Funny the Way It Is

Many people have struggles that they fight with everyday just so they can survive. Other people have things handed to them, and will never lift a finger a day in their lives. The world is full of completely different people, with completely different life experiences. Expressing the misfortunes of others in “Funny the Way It Is,” the Dave Mathews Band utilizes contradicting irony, natural symbolism, and oxymoronic narrative in order to suggest that it is “funny the way it is” that everyone is so different.

            The song contains various different examples of narrative, and most of these examples start out with a very positive feeling and end feeling dark and sad. As he is “lying in the park on a beautiful day,” he says that he can see “sunshine in the grass, and the children play.” This is a very happy representation of the mood of the song, and the mood of the man it is talking about. He soon begins to here “siren’s passing, fire engine red” because “someone’s house is burning down on a day like this.” Now, the song swiftly changes from being happy and carefree, to be dark and dismal. The scene is set up very uplifting, but soon takes a turn for the worse into something tragic. Oxymoronic narrative is a big device used throughout the song, along with symbolism that has a very natural connotation.

            As he is “standing on a bridge,” he can see the “water passing under [him].” He then starts to think about how “it must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge just water.” In this case, the water could be symbolic of his problems, rushing toward him with no end. The bridge could be symbolic of his way to deal with his problems, or how to get around them. He is looking back on a time when he had no way to deal with his problems, and they came rushing towards him all at once.

            Along with natural symbolism and oxymoronic narrative, this song also contains contradicting irony. As he is sitting outside, a car drove by. On the radio, the “war song is playing “why can’t we be friends?” This statement is ironic because a song title that has the word “friends” in it would usually be about friendship, but it is described as a “war song.” “Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out” is a speculation that he makes, meaning that while someone is suffering greatly in their life, another person could be at their highest point. When he listens to music, he realized that “somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song.” By this, he indicates that someone’s misfortunes in life can lead to someone else’s pleasure. The idea that “one kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out” is ironic because one kid is trying so hard to succeed in life that he is going the distance, while the other kid does not have to try to succeed, but he chooses to fail. “on a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born” is ironic because it seems as though this soldier is giving up his live in order to institute life in his child. Contradicting irony is a common theme throughout the song.

Expressing the misfortunes of others in “Funny the Way It Is,” the Dave Mathews Band utilizes contradicting irony, natural symbolism, and oxymoronic narrative in order to suggest that it is “funny the way it is” that everyone is so different. The contradicting irony compares the misfortunes of people compared to the pleasures of others. The natural symbolism reminds him of a time when his problems were too difficult to deal with. The oxymoronic narrative shows that things may seem happy, but not everywhere around you is as happy. “Funny the Way It Is” is used to show how unfortunate some people are, while others are extremely lucky.