Crash Test Dummies: Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Meaning
Song Released: 1993
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Lyrics
Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when
The cars had smashed him so hard
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Verse 1:
The child was in a car accident. That is evident from the first two lines. He may have a mental change from the accident, but the song talks about how his hair went from black to bright white. It is clearly making a reference to how physical changes, or little things that appear different from one child to the next are looked at as abnormal by children, and unfortunately society.
Verse 2:
The little girl wouldn't change in front of the other girls because she has birthmarks (running birthmarks) that cover most of her body. I personally have seen people who have running birthmarks and they are usually ashamed of them because they don't look like other people, but as they get older they realize that they are just as normal as anyone else.
Verse 3:
Both the aforementioned boy and girls may have something they are ashamed of, they feel that they still have it better than the last boy who is forced to come directly home from school, and never goes anywhere except school, home, and church. The only evidence of his parents "shaking and lurching" are at church. That clearly points to a sect of the Quaker religion called the Shakers. You may have heard of the shakers if you have erev heard the song "Movers and Shakers". Shakers are not widely known, and therefore mostly overlooked.
This is my interpretation. It is the clearest I can possibly make it. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:The first boy was suffering a hardship because of an accident. The girl with the birthmarks was suffering a hardship because of something she was born with. The boy with the strict parents was suffering a hardship because his parents controlled his life. These were all kids that were suffering hardships caused by outside influences. The first boy and the girl can't change the way they are so they must accept their situations. The last boy will continue to go to church with his crazed parents and be controlled until one day, at the tender age of 16, he will be struck by his uncompromising father for dating an agnostic girl and hack his parents to pieces for never letting him make his own decisions. It's quite simple, really.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I believe the interpretations on abuse are right on; the child making up excuses for 'birth marks'(bruises), the white hair from absolute fright and terror. As for the last verse about the church; the parents are obviously abusive yet attend church and likely proclaim to be Christians, worship the Lord etc. The dancing around and lurching in church is in reference to the church possibly being a Church of God or Pentacostal Holiness church in which the Holy Ghost is poured out upon it's worshipers; the Holy Ghost is referenced in the New Testament of the King James version of the Bible. After Jesus was crucified upon the cross He baptized the apostles with the Holy Ghost, which consists of speaking in tounges, moving the body around in worship etc.
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This song was intended to make kids think. Mm mm mm mm-thinking noise. The three kids and their situations were a few of the most common rumors/gossip in my age group back then. When kids listened to this song it left them feeling a little confused and made them think and ponder deeper on some of the topics they had been judgmental about.
Boy #1: the kid with a weird injury
Girl: the kid with a birth defect
Boy #2: the kid with the weird religion
In the end, their just all normal kids with no control over these things in their lives that make them SEEM different -
I kind of thought that the last verse about the church boy, was that there was a shooting in the church and they had died. And the "couldn't quite explain," part is that they could never understand or explain why the killer did what they did.
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When we look at the first boy we find that he has been in a terrible accident that does not allow him to attend school for one reason or another. The accident is so traumatic that his hair changed from black to white. The importance here may be found that he changed his life purifying it.
Then we have a girl that is so self conscious about her birth marks that she did not want to change her clothing in front of others. Because of the rules of many of the school systems she is made to change embarrassing her making her feel very uncomfortable.
Both the boy and the girl feel that even with their problems they felt that they had it better than the boy that had to participate in the Pentecostal church service. The two may have attended church but felt that falling down and shaking on the floor was foolishness. And the boy felt that he was just following the parents and didn't necessarily agree with the traditions but because of his age he was forced to attend.
Regardless of which situation the kids where in they all seemed to be just going through life and not really living. They were just following instead of leading. What I would say is the moral of this is that we have a mind and we must use it for more than just following traditions when traditions don't make sense to us. There is more to life and even in faith we must truly understand and do it because we believe it. It is vital to understand that we don't always agree and we must question those traditions instead of believing the lines; "we do it because we have always done it this way" or "do it because I said so." -
First kid was in a coma for a very long time.
The second kid has always been abused by her parents and the third kid is a very unfortunate church kid.
Within the song, they seem to deem church kid as the unluckiest of the three.
Awesome lyrics. -
I think the boy just had this in his make up....good or bad. A small part of me wants to say this is the result of a devastating childhood disease....the family might not even know as young as he sounds to be. The car crash offers some uncontrollable explanation....the birth marks were "always there" just something different, as kids we all want to be like the other kids, anything different is looked upon as weird. The church kid...yep religion can bring unique situations into your life. So much confusion.
