to the Afghan and Iraqi people as they dragged out and became increasingly violent and deadly. For his part, Newman re-released the song shortly after Operation Iraqi Freedom concluded in 2003 and performed it frequently during this time.

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