It's Kinda Funny

Josef K were a Scottish post-punk band named after the protagonist of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial. Although they released just one album in 1981 and achieved little commercial success, they have since proved influential on many groups that followed including The Wedding Present, Franz Ferdinand and The Rapture.

Frontman Paul Haig explained this song's meaning to Uncut magazine September 2014: "It's Kinda Funny is a song about the human condition," he said. "And death." "I lived with my parents, and I was going to go out to meet this girl that I was quite keen on, which she didn't know," Haig continued. "So the first line, 'You may be dumb, but the passage of time can change anything like the feelings we find,' was about meeting her, because she was dumb to my feelings. It was really about hoping that things would change in the future, and we'd get together. So the first part is a very normal unrequited love type thing. Then it goes off into the existentialist chewy stuff."

A number of people have wrongly surmised the song was inspired by the passing of Joy Division's vocalist Ian Curtis. Haig told Uncut magazine: "I have heard people say it was inspired by Ian Curtis' death. It wasn't. It was a song I was writing before going out." "It came together incredibly quickly," he added. "I did the whole arrangement, the guitar solo, and the lyrics in about 20 minutes. The only thing that makes me think of Joy Division is the bassline, which was influenced by Hooky."