This funky rocker was written by Pink together with Tony Kanal of No Doubt and his writing partner Jimmy Harry. Pink said on her website that she "fell in love working with them."
Pink said this song is "about when the box you're in doesn't fit anymore, burn that f---er down and start a new one."
Pink explained the album's title on her website: "I look at life like a carnival. Clowns are supposed to be happy, but they are really scary. Carnivals are supposed to be fun, but really they are kind of creepy. But, we go and we buy cotton candy and we force our laughter and we get on rides and we strap ourselves in and we do it. And that's like life to me, and love. Love is supposed to be fun, but it can sometimes be really scary. And the funhouse mirrors that make you look so distorted that you don't recognize yourself and you ask yourself, 'How did I get here? How do I get out of here?' But, you think that you want to do it again. That is the same as love and life. It's a metaphor for being in love and for life."
Pink originally wanted to name the album Heartbreak Is A Motherf--ker, but her record label was concerned the strong language would tank record sales.
This was the album's fourth worldwide single; it was the fifth single in Australia, where "
Bad Influence" was released as the fourth. The album was a big hit in Australia, debuting at #1 on the ARIA chart, and was also her first chart-topping album in the UK. In the US, it debuted at #2 and went triple-Platinum in 2017 for 3 million copies sold.
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The Dave Meyers-directed video follows Pink dancing through a field inhabited by evil clowns and strewn with debris from a house fire. Tony Kanal can be seen playing the piano in the midst of the flaming wreckage. The clip also pays tribute to Pink's late bulldog, Elvis, who drowned in the swimming pool of her Los Angeles mansion in 2006. The promo opens with a shot of a grave marker bearing the dog's name and a painting of his likeness on the side of an above-ground pool. Pink's cherished pet was a gift from her friend Lisa-Marie Presley.
The original video earned Meyers a Best Direction nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010, but the prize went to Francis Lawrence for Lada Gaga's "
Bad Romance."
Another video, The Funhouse Freakshow Edition, was shot for Pink's 2010 Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour. In the black-and-white clip, Pink is joined onstage by clowns and other circus performers. It was directed by Cole Walliser, who also helmed the other Funhouse Freakshow videos, including "
Please Don't Leave Me."
This was used on One Tree Hill in the 2010 episode "Weeks Go By Like Days."
Funhouse was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards, but lost to Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D.