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It's better to be messed up in a normal world than to be normal in a messed-up world.
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Ok the girl with birthmark all over body is talking about the disease neurofibromatosis they always just been there for me living with this disease I never couldn't quite explain why I had so many they always just been there look it up it causes birthmarks all over body and tumors as well
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Well I think after putting in a bit of thought, is about the peculiarity of religion. Or something along those lines.
Reasoning: to a kid, even hair changing color due to a car crash, to birthmarks covering your entire body, are more explainable than religious behaviour. -
The first two are about physical peculiarities that the boy and girl have, and the video gives the implied notion that there is some embarassment.
The third boy, is a child in an evangelical religious family. He doesn't understand it but just assumes the lurching (laying of hands, feeling god, etc. etc) is normal cause thats all he's ever known. If you've ever experienced one of these types of churches, it makes complete sense. Having been to a wedding ceremony where the pastor was "speaking in tongues" and shaking about, you realize the oddity of the religion and how he is different from his friends.
The song's key and subtle line is that the first boy and girl felt better because the regligious imprisonment is a far worse peculiarity than what they suffer from. -
When somebody goes through a traumatic or stressful experience like a car accident where the exhibit a lot of fear and stress, their hair can actually turn white. I don't think the little girl is being abused because birth-marks and bruises look completely different - I believe that the two kids who only had minor physical ailments rightfully thought they had it better than the third kid who's life is controlled entirely by his parents. The cognitive development would be hindered by psychological oddity. Living in family of over zealous protective type parents can really affect one's behaviour as a child and those issues will only grow. As for the shaking and lurching, I could only guess that he is talking about a non-traditional religion that may or may not be an extremist group (like the Westboro Baptist church)which, in my opinion, is beyond damaging in a psychological and societal way.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This is just an initial opinion, so it might be wrong but...
The first verse, I thought the boy may have had some sort of disease/sickness that made him keep away from school, and used a car accident as an excuse. Maybe the treatment with all the chemicals/radiation made his hair turn white as a side effect, and he "couldn't quite explain it," as in he wanted to hide the truth so that other kids wouldn't stay away from him for his disease.
The second verse, the girl wanted to hide her bruising from abuse, as most people already noticed...
I honestly don't understand the last verse though, maybe a cult, maybe drunk parents.
The mmms could be signifying the type of "mm mm" people do to imply negative. As in, "nuh-uh." -
I belive that the first two are simply what they say. The third is a little different, it makes more sence that it is boy having his childhood takrn from him we he had no choice in what happend. The other two see themsrlves as different but not an outcast like the third may.
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After reading these interpretations of the lyrics, I felt that the lyrics were written about child abuse. But after watching the video and thinking about it, there is no real reference to the parents abusing their children save that of the "birthmarks" looking like somewhat like bruises in the video clip.
I feel though, that in the first two verses, the children's abnormal physical attributes, e.g. the white hair at a young age and birthmarks, are causing the children to feel ashamed because their parents cannot accept that their children are different, even though the rest of the community can. This is represented in the video clip when the children bow at the end of the performance and everyone claps except their parents.
But both kids are glad because there is this one kid who is forced to participate in a strange, by normal standards, religion. This is referring the shaking and lurching all over the church floor, adding to the fact that his parents make him come home right after school, thereby not allowing him to socialise with the other kids means that this kid feels not only shunned by society, but disappoints his parents by not participating in their religious activities, this is referring to the part in the video where the kid is looking desperately at his parents in a plea for them to not make him shake and lurch like the others, and them returning a stern, disapproving glare.
So basically I believe that the song is written about two kids with physical abnormalities, not necessarily disabilities, and a kid who wants to be normal but forced to be different. As a result the parents are ashamed of their kids because they cannot accept how their kids are.
The use of the word "normal" in this context means "what is the norm," not "what should be." being different is not necessarily a bad thing. -
there are blogs going back 12 years trying to solve this one.lets simplify
the boy has a physical oddity
the girl has a physical oddity
physical oddities they will "get over"
religion is not a physical oddity. religion is a far more powerful entity than a physical trait. i believe the church boy has realized he is being forced by his parents to believe a certain way about religion and does not agree. maybe he's gay, maybe he prefers the juche or cao dai or maybe he just doesn't like snakes. he just wants to interpret religion for what it is and that is what you make of it. thus the shock and embarrassment of the resentful parents leaving the play
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