Father John Misty staked his claim once again to the title of the funniest man in music and also one of its biggest bloody legends. Long story short: he tripped on acid at a Taylor Swift show in Melbourne. We know, awesome, right?
But if you’ve followed the man, whose real name is J Tillman, at all, you’ll know it was hardly the first time that the singer-songwriter made headlines for being both funny and honest in equal measures. In fact, he kind of has a history of doing that.
When he’s not tripping on acid at Taylor Swift concerts, Misty is trolling the entire world’s music media or simply a hapless punter at one of his own concerts. In the interests of having a good belly laugh, here’s fives times Father John Misty was the funniest person in music.
1. That time Father John Misty live Tweeted an awful Tinder date
Misty was dining at an LA restaurant when he couldn’t help but notice the painfully awkward, tell-tale sounds of a Tinder date happening right beside him. Sensing comedy gold at his fingertips, Misty proceeded to live tweet the whole thing.
Misty began dissecting the date as soon as he suspected the hapless couple had been brought together by the ubiquitous dating app. “Need further confirmation but pretty sure I’m sitting next to a Tindr date/// will keep you posted,” he wrote.
“Dude went in strong exploiting presumed insecurities///she is talking about energy spheres///lots of mock accents happening///very steamy,” Misty continued. “Mutually confirming length of time lived in LA///gratuitous “cheers” once drinks arrived///cross referencing potential mutual acquaintances.”
Need further confirmation but pretty sure I’m sitting next to a Tindr date/// will keep you posted
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— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) March 22, 2016
2. That time he lost to Justin Bieber at the BRITs
Misty had the internet in a frenzy with his reaction to losing the BRIT Award for Best International Male Artist to Justin Bieber. Misty appeared to put on a faux downtrodden look when the news was announced, but later revealed he was simply looking at his phone.
As Misty explained in an interview with the BBC, “My publicist told me I’ve literally no chance of winning.” Since he already knew the outcome, Misty apparently said ‘Fuck it’ to the ceremony and was engrossed in his phone when the result was read out.
“I was robbed,” he later tweeted, before adding, “Of my phone in the shot.”
I was robbed
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) February 24, 2016
Of my phone in the shot
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) February 24, 2016
3. That time he unveiled his ‘rejected’ Pandora promos
Back in 2016, Misty gave us more belly laughs when he unveiled a series of hilarious ‘rejected’ promos for controversial digital streaming service Pandora, in which the singer-songwriter not only took the piss out of the company, but himself, and the music industry.
“It gets lonely out on the road, my Pandora mixtape helps me retain some semblance of an emotional existence as I sell myself piece by wretched piece, one t-shirt at a time,” Misty joked in one of the promos, which you can check out below.
There was also this nugget: “Hi, this is Father John Misty. You know, people ask me all the time what they can expect from my upcoming tour. I show them a picture of me on the cover of the Daily Mail, clutching a human foot, to which they respond, ‘I’m sorry, I thought you were James Bay’.”
4. That time he trolled some poor dude at a Sydney gig
As Misty reached the final chorus of his song ‘Bored In The USA’ during a Sydney show, the singer spotted a phone-wielding fan near the front of the stage, reached out, and grabbed the phone, proceeding to film himself for the rest of the song.
After bringing the song to a close, Misty joked in his characteristically deadpan style, “I don’t think we got that.” Deciding the take wasn’t up to his directorial standards, Misty decided the band would have to play the song all over again.
As he handed the phone back to the red-faced punter, Misty said, “There – it’s just like you were almost here.” After the gig came to a close, Misty decided to return to the stage for an impromptu Q&A session that basically amounted to a stand-up set (see below).
5. That time he trolled the entire world’s music media
This was the moment when Misty first gained his reputation as contemporary music’s best troll and quite possibly the funniest man in music right now. Misty trolled basically the entire world’s music press, and he didn’t even mean to.
The story goes that Misty decided to cover Ryan Adams’ covers of Taylor Swift’s 1989, opting to do them in the style of The Velvet Underground, because why not? He uploaded his own covers to SoundCloud, but later took them down because Lou Reed’s ghost allegedly told him to in a dream.
But as he confessed in an interview with Louisville’s 91.9 radio station, the whole thing was one epic troll, Misty just wanted to see if anyone would actually report on the situation and sure enough, they did without even skipping a beat.
“I was annoyed at the media,” he told the station. “I was like, ‘These people will print anything’, so I went and gave them the most fraudulent, the most blatantly absurd, unprintable piece of surrealistic nonsense – and they printed it!”