Not surprisingly, the Baudelaires find their first experience performing at Caligari’s freak show simply humiliating. The people in the audience are mean and are only there to throw stuff and make fun of them. Plus, the kids are experiencing flashbacks of all the horrible guardians they’ve had in the past along with all the terrible things people done to them and laughed at them for. It’s a miracle they didn’t snap and go postal, not that it wouldn’t have helped with their reputation now being murderers and arsonists. Violet is in pieces with all her confidence sapped. Sunny is crying, too. However, Klaus tries to be optimistic, pointing out that they’ll go in Lulu’s tent while she’s away. Enduring this sheer humiliation is just part of the gig.

The song I chose for them here is Billy Joel’s “A Minor Variation” from his River of Dreams album. The original version of this song is about coming to terms with depression which the narrator seems to cope through drinking. Though I guess if you’re Billy Joel, it would also mean crashing cars into houses like in the 2000s. Despite he hasn’t been doing much of that lately. In this version, I have the Baudelaires sing about how upset they are after performing at the freak show.

“Sheer Humiliation”

Sung by Violet and Klaus Baudelaire

Violet:
Some days I have to give right in to the blues
If they keep pointing and laughing
It’s a relief that I don’t blow a fuse
And I’ll tell you why
This is all crazy
It’s such a sad disposition
But can you blame me
For getting the flashbacks of bad guardians?
Ain’t nothing new with our blue situation
But nothing’s fine if it’s all just sheer humiliation

Klaus:
When troubles want to find me, I ain’t hard to find
They don’t know us here
Crowd’s a hungry pack of wolves when it’s feeding time
They tear up a man
And it’s a strange thing
Cause now it don’t really matter
More of the same thing
Don’t even hurt it’s been part of the pattern
Not sure how we tame our frustrations
Let’s just define it as all sheer humiliation

Ain’t now way to fight ’em sisters
Ain’t no way around ’em Sunny
Ain’t now way to take ’em Violet
Nowhere to go and believe me we’ll have to shake ‘em

I’m getting to the point where I don’t feel the pain
And I’ve had enough
The crowd may laugh and mock us again
And throw us their junk
It doesn’t faze me
And now I’ve made my decision
I may be crazy
It’s not as though I don’t know that condition
Let’s go into Madame Lulu’s tent while she’s away
We must have to put up with some sheer humiliation

Violet:
Ain’t nobody’s business, Sunny
Ain’t nobody’s worry brother
Ain’t nobody’s problem
No way to run when you have to let them mock you

And it’s a strange thing
Cause now it don’t really matter
More of the same thing
Still always hurts, it’s a part of a pattern
Don’t ask I’m through this blue situation
I’m going cry over all this sheer humiliation