I LOVE stand-up comedy. Seriously, ridiculously love it. When I was a kid, Saturday nights were the best because after I got home or while I was staying up late at a sleep-over, we would watch comedy specials on HBO or Comic Strip Live (or course this was watched in conjunction with Headbanger’s Ball. I’m eclectic). And I still love it. In fact, stand-up comedy is one of the few interests that I have in common with my husband.

I’ve been fortunate to see some of the greatest comics of all time including George Carlin and Bill Cosby. But one comic I haven’t seen that I am absolutely longing to is Louis CK. He’s freaking hilarious (and completely inventive? Remember what he did a few months ago by selling his stand-up special on his website rather than traditional methods? Remember how much money he made? Remember what he did with it? Yeah. My respect for him increased exponentially after that). I cannot watch him without laughing. Since this is a money site, I figured I’d share one of his funniest bits about being broke. I’m sure that most of us can relate to this (warning: language is completely, utterly, and totally not appropriate for work):

So that’s probably my favorite comedy set about money, next to the SNL skit with Steve Martin and Chris Parnell’s “Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford”. What’s yours?

Before I resigned a few weeks ago, I spent 11 years working a typical office job with all the typical trappings: annoying commute, 8 hours day with an unpaid lunch, Monday-Friday schedule with no option for telecommuting, fluorescent lights, poor morale, gray furniture, and gossipy co-workers. My work hours were filled with heartwrenching and tedious tasks, and I longed for 4 PM on Fridays when I could put it all behind me until 8 AM on Monday. Although I was doing noble, necessary work, I never really produced anything I was proud of or accomplished anything noteworthy. Except getting through each day.

Sad story. True story.

Now, as a freelancer, I don’t have a real weekend. I do need some time off, so I actually take my “weekend” on Friday and Saturday, although it’s not unusual to find me working on something on one of those days. I can’t help it. I love what I’m doing. And now, rather than the weekdays as something I have to get through in order to achieve the weekend, the weekdays are now something I look forward to just as much as I did the weekends in my previous life. It’s such a relief to wake up each day, excited about what I’m going to do rather than thinking of it as torture with a paycheck. To quote Loverboy, I’m no longer “working for the weekend” (which, incidentally, is today’s money tune. Yeah, I’m good). I now work for…well, I work because I enjoy what I do. And I’m really proud of it. Even if I don’t make a lot of money.

Much better story.

Note: Song starts at 2:25.

If you’ve been following this feature since it’s inception last summer, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t used too many songs that one would expect in a series about money songs. There’s a reason for that.

I can’t stand most of them.

They’re cliched and overused and I prefer to be original (or at least unusual. At the very least, uncommon) so I’ve avoided them thus far. But it’s time we addressed them once and for all. A cleansing. A “let’s get them out of the way all at once so we don’t have to face them again” post.

So, here we go. In no particular order, my countdown of the 5 most cliched songs about money and songs that you will never again see referenced here unless it is in the context of a larger story or to make fun of them. Actually, I’ve decided I’m not even going to use videos this week because well, you’ve all heard the songs so many times that I don’t need to share with you what they sound like:

1. She Works Hard For The Money–Donna Summer (I did use this once but mainly out of respect for the late Donna Summer. Because I think she’s freaking awesome. But never again.)

2. Take the Money And Run–The Steve Miller Band (Who are excellent live, by the way)

3. Money for Nothing–Dire Straits (after Van Halen’s Panama, it’s the most 80s song ever)

4. Money–Pink Floyd (nothing snarky to say about this song because it’s actually kind of great but it’s too common for Money Tune Tuesday)

5. Working Man–Rush (Rush is my all time favorite band but this song is way too overplayed)

Honorable Mentions: Billionaire (by…I don’t know. I only know this song from Glee and some really horrible commercial. But I hate it so I’ll never use it), Gold Digger (Kanye West) and Eat the Rich (Aerosmith, but really I’m only including it to protest Steven Tyler. American Idol? Really, Hall of Fame Rock Dude?)

What would you include?

For the purpose of being accurate yet relating to the song, I had to switch genders a bit. You’ll see what I mean. 

When my husband and I were in college, we knew a guy (let’s call him Ed. Not his real name) who was horrible with money. I mean really, truly horrible. He was also late on paying bills or never had enough money for bills. He couldn’t hold a job. He borrowed money from everyone, and was the biggest moocher I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. People gave him everything: food, books, homework assignments, rides, their car, their credit card numbers…everything. Because he was such a nice guy, no one wanted to see him in a bad spot. But he always was. Always.

He was a bit of a criminal, too. He got into some trouble running a scam against Sears and then he wracked up a ton of debt in his (now ex) girlfriend’s name. I think there was even an incident where he crashed a car and didn’t tell the owner and never paid for the damage. Ridiculous.

But the icing on the cake was not that everyone forgave him for his financial indiscretions. No, the icing is that this dude had some of the best luck I’ve ever seen. For instance, we once went to Atlantic City. He put a $20 bill into a slot machine, played $1 worth and won $800 (the whole purpose behind playing was to get change. Why he didn’t get it elsewhere still escapes me). Another incident involved him getting into an altercation at a bar; he was injured by a bouncer and won some sort of crazy settlement that sustained him for quite a while. Also ridiculous.

And even though this guy was a financial nightmare, he always had a girlfriend (or two or three. And then an extra girl he was sleeping with). I never figured out why someone so irresponsible and untrustworthy always had girls falling all over him. I guess it’s the whole stereotype that girls like bad guys.

Which segways nicely into today’s Money Tune, Bowling For Soup’s Girl All The Bad Guys Want. Enjoy!

I think this heat is melting my brain.

In the last few days, mysterious bruises have appeared on my legs, I had a water bottle mishap at Zumba class, I’ve lost 1400 games of Words With Friends, and honestly, I can’t even remember where I was going with this sentence. All I know is that it’s hot, my daughter wants to nothing except swim and all I want to do is stay home, in the air conditioning. Where I belong. Since I’m not an outdoorsy kind of gal.

Anyway, it’s so bad I couldn’t even settle on a song for today. My internet twin Mackenzie came up with a great suggestion, No Doubt’s “Simple Kind of Life” but I couldn’t muster up anything to say about it. In fact, I couldn’t muster up anything to say about any songs (insert tears and cries of “No! Not that!”). So then I thought, why not come up with some sort of nice, patriotic song for the 4th of July? Nope, that’s a no go, too. Then I said, hey, why not just put up a collection of random videos that have nothing to do with money (sort of like last week’s Money Tune, too. This is not a theme I feel I should continue since it defeats the whole purpose of the theme) but are songs that I’m obsessed with lately?

So that’s what’s happening. Here are three videos of songs that I cannot stop listening to, much to the chagrin of my family (except for “Gold On the Ceiling”. My daughter goes apeshit for that song). I assure you there’s no Gotye, Maroon 5, or Carly Rae Jepsen in this list (although, for the record, I do enjoy all of those. Yes, even the last one. I’m sorry, but the song is catchy).