The only connotation I have with that song is hearing someone once sing, "WE BUILT THIS CITY ON THE BONES OF NIGGERS!"

I remember having to sing it in middle school choir as part of a medley of classical rock, and I think that's the only version I've ever heard until now. I'm sure someone else has asked this, but how do you go from writing a song like 'White Rabbit' to this? It'd be like Radiohead collaborating with Taylor Swift all-of-a-sudden.

I used to hate this song but now I embrace it as the perfect encapsulation of the cultural failures of the 1970s and 1980s.

It's also a perfect shorthand for "great people producing terrible things".

? Hitler jokes have been around forever in one form or another; the thousands of Downfall War Room parodies over the past decade or so are just one of many examples. See also: Disney, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks..

Monty Python and the Killer Joke

Wait, is it offensive now to insult Hitler? We might need SolRo to weigh in on this one.

Hitler jokes are offensive to National Socialists. Also, I've encountered Jews who object to such jokes, on the grounds that they make light of a very serious issue, and may diminish the historical impact of the Holocaust.

Damn EH your pedantry got good again. That last point is totally fair. There's that Mel Brooks "Springtime for Hitler" kind of humour, or 1939's "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball"... and then there's 4chan-style hurr durr Hitler was right what can't you take a joke. The latter is at least unfortunate.

Whereas this video is just Internet.

I'm still waiting for the Pol Pot jokes.

Yeah, I do remember the Osama jokes post-9/11, like Osama Been Hidin' Osama Butt Fuckin' (and so many more) plus caricatures that were more just indicative of our Islamophobia on a much, much larger scale than al-Qaeda, and I was kind of offended by that, because they stopped having anything to do with what Bin Laden orchestrated but rather just making a mockery out of an entire culture/religion.

And likewise, I remember the "Hipstler" (?) look from a few years ago: lots of dumbass hipster kids would get Hitler mustaches, and got called out on it, because that's about as funny as dressing up in a SS uniform and walking down the street. So I guess there's context for everything. I do always find it interesting though that Stalin, who murdered more people than Hitler, was (and is) regularly parodied, in shows and things including, but not limited to, Childrens' cartoons like The Tick.

Stalin was our ally in WWII. I think that goes a long way toward explaining it. The average person didn't start seeing the soviet leader as evil until Khrushchev took over.

If I refuse what kind of punishment am I looking at?

I've had cats almost all my life and I never even thought of that before, what's wrong with you you sick fucker?

Thanks, meme.

I always liked it too but I recall it was actually voted 'the Worst Rock Song of All Time'. Or was that 'the Heart of Rock and Roll' that won that distinction?

I think what happened is that Jefferson's perceived descent into complete lameness so paralleled their own that baby boomers lashed out in terror.

Anything voted "worst X of all time" is usually going to be OK. C.F. My Ding-a-ling.


Objectively, though, this is significantly inferior to their theme song for Mannequin.

I fucking love Starship and I am unapologetic about it.

Agreed

ROUS, I have found this is the true opening theme for Enterprise. Give it a shot.

It's a question of context, really. For a song by a 70s band, it was pretty good! For a radio-friendly 80s rock song it was mostly decent, for an 80s song period it was at or even a bit below average, and for all music considered across all possible spectra, it was unremarkable. I can think of no (reasonably broad) ordinal categories in which this song would be "the best" or "the worst" of our chosen set.

Meme - I thought the opening theme for Enterprise was "Where My Heart Will Take Me" by Russell Watson?

Okay, fine. Since I can't suck dick on a corner without you trying to knock it out of my mouth, I may as well tell you what it tastes like until you grow the spine to suck a dick for yourself.

When I was a child I was dragged out of my home by the state of Kentucky and put in a state run child home (a barracks) with a bunch of other unwanted kids. This was where I learned about such emotions as self-loathing, hate, fear, and hopelessness. Eventually, I was transferred to Norton Hospital's version of that where I discovered D&D, bad anime, and music. I was 8, by the way. Prince was the official godbeing of our ward and we all knew the dance to When Doves Cry like it was a way better version of the Hitler Youth. Between Prince, Tranzor Z, and 2nd Edition, I had a childhood of sorts. Eventually, I got kicked down the road to a foster home (middle class christian) where once a week I would take a cab alone downtown to a therapy session I formed no memories of, may as well have been aliens, but I remember the cab rides. The driver (same guy, always waited) felt bad for me probably, so always made sure I approved of what was on the radio, so once again music was in my life instead of stability and, wouldn't you know it, it was the 80's and there was pop. Eventually, the road called again and I got kicked back down to my original family and, what do you know, fitting back in didn't work out. I had been alone for long enough in other worlds to where things like being emotionally attached to humans was absurd (though I will commit murder for children, don't even doubt) and I had no cab rides, no other kids, and just my terrible racist ass parents. Between that age and my teen years, where I learned you can just fucking destroy people that try to fuck up your life, and the universe wont stop you, I head We Built This City. It was the first song that made me think outside myself and imagine a bigger world, a world just as big as the terrible one, but good, made of something better. A world with a theme, a beacon, and a way to it and I was let loose again in it. It was the first time I conceived of an improved life for myself and everyone else.

You may now completely ignore everything I said and say something completely fake, disingenuous, not at all clever, and insulting because you have no frame of reference to reality. I will still have this song, and it is still the best of songs.

Also, seriously, this should have been the theme to Enterprise.

OOOH, right. "Should have been". You were making a joke!

I'm very sorry, yes, that was funny.

My ideal theme for Enterprise would either be "Häxbrygd" by Finntroll or "SS Deathstar Supergalactic" by Hanzel und Gretyl.

meme I want to give you a big hug for that.

But the song they should have used for Enterprise is David Bowie's Starman.

TOS or GTFO!

The kitty is the reincarnation of Stalin.