The Coffin Launchers were a short lived goth-glam rock band based out of New York City. The band was created and fronted in the 1980s by the original goth comedian Morri Hartgraves. Hartgraves' original Goth Style Comedy was a match made in heaven and hell. Morri Hartgraves was seldom booed, but often removed. 1980s Hell’s Kitchen was the perfect backdrop for tongue in cheek macabre comedy. With the Hudson River warehouses as a backdrop to the dank clubs and venues, struggling theatrical types dressed entirely in black were ready for a dark, acerbic brand of comedy to sprinkle cheer into their suicidal thoughts. Their applause was felt through their smug expressions of “I got the joke when no one else in this world understands the existential punch line. Nor do they understand me for that matter. Just as if the Nietzsche-free masses will never understand me” Hartgraves’ most popular joke (turned into a light hearted musical ditty) was a side to side comparison between AYD’s the popular 80s diet candy and the terror of emaciating from the then untreatable AIDs the immunosuppressive disease. In this sub cult 1980s New York crowd the joke found a home where it was loved and nurtured. The patrons of Caroline’s, Catch a Rising Star and The Improv just never “got” the material. Nor did they get the light hearted teen suicide jokes.
The late great character actor Nile E. Lisp the Gay Nihilist often made special guest appearances with the Coffin Launchers. His zany one liners about existential crisis will nay be forgotten.
To lighten things up, the band would sometime perform under the cheery, chirpy name Raw Flesh Cliche. Mockingly making fun come from anything that should not be made fun of.
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