Incomptetent/Can't: Mayor of Simpleton

XTC: Mayor of Simpleton
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In response to Darius' question about the theme, as the guy who suggested it back in February, it was originally "Incompetence," in "honor" of our then-new President. Who knew how bad it would get. Our current moderator, known in these pages as KKafa, although that’s not what his parents named him, felt that was too difficult, and added the related concept of “Can’t.” And so far, that’s where the posts in this theme have gone.

So, I’m going to try to steer it back to my original concept, although, as so often happens with XTC’s music, the lyrics are somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

Unlike our current President of Simpleton (or Dementia, or Narcissism, or Egoism, or Delusion, or whatever), who seems blissfully unaware of his shortcomings, the titular Mayor lists all of the things that he lacks competence in:

• Learning
• Weighing the Sun
• Mathematics
• Reading profound books
• Writing a big hit song
• Solving crossword puzzles
• Unraveling riddles, problems and puns
• Operating a home computer (note—this song came out in 1989, so having one was not common)
• Converting pounds to tons
• Winning Nobel Prizes (If this was an impediment to love, there’d be a lot of single people)

On the other side of the ledger, though:

•  He loves her 

One would like to think that love should win out over mere brains (a concept which Cheers mined regularly, particularly in its early years), and I think that we are all rooting for the Mayor in this song, because of his self-awareness and clever and heartfelt professions of love. And, so, is he really incompetent?

Unfortunately, XTC never recorded a sequel, so we don’t know whether this plea led to “Sorry, Mayor of Simpleton, I’m Not Interested,” or “I Love You Too, Dummy.”