Margin Note: Mr. Fancy Pants

A couple of years ago, I was at a Jonathan Coulton show at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, Ga. As he was getting ready to play “Mr. Fancy Pants,” he noted that, really, he had no idea what it was about. I, being right by the stage, saw fit to yell, “It’s about the human condition!”

He chuckled. But that’s really what I thought.

I intended to write an essay on “Mr. Fancy Pants” and the human condition within days … but it didn’t happen. I think he even played an entire other show at the Variety about a year later, and I still hadn’t done it. Then, when I stated planning to go on JoCoCruiseCrazy, I thought it would be a great idea to write and post the thing before the cruise, and maybe print up little Moo cards for it or something.

Didn’t happen.

But I took a bus from Atlanta to Miami for the cruise, and that offered me plenty of time to write things down. And the bus had WiFi. It was a nice bus.

The result: “He Doesn’t Even Have the Best Pants”: Jonathan Coulton’s “Mr. Fancy Pants” as an Exploration of the Human Condition in Capitalist America.

I suppose it turned out OK for something written, edited and published by me on a southbound bus on Interstate 75.

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