Hungarian (02:41)

Hungarian (02:41)

Songwriter: Geza X
Publisher: Geza Music
PRO: BMI
Mechanical Licenses:
Dionysis Records,Geza X Records

Release Date: 1979, 2010, 2021

I’ve always been puzzled by race-bashing or gender-bashing. To me, the astonishing variety in the human race is one of its most attractive features. As the French say,"Vive le difference!” So I wanted to make a satire on the subject but everyone is so sensitive and gets upset so easily that I wasn’t sure how. Then it occurred to me that I had to look no further than my OWN ancestry to write a nasty racist song. It was totally tongue-in-cheek, of course. A Geza X style send up of yet another hot-button social issue. And I thought, “…well since I”M Hungarian, no one can get mad, right? And we can all have a good laugh at the folly of our ways, right?”

Well, NO! …One time when Hungary was still behind the Iron Curtain I was interviewed by Radio Free America (the propaganda mouthpiece of the West) the HUNGARIAN interviewer took umbrage toward my mocking swipe at my own ancestry, complaining that Hungarians are treated like 2nd-class citizens all over Europe. I attempted to tell him that this was THE WHOLE POINT of the song, the message. But he wasn’t having it. He gave me a very hard time and lectured me and asked if I was sorry for writing it. I wasn’t. So I lectured him back and told him the world needs MORE humor, MORE satire, not less. I explained that satire is magical because it's the only style of art that can get through the barriers of social norms, religious prejudices, even the law. Satirists have been responsible for a great deal of social change when other methods failed.