45 Durand Jones and The Indications “Morning in America”

Category mistakes are the result of language having words with multiple meanings or homophones. For example, if I told you I went to the bank, you might assume I’m at the ATM. In reality I’m standing by a river contemplating Heraclitus. That bank can mean a financial institute or the side of a river (or a type of shot in pool or a way to steer a boat…) Using bank in the wrong sense is a category mistake. 

There are plenty of jokes that use category mistakes for their punchline. Steven Wright has a joke that goes something like this: “I just finished reading the dictionary. Turns out the Zebra did it.” 

I know that explaining a joke ruins it, so I’ll let you figure out the category mistake on your own here. Puns, sometimes called the lowest form of humor, can often be category mistakes. So these errors produce humor and confusion. Every once in a while they can also produce something more.

Durand Jones and The Indications’ “Morning in America” is a play on a few things. First it was a conservative political ad slogan, specifically for Regan’s second term. It references how things had just started to get better under Regan’s administration, that things had turned a corner for prosperity. For folks like Durnad Jones, this was a sick joke that seems to just keep going. So the category mistake here is a reference to not just morning, but of the homophone, mourning. The songs from 2019, but it feels like a timeless R&B track.