Three Sheets to Kishkiyya · Track 65 · middle

Liquid Laugh

VOLUME III — being SICK, the small-hours reckoning at the porcelain. The idiom and the song's title hook: "Liquid Laugh". Its true history: Australia, mid-late 20th c. — the dark-humor 'laugh' that arrives as liquid. Render this beat of the night as the band's affectionate, funny, celebratory tribute — the idiom itself is the chorus hook.

Lyrics

[Intro]
[Verse 1]
I’ve got your coat, I’ve got your heavy shoes
You’ve got the cold white porcelain blues
I'm leaning right against the bathroom frame
Watching you forget your very own name
You look up with a glassy little gleam
Just bursting at the seams

[Chorus]
Oh, here comes the liquid laugh
The punchline snapping the night in half
You’re just spilling your sense of humor on the tile
A very messy, very honest smile
Let it out, babe, let it splash
That beautiful, terrible liquid laugh

[Verse 2]
They coined it down in a 1970s Sydney bar
When the boys pushed the local bitter way too far
Some bright spark decided that he wasn't sick
He was just delivering a cracking comic bit
The diaphragm bypassing the throat entirely
And you’re doing it so beautifully

[Chorus]
Oh, here comes the liquid laugh
The punchline snapping the night in half
You’re just spilling your sense of humor on the tile
A very messy, very honest smile
Let it out, babe, let it splash
That beautiful, terrible liquid laugh

[Bridge]
I’ve got your hair pulled back in my hand
You are the greatest comedian in the land
No microphone, no stage, just the fluorescent glow
Of the mirror lights putting on a show
Take your time, let the joke breathe
Before we leave

[Outro]
Yeah, you totally killed the room tonight.
Wipe your chin, the encore's over.
Next time I'm drinking exactly what you had.
Actually, maybe I won't.