Napoleon XIV

Thoughts that need thinking like spring has been sprung
Fantasy helps all of us to think young
Everyone knows that penguins go formal

So whose there among us to say who is normal?

—"Bats In My Belfry"

Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of the American singer and songwriter Jerry Samuels (born 3 May 1938, New York). His novelty songs focus on mental illness. They're about as entertaining as they are creepy. They can be pretty creepy.

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Napoleon XIV provides examples of the following tropes:

• Man Child: "I'm In Love With My Little Red Tricycle"
• Obfuscating Insanity: Inverted in "They're coming to get me again, Ha-Haaa!".
• One-Hit Wonder
• Psycho Psychologist: "Dr. Psyche, the Cut-Rate Head-shrinker."
• Ramping: An auditory variant: his voice gets higher and higher pitched on the chorus to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" thanks to a variable-frequency oscillator, allowing him to gain a chipmunk voice without changing the tempo.
• Sanity Slippage Song: Probably all of them, but "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" takes the cake.
• Sdrawkcab Name: The original b-side to "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" was called "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT" and credited to VIX Noelopan. It was in fact "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" played backwards.
• Split Personality: "I live in a split level head"
• Word Salad Lyrics: "Bats in my Belfry". That quote up there is probably the most sensible lyrics in the whole song.