SHANE MACGOWAN
Laughteria
Always-surprising. Always-unmistakable. Always-inspiring... For years, writers have been struggling to describe Shane MacGowan’s trademark laughter. Whipping up their creativity to the utmost. Competing with one another who’ll come up with the most bizzare depiction. Here are the fruits of their creativity.
He subsides into the unmistakable MacGowan laugh, a sound which has been described as everything from the crackle of a cheap walkie-talkie to an overheated Buick rattling its last gasp.
Ann Scanlon, The Lost Decade, 1988
But he will never actually be offensive, defusing his rudest cracks with that signature laugh -- a sound you can approximate by filling your nose with stout and exhaling it through all cranial orifices simultaneously.
Chris Norris, Spin magazine, 1995
It sounds remarkably like a cross between a rattlesnake's hiss and a portable toilet being flushed.
Richie Taylor, Daily Mirror, 1996
His laugh sounds like a slowly deflating beachball full of petrol.
Alan Corr, RTE Guide, 1997
"Kersh -sh -sh -sh." MacGowan's death-rattle laugh - the sound of air escaping through his few remaining blackened and tombstone-like teeth - sounds something like a gas leak or a dentist's suction pump. It's the sort of laugh a cartoon character would have.
Hotpress, 2001
... with his death-rattle laugh and graveyard grin...
James Griffiths, Guardian, 2003
... cracking inaudible jokes to himself that end with a laugh that bears a resemblance to television static.
Eric Bush, Daily Vanguard, 2003
Even his laugh is unhealthy sounding and somewhat cartoonish (I think the best description is that it sounds like gas slowly escaping a bottle of cola, only wetter).
iccroydon.co.uk, 2003
... with a laugh that’s half asthma, half Ernie from “Sesame Street.”
Chris Handyside, Metrotimes, 2003
... with his distinctive laugh which sounded as if he had violently shaken a can of Guinness and then popped the top into the phone (krrrrsshhh sshhh)...
Tony Bonyata, Concert LiveWire, 2003
... a scary kind of wheezing laugh.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner, 2004
He offers a laugh, a sloppily scratchy throat-type gurgle...
Slim Rivets, Loosie, 2004
He answered that question himself with a brilliant contagious Mutley-dog-style laugh.
Taragh Loughrey Grant, InDublin, 2004
Ah yes, the laugh. A sibilant hiss halfway between Ernie from Sesame Street and a rattlesnake.
Hotpress, 2004
... rasping wheeze of a laugh.
Helen Tither, Manchesteronline, 2004
Here he emitted the infamous MacGowan laugh, a sibilant, saliva-drenched hiss which at that particular juncture recalled an asthmatic gargling gravel.
Craig MacLean, Word Magazine, 2005
... followed by his inimitable and simile-defiant laugh, that, hey, I’m going to have a go, sounds like someone opening a particularly difficult sandwich container.
... that laugh that sounds as though someone suddenly decides to fry an egg.
James Fearnley, Bloguemahone, 2005
... with MacGowan playing the bumbling drunk with a hideous laugh that would scare Gollum.
Brent Hagerman, Echo Weekly Online, 2005
And then he makes an extraordinary sound halfway between white noise and an industrial accident. I think he is laughing.
MacGowan makes a sound like a burst radiator emitting steam as it's dragged across gravel.
Neil McCormick, Telegraph, 2005
And he has the world’s strangest laugh.
Don Morton, Metropolis Japan Today, 2005
He will pepper his largely incoherent, occasionally illuminating comments with an astonishing emission that's been aptly compared to an exploding coffee machine. It is, apparently, laughter.
Joan Anderman, Boston Globe, 2006
His laugh sounds like a lawnmower running over a stone.
Will Hodgkinson, MOJO, 2010
The lack of teeth makes his speech difficult to follow and when he laughs, it's with the sort of wheeze an espresso machine makes.
John Meagher, Irish Independent, 2010
Shane's famously demented rattle-snake laugh ensures and a column of snot descends from his nose towards his lip, which he sniffs back up again. This happens intermittently for the next 20 minutes or so.
Sylvia Patterson, Q magazine, 2010
“You did!” chimed the other two in unison, prompting Shane to laugh that Muttley-esque laugh of his – the one that sounds like ice being scraped from a frozen car window and which punctuates pretty much every sentence he utters.
Nathan Bevan, WalesOnline.co.uk, 2011
For the first time this afternoon, Shane laughs. His laugh fluctuates between a sticky hiss, like someone deflating a wet balloon, and a mad, wheezing cackle. Imagine Muttley from Wacky Races after 300 Marlboro Reds.
Andrew Burnett, ShortList.com, 2012
zuzana(at)pogues.com
Shane's photo © unknown
