>It reminds me of some of Bill Maher's comedy were he
>constantly belittles everyone for not being on "his level".
>That's just the feeling I always got from him and that's not
>true humor in my opinion it's more mocking.


Yah....he was extremely condescending. One trick he used alot is trying to sing to his target market (teenage girls)....empathizing with their concerns while also being horribly condescending to them.

He did this with himself too. Kinda like expressing his feelings and than making fun of his own melo-dramatic self-obsessions. His cynicism and sarcasm is brutally cruel and alot of people don't pick up on it right away.

I'm too familiar with their stuff now...but when I first got into the smiths I used to laugh my ass off at his lyrics. Truly hilarious. But the humor is mostly based in cruelty and self-loathing. And the dichotomy in his 'genuine' lyrics lends a certain credibility when he does attempt to convey a sincere theme/message without a knife in the back.