These words are transcribed without permission the way they appear in the "Meat Is Murder" album. Additions to the printed lyrics are in darker text while omissions are striken out.

Park the car at the side of the road
you should know
time's tide will smother you
and I will too
when you laugh about people who feel so
very lonely
their only desire is to die
well I'm afraid
it doesn't make me smile
I wish I could laugh
but that joke isn't funny anymore
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
it's too close to home
and it's too near the bone
more than you'll ever know

kick them when they fall down
kick them when they fall down
Why must you ¹
kick them when they fall down
kick them when they fall down
Why must you ¹
kick them when they fall down
kick them when they fall down
Why must you ¹
kick them when they fall down
kick them when they fall down

It was dark as I drove the point home
and on cold leather seats
well, it suddenly struck me
I just might die with a smile on my
face after all

I've seen this happen in other people's lives
and now it's happening in mine
(repeat last two lines to fade)

 

Quotes

"When I wrote the words for that, I was just so completely tired of all the same old journalistic questions and people trying, you know, this contest of wit, trying to drag me down and prove that I was a complete fake. And I was tired of that because it just seemed that, like, even the people within popular music, even the people within the music industry, didn't have that much faith in it as an art form. And they wanted to really get rid of all these people who are trying to make some sense out of the whole thing. And I found that really distressing."
- Morrissey on "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore", Melody Maker, 16 March 1985