History Funny / REM

* "Underneath the Bunker" from ''Lifes Rich Pageant'' is a completely bizarre excursion into what feels like fake Greek-restaurant music, or possibly a mutated indie tango, with a melodramatic vocal by Stipe that finishes with him actually ''yodelling'', and one of Peter Buck's most imperiously cheesy guitar solos.

* "Underneath the Bunker" from ''Lifes Rich Pageant'' is a completely bizarre excursion into what feels like fake Greek-restaurant music, or possibly a mutated indie tango, with a melodramatic vocal by Stipe that finishes with him actually ''yodelling'', and one of Peter Buck's most imperiously cheesy guitar solos.

* One of the demos recorded during the ''Lifes Rich Pageant'' sessions was a song called "Wait", one of the band's earliest dating back to 1980. Stipe's vocal contributions are mostly just scatting and gibberish meant to be used as placeholders for the eventual actual lyrics, but near the song's end comes a TruckDriversGearChange that takes Stipe for a ride as he struggles to sing to keep up with the new key. He then proceeds to sing the confession/complaint "[[IntoxicationEnsues Wine is not our friend]]" immediately afterwards.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb6jjEApfmg "Voice of Harold"]], which features Michael Stipe singing the liner notes to a Gospel album over the backing track of "7 Chinese Bros." Supposedly, Michael was singing too quietly on early takes of "7 Chinese Bros." itself, and the RecordProducer happened to find the record somewhere in the recording studio, so he asked Michael to sing the liner notes in an attempt to get him to loosen up.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb6jjEApfmg "Voice of Harold"]], which features Michael Stipe singing the liner notes to a Gospel album over the backing track of "7 Chinese Bros."

-->'''Mike''': Means you can play frisbee with it.

* This exchange in an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HEE5KTuC9U unboxing video]] with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe made to promote the 25th anniversary edition of ''Monster'':

* This exchange in an unboxing video with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe made to promote the 25th anniversary edition of ''Monster'':

* Although "Man on the Moon" is a tearjerker, the Elvis impression is pretty funny.

* Chances are you experienced the joy of hearing "It's {{the End of the World as We Know It}} (And I Feel Fine)" play on the radio (or in Rock Band due to a recent DLC pack) while your friends [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein struggle to sing along with the lyrics that aren't the song title]].

*
Although "Man on the Moon" is a tearjerker, the Elvis impression is pretty funny.

** Even more hilarious, ''not even the band members can remember the song's lyrics''. Michael admitted during the band's ''Series/MTVUnplugged'' performance that they had to outright print out a transcription from a fan board, '''without even knowing how accurate it was.'''

* Chances are you experienced the joy of hearing "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" play on the radio (or in Rock Band due to a recent DLC pack) while your friends [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein struggle to sing along with the lyrics that aren't the song title]].

** Also qualifying is the previous song, "Walter's Theme", recorded in the same take. The song was written as a faux-[[KitschyLocalCommercial Kitschy Local Radio Commercial]] for the long-since-defunct Walter's BBQ in the band's hometown of Athens.
* The gleefully awful rhyme that opens "It Happened Today:" "This is not a parable. This is a terrible. This is a terrible... thing. [[LampshadeHanging Yes, I will rhyme that.]]"

* During their earlier days, the band loved abusing the WordOfGod trope, giving intentionally misleading and untrue answers to interview questions just to see if they'd get printed. Peter Buck is the cause of one such story, in which he "explained" that his father had been a Shakespearean actor, but had made his living playing the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty-D-Bol#Ty-D-Bol_Man Ty-D-Bol Man]], and ended up committing suicide. To his delight, the story got printed.

* In the CD booklet for ''Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage'' as Stipe is discussing the music video for "Imitation of Life" he points out that holding a monkey or an orangutan in a music video was one of Peter Buck's life wishes.

* Chances are you experienced the joy of hearing It's the End of the World As We Know It play on the radio (or in Rock Band due to a recent DLC pack) while your friends [[SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein struggle to sing along with the lyrics that aren't the song title]].

** Also qualifying is the previous song, "Walter's Theme", recorded in the same take. The song was written as a faux-[[KitschyLocalCommercial Kitschy Local Radio Commercial]] for Walter's BBQ in the band's hometown of Athens.

** Similarly, when Stipe flat-out admits he "can't even rhyme here with 'begin'" in the middle of "Begin the Begin".

* In the CD booklet for ''Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage'' as Stipe is discussing the music video for "Imitation of Life" he points out that holding a monkey or an orangutang in a music video was one of Peter Buck's life wishes.
* Michael Stipe's dancing in the music video for ''Imitation of Life''.
* Peter Buck's liner notes to ''Dead Letter Office'' are very funny, but the high point is his horrified and apologetic description of the circumstances behind the band's drunken, shambolic recording of "King of the Road".
-->'''Peter Buck''': Roger Miller ought to be able to sue for what we did to this song.
* The gleefully awful rhyme that opens "It Happened Today:" "This is not a parable. This is a terrible. This is a terrible... thing. [[LampshadeHanging Yes, I will rhyme that.]]"

* Late in "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" Michael Stipe can be heard audibly trying to hold back his laughter during the chorus, due to his perceived mispronunciation of the word "[[Creator/DrSeuss Seuss]]" (he thought he was saying "[[ClassicalMythology Dr. Zeus]]"). Made even funnier by the fact that it makes the already incomprehensible chorus even harder to understand.

-->'''Peter Buck''': Roger Miller ought to be able to sue for what we did to this song.

* Late in ''The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite'' Michael Stipe can be heard audibly trying to hold back his laughter during the chorus, due to his perceived mispronunciation of the word "[[Creator/DrSeuss Seuss]]" (he thought he was saying "[[ClassicalMythology Dr. Zeus]]"). Made even funnier by the fact that it makes the already incomprehensible chorus even harder to understand.
* In the CD booklet for ''Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage'' as Stipe is discussing the music video for ''Imitation of Life'' he points out that holding a monkey or an orangutang in a music video was one of Peter Buck's life wishes.
* Michael Stipe's dancing in the music video for ''Imitation of Life''.

* Late in ''The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite'' Michael Stipe can be heard audibly trying to hold back his laughter during the chorus, due to his perceived mispronunciation of the word "[[DrSeuss Seuss]]" (he thought he was saying "[[ClassicalMythology Dr. Zeus]]"). Made even funnier by the fact that it makes the already incomprehensible chorus even harder to understand.