Back and forth how?
Well, I'm concerned about what's going to happen when the kids who are running around singing it grow up and figure out that it's a song about embracing conformity.
"Everything is Awesome" is a about conformity?
Well, yeah! I mean, come on. *Everything* is awesome? Doesn't that imply nothing in particular is more awesome than anything else?
You're going to have to explain this to me. It's a song, from a kid's movie, about having a positive attitude. How subversive do you think it can be?
Pretty damn subversive, actually. It *sounds* like a positive let's-all-work-together pop song, but look at it in the context of the movie. It's the sole theme song of a city where everyone likes the same things, and loves everything that happens no matter how good or bad it is. That's how Lord Business keeps everyone down.
Now, wait a minute. I thought that Lord Business is just misguided. He wants everything to run smoothly and for everyone to be happy. And he did that! Brickburg is a happy place.
But at what cost? And I don't think he really wants people to be happy. He just doesn't want them thinking for themselves. That would lead to them building their own things and "messing with his stuff". It's why he's going to coat the whole world in Crazy Glue.
Wait, we're getting off track. What's stuck in your craw about the song, now?
It's an incessant, impossible-to-escape ode to doing everything that everyone else is doing. "Everything is cool when we're part of a team", right? And doesn't the last line of the chorus sound like "When you live in a dream"?
I think they're saying "When you're living our dream". Big difference.
But doesn't it sound *intentionally* similar? And whose dream are we talking about here?
I don't know. Living in a world where everyone is happy is kind of the ultimate goal of civilization, isn't it?
Sure, it's easy for everyone to be happy as long as they don't do anything because of their own wants or needs. Do you think ants are happy?
I don't know... I'd suppose if they have emotions, they are. They never have to wonder if they're doing the right thing, or what they really want to do with their life. And they look like they're at least motivated to do what they're doing.
But look at how Lord Business runs things! He threatens everyone into doing what he wants, he has no regard for the common people... his bureaucracy is manned entirely by robots, for crying out loud!
I think you're reading an awful lot of political allegory into this.
Am I? Think about Emmett's job. He's a construction worker, and the first thing they're told to do in the morning is to blow up "anything weird". Meaning all the individual, interesting houses. It's a wrecking ball and explosions for all of them. Even at the end, when they break into Lord Business's office tower, how does Emmett help? By telling the rebels how to get in, and he says he knows how because he's built about *ten* of the same kind of towers.
So you're saying that Lord Business is... stomping out individuality and creativity?
Of course! Because what do you get when everyone is allowed to build whatever they want?
Um... I guess you get Cloud Cuckoo Land.
And didn't that place seem bewilderingly chaotic and confusing?
I guess... but it looked cool.
It did, true, but look at Unikitty and you can see what it does to you. She was the epitome of emotional self-denial. You'd have to be that way, in order to co-exist with people who could do anything they wanted, any way they wanted, any time they wanted. Lord Business is imposing order to keep out that kind of chaos.
It's starting to sound like you're going over to his side now.
Not really, I'm just trying to show you that both sides are equally misguided. People aren't genuinely happy in either place.
Now, wait a minute. Unikitty's kind of a mess, but Emmett seems happy.
Does he? Think about the beginning of the movie. He loves every part of his day, even when it consists solely of trying to fit in. He watches the same stupid "Where are My Pants?" show as everyone else, he dutifully drinks his $37 morning coffee with a houseplant instead of friends, and still no one he encounters during the day even knows anything about who he is.
So then Emmett's a great example about how playing by the same rules as everyone else doesn't really get you anywhere.
To Lord Business, he's the perfect citizen. And we're back to the song, since it's all he allows to be played. It's catchy and upbeat, yes, but it's really telling you to accept, to actually *believe*, that... "Everything you see or think or say, is awesome" ... Everything.
Even living the lonely life that Emmett's living?
Exactly. He's super-excited about having a totally banal, effectless life. That's what Lord Business wants. That's exactly what the Master Builders are rebelling against.
Ah-hah.
Emmett is constantly reassured he's on the right track, and now we've got a whole generation of kids running around singing the very same theme song about the joys of being oppressed!
..... oh dear God.
