Crazy Ex-Girlfriend follows the story of Rebecca Bunch, a New York lawyer with depression who decides (somewhat crazily) to move to West Covina, California after she runs into her high-school-summer-camp boyfriend, Josh Chan. What follows is a story of love, mental health, and most of all, hilarity. The music takes all the grossness and realness of life, and turns it into hilarious songs that you can hum to yourself the next time you mutilate your eyelid trying to curl your eyelashes or you’re feeling like no one is hard on themselves the way you are. Here are a few of my favorites from the series that always make the exhausting parts of life a little more hilarious.
1. “Sexy Getting Ready Song” S01E01
Key Lyric: “God, what… this is how you get ready? This is some… this is horrifying, like a scary movie or something. Like some nasty-ass patriarchal sh*t.”
I love getting ready for a night out…most of the time. Usually it’s fun to pick out the things that make me feel the most confident. But sometimes getting ready feels like dragging myself out of a sewer and into a pair of spanx, I won’t lie. Getting ready is not always glamorous—sometimes it’s getting mascara all over your eyes, or taking a breather halfway through squeezing yourself into that pair of jeans. The lyrics of this song (best experienced with the video of Rebecca struggling to get primped just like the rest of us) show the hilarious contrast between how you want to feel getting ready and how you actually feel.
2. “Let’s Generalize About Men” S03E01
Key Lyric: “Let’s generalize about men! Let’s get super-lit and not admit this is a kind of primal ritual we need now and then!”
This song is somehow feminist and anti-feminist at the same time. It combines the catharsis of saying that men are trash (because, let’s face it, men can really be trash) with the self-awareness of realizing that it’s probably not super accurate to assume all men follow the same exact behavior patterns. Besides all that, it’s the perfect song to blast with your girlfriends when you are *so done* with men, but you want to be nuanced about it.
3. “The Cringe” S04E02
Key Lyric: “And when that memory fills me with horror and dread, I do the cringe!”
This song definitely does not only apply to women (nor do any of these), but rather to any person that has ever done something *so embarrassing* that occasionally, it haunts you. “The Cringe” is a full “Monster Mash” spooky-hilarious song about those moments that just send a chill down your spine. So, the next time you remember that thing you said to your eighth-grade crush, give this song a listen and “do the cringe.”
4. “Put Yourself First” S01E10
Key Lyric: “Make yourself sexy just for yourself, so when dudes see you put yourself first, they’ll be like damn, you’re hot, wanna make out?”
We live in an age where we believe women should be encouraged to love their own appearance and be confident in themselves, rather than looking good for men. But, we’d be lying to ourselves if we said we didn’t still feel the pressure to look nice when we’re interested in someone (especially when that person is a man). “Put Yourself First” reminds us that we still live in a society that places incredible pressure on women to look good, but turns that pressure into something we can laugh about.
5. “Where’s the Bathroom” S01E08
Key Lyric: “Since when do you have a vendetta against vases? When did you stop wearing makeup? Are you sure that you’re not gay? I’d still love you if you were gay! It would explain this vase vendetta, please just tell me if you’re gay!”
“Where’s the Bathroom” introduces one of the most important relationships in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Rebecca’s relationship with her mother. Rebecca’s mother comes barreling into Rebecca’s apartment and immediately criticizes everything about her. I’m lucky enough not to have this type of relationship with my mom, but everyone has their critics. Walking through life and feeling judged is difficult, so finding something to laugh at in it makes it much easier. The long, drawn-out phrases and the mother’s inability to hear Rebecca’s interjections make the mother look ridiculous while still seeming real. Listening to this song always gives me the ability to smile at my inner and outer critics, even though it’s difficult.
6. “Heavy Boobs” S01E16
Key Lyric: “Stuff falls into my bra, it’s a little bit of a drag, but when I go to bed at night, it’s like opening a Mary Poppins bag!”
“Heavy Boobs” takes something that the world sees as sexual, and desexualizes it. While the media shows boobs as sexual, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend reminds us that boobs are just “sacks of yellow fat.” This song is a hilarious and relatable reminder that boobs aren’t just something that “look[s] super fly in shirts”, but also they can feed a baby, and most of the time, just sit there, as a mildly inconvenient part of half the population’s bodies. Next time you see a post criticizing breastfeeding mothers, put on this song and jam out to Rebecca’s list of all the things that she can fit in her bra.
7. “Antidepressants Are So Not a Big Deal” S04E13
Key Lyric: “Yes, everyone is special, that’s usually the sitch, but when it comes to meds, you’re such a basic bitch!”
Another song that applies to anyone is this song, which addresses the stigma surrounding mental health and medication (plus it’s also an adorable tap number). The fact that this show takes such an accepting attitude towards medication reminds the audience that medication is a perfectly normal part of many mental health treatments. Sure, antidepressants weren’t always prescribed this much, but there are plenty of medical practices that belong in the past, including letting people who need medication to function go without it. This song takes the usually dreary rhetoric of mental health treatment and makes it somewhat uplifting.
8. “The Miracle of Birth” S03E13
Key Lyric: “Then you race your ass over to the hospital, where they’ll strap you in for the hell ride of your life.”
One of the best parts of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is that it takes parts of life (women’s lives specifically) that the world often ignores and puts them front and center. One of the examples of this is Rebecca’s friend, Paula’s song detailing her experience with childbirth. The song is warm, maternal, and melodic, which contrasts hilariously with the lyrics describing pain, diarrhea, and placenta. Childbirth is a part of motherhood that we fully ignore speaking about, and this song reminds us of the hilarious (and slightly terrifying) realities of life.
9. “You Stupid Bitch” S01E11
Key Lyric: “You ruined everything, you stupid bitch! You ruined everything, you stupid, stupid bitch!”
“You Stupid Bitch” is one of the darkest songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but also one of the funniest and most relatable. Rebecca has descended into a spiral of self-loathing, and breaks into song about how she’s ruined everything. The song is extremely honest and lets the listener know that they’re not alone in their darkest and most self-critical thoughts. The song is not empathetic or compassionate;it’s a window into how unkind and intense Rebecca’s self-loathing is, which again lets the listener know that their own dark thoughts would not sound so well-founded to other people. Plus, they can indulge in the dark humor of Rebecca’s ramblings.
10. “Without Love You Can Save the World” S03E09
Key Lyric: “10,000 hours in anything makes you an expert, and I’ve spent way more time than that frettin’ over guys. I’ve got a B.F.A., an M.F.A., a Ph.D. in obsession, and now I find myself wondering why.”
At this point in the series, Rebecca has lost love more than once. She has sacrificed her career and other friendships to pursue guys, and she is now at a point where she realizes she’s been focusing her energy on all the wrong things. While this song, like all the songs in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, is a little bit sarcastic, it’s a fun and funny reminder of the fact that there are much better accomplishments in life besides romantic ones. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend follows Rebecca’s relationships, of course, but at the heart of the story is Rebecca’s journey, and her search for happiness and fulfillment, and—in the end—that comes with or without love.
If you want to listen to these songs, check out this playlist!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hGjfblint4ztUTAmcCU5O