What do you think Another Postcard means?

Barenaked Ladies: Another Postcard Meaning

Album cover for Another Postcard album cover

Song Released: 2003


Another Postcard Lyrics

You can't imagine so many monkeys in the daily mail
All of them coming anonymously so they leave no trail
I never thought I'd have an admirer from overseas
But someone is sending me stationary filled with chimpanzees.
Some chimps in...

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  1. anonymous
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     Jul 24th 2012 !⃝

    I'm fairly certain this isn't as serious as I'm making it out to be. But I like to think of the Chimps as all the people in this world who pray. The postcards are prayers, arriving anonymously, to "God" who is narrating the song. We rarely include our name in a prayer and no matter what they "come and they come" because we are literally always praying. That'd be enough to make me lose my mind if I were receiving so many "postcards".

  2. JemimaJoy
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     Feb 1st 2008 !⃝

    I heard that BNL wrote this song because they had some crazy fan who kept sending them postcards of chimps.

  3. anonymous
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     Jul 21st 2006 !⃝

    The Barenaked Ladies said it themselves, this is just a fun song reflecting on the "traveling knome" idea. But instead of being cliche, they used monkeys, chimp, and the sort. Just another fun song from a fun band.

  4. anonymous
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     Nov 14th 2003 !⃝

    According to Steven Page, his son received a postcard from a neighbor (who was dutch) who had moved and had sent Steve's son a postcard with chimps.

  5. anonymous
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     Nov 14th 2003 !⃝

    I felt this song was really about SPAM - email. I’ve listened to it some more, and at-least in my own mind, it MUST be about spam email. Here is my interpretation of why I think so. Feel free to call me crazy.

    “You can't imagine so many monkeys in the daily mail
    All of them coming anonymously so they leave no trail
    I never thought I'd have an admirer from overseas
    But someone is sending me stationary filled with chimpanzees”

    The monkeys are each tid-bit of spam email you get in your in-box. As most know, an email address can be created anonymously, and many have no trail. At-least, if you’re a general computer user, you have NO IDEA where the email comes from.

    The admirer from overseas reference is defining the reach of email. The junk literally comes from all over the world.

    “Some chimps in swimsuits, some chimps are swinging from a vine
    Some chimps in jackboots, some chimps that wish they could be mine
    Starsky and Hutch chimps, a chimp who's sitting on the can
    A pair of Dutch chimps who send their love from Amsterdam
    Another postcard with chimpanzees
    And every one is addressed to me”

    The chimps in this case are the varying types of spam email. Internet email spam is not specific, it just is. All types of this spam invade of our inbox. Swimsuits/Dutch chimps representing the porn spam imho.

    “If I had to guess, I'd say the monkey-sender thinks it's great
    He's sending me, maybe she's sending me just to see me get irate
    I'm losing sleep - and it's gonna be keeping me up all night
    I thought it was funny, but now I've got money on a monkey fight”

    The sender are the large corporations who purchase emails to send to us. It’s a CHEAP way to expose a new product. Probably the cheapest form of advertising there is. Hell, why wouldnt it be great! Even if they pissed off 2 million people, they still were able to advertise their product to 20 million. Who cares if a few get pissed.

    The losing sleep reference infers the amount of time we waste indexing the spam email from the legitimate email. For me personally, I don’t delete the spam at first glance, as I might miss an important email, and I’ve found the spam blocking programs can unintentionally delete one of the 4 important emails I have, which are buried in 50-70 spam emails.

    Monkey fight represents that sooner or later we fight back. We purchase email blocking programs to help us eliminate these monkeys!

    “Some chimps in hard hats, chimps are working on a chain gang
    Some chimps who love cats, burning rubber in a Mustang
    A birthday-wishing chimp, a chimp in black like a goth
    A goin' fishin' chimp, a British chimp in the bath”

    Again, the narrator is defining the scope and varying types of spam email.

    “Another postcard with chimpanzees
    And every one is addressed to me”

    MORE SPAM

    “Somehow they followed me even though I packed and moved my home
    No matter what, they come and they come they won't leave me alone
    Another monkey in the mail could make me lose my mind
    But look at me shuffling through the stack until I finally find”

    Now - we get sick of it, we say ENOUGH is ENOUGH, and we change our email thinking we can hide from all these monkeys! However, as we all know, very soon after, SPAM finds us AGAIN, and the longer we keep our new address, the more spam we get. WE CANT HIDE. We literally are losing our mind. The last verse is describing what I hinted at earlier. We shuffle thru it all still, as we don’t want to miss that one email that actually is important to us.

    “Some chimps in swimsuits
    Some chimps in Jackboots
    Some chimps in hard hats
    Some chimps who love cats
    I've got some shaved chimps; that's chimps devoid of any hair
    I've got depraved chimps dressed up in women's underwear”

    Yet - in order to find that ONE email - we gotta look at all the chimps!

    Another postcard with chimpanzees
    And every one is addressed to me
    Every one is every one is every one is addressed to me
    Another postcard with chimpanzees
    And every one is addressed to me.(x4)

    I recognize I could still me way off, but there sure are alot of paralells between this song and SPAM!

    Spikoli


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