Contributors:

Kari Bauer

Jonathan Chaffer

Jordan1c@aol.com

Maira

MLiq

Bryan J Polk

This song has significant value without interpretation. It is very possible that there is no hidden meaning past the barrage of words chosen to alliterate and rhyme. Two things in the song that possibly hold meaning, though, are the title words which may indicate that the narrator is indeed the main character, and the use of "Mister Misty," a Dairy Queen dessert, which may be either a joke or a significant part of the song.

Taking the Dairy Queen idea perhaps a little too far, some have conjectured that the song is about the frozen dessert in question, and that the "mister mystery" is the question of what it contains. In this reading, "ending up sad" may mean becoming sick from eating the DQ delicacy.

Mr. Me is, literally, or metaphorically, a sailor. If the song has a somewhat more lofty meaning, the sea becomes some obstacle Mr. Me is facing. We see that he fails in this conflict, "ending up sad." His quest may be to find out why things are (to cease the mystery). Or, the sea may be a symbol of life in general, and swimming it may be growing up and trying to survive. People are inevitably lost in society, says the interp, and end up sad.

One other idea is that the "yo yo yo" part is meant to be Spanish for "i i i," to fit with the first-person title of the song.

Lastly, Kari gives the "obvious" interp. Hmm.

While ingesting the evening meal [dinner? supper? you decide...] tonight in our dining hall, god came down out of a giant flaming meatball right in front of our table and gave me a message to pass on to all my friends out there in tmb-land... She told me The True Meaning of Mr. Me. It's about dining hall food. Think about it... listen to the lyrics... feel the demons leave your body...

Once a boy named Mister Me bemoaned a great regret:
"I've floundered in the misty sea, but can't abide its mystery,
I wound up sad, you bet"

Obviously he has gone to the dining hall once too often, and found it filled with scary food unequaled anywhere within our solar sytem. This distressed him very much. As it does Kate and me. He looked and looked at the choices and just kept floundering around, walking back and forth between the sandwich bar and the cereal rack, and just couldn't abide the mystery of the so-called meat, and those bizarre casseroles that are colors food just shouldn't be, and he just wound up sad [you bet] 'cause he couldn't find any food and he was probably really hungry, 'cause they didn't have anything good for lunch, either... Obviously the misty sea is the dining hall...witness the next bit:

So onward go and Edward Ho into the bounding main
Enjoy the show look out below but mind the misty sea
Or end up sad like Mister Me

obviously, the bounding main is either a restaurant, or a place where they cook really good food, and the song is saying, go to this place where they serve good food, and have a lot of fun, and watch out for the dining hall, 'cause it'll just make you very unhappy.

So take the hand of Mister Me and mister, make him glad
To swim the Mister Misty Sea and cease the Mister Mystery
That mister, made him sad

Obviously, this is a heartfelt plea to all dining halls throughout the nation and across the world to improve the quality of their food from "slop" to at least "edible" or even "recognizable" 'cause it would make mr. me and thousands of other starving students very happy. As you might have guessed, Kate and I just returned from a very disappointing dinner... Peanut butter bread is not only a staple, but a necessity...

He ended up sad
He ended up sad
He ended up really, really, really sad