A funhouse or fun house is an amusement facility found on amusement park and funfair midways in which patrons encounter and actively interact with various devices designed to surprise, challenge, and amuse the visitor. Unlike thrill rides, funhouses are participatory attractions, where visitors enter and move around under their own power. Incorporating aspects of a playful obstacle course, funhouses seek to distort conventional perceptions and startle people with unstable and unpredictable physical circumstances within an atmosphere of wacky whimsicality.
Appearing originally in the early 1900s at Coney Island, the funhouse is so called because in its initial form it was just that: a house or larger building containing a number of amusement devices. At first these were mainly mechanical devices. Some could be described as enlarged, motorized versions of what might be found on a children's playground. The most common were:
Funhouse is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Pink, released by LaFace Records worldwide on October 24, 2008. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 180,000 copies in its first week and reached number one on the charts in seven countries including Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Funhouse has sold over six million copies worldwide.
Singles from the album include the U.S. number-one single "So What", "Sober", "Please Don't Leave Me", "Funhouse", "I Don't Believe You", and "Glitter in the Air". Funhouse earned Pink three Grammy Award nominations and five MTV Video Music Award nominations. Funhouse was re-released in late 2009 to include a bonus DVD, and was accompanied by the release of Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia, a live album taped during Pink's Australian leg of the Funhouse Tour.
Pink has stated that this album is her most vulnerable to date. Much of the album's subject matter alludes to the fact that Moore had recently separated from her husband, Carey Hart. The first single, "So What", opens with: "I guess I just lost my husband/I don't know where he went". "Please Don't Leave Me" also addresses the split. The artist sums up its theme thus: "Okay, I’m an asshole, but love me anyway." In "Mean", she sings, "It was good in the beginning/but how did we get so mean?" The song that Moore is the most proud of is "Crystal Ball". She said about the track: "I recorded it in one take and we didn’t mix it. It just went straight to master. It was all about a vibe and not about perfection or being polished. I just love that song and I loved recording it." She wrote the song with Billy Mann, who also aided her with the songs "Stupid Girls", "Dear Mr. President" and "I'm Not Dead" (all 2006), among others.
"Funhouse" is the twenty-sixth episode of the HBO television series The Sopranos. It is the thirteenth and final episode of the show's second season. It was co-written by series creator/executive producer David Chase and co-producer Todd A. Kessler, and was directed by frequent The Sopranos director John Patterson. It originally aired in the United States on April 9, 2000, attracting about 9 million viewers.
It was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
I dance around this empty house
Tear us down, throw you out
Screaming down the halls
Spinning all around and now we fall
Pictures framing up the past
Your taunting smirk behind the glass
This museum full of ash
Once a tickle, now a rash
This used to be a Funhouse
But now it's full of evil clowns
It's time to start the countdown
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down
I'm gonna burn it down
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, fun
Echoes knocking on locked doors
All the laughter from before
I'd rather live out on the street
Than in this haunted memory
I've called the movers, called the maids
We'll try to exorcise this place
Drag my mattress to the yard
Crumble, tumble house of cards
This used to be a Funhouse
But now it's full of evil clowns
It's time to start the countdown
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down
This used to be a Funhouse
But now it's full of evil clowns
It's time to start the countdown
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down
I'm gonna burn it down
9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, fun
I'm crawling through the doggy door
My key don't fit my life no more
I'll change the drapes, I'll break the plates
I'll find a new place, burn this fucker down
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
Do, do, do, do, da, da, da, da
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
(9, 8)
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
(7, 6)
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
(5, 4, 3)
Do, do, do, do, do, do, do
(2, 1)
This used to be a Funhouse
But now it's full of evil clowns
It's time to start the countdown
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down
This used to be a Funhouse
But now it's full of evil clowns
It's time to start the countdown
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down