Regarding the question about the inspiration for Mr. Smiley, the song reminds me of a scene in the movie The Burbs (1989) in which Tom Hanks is the protagonist. Hanks's neighbor recounts a notorious murder that occurred in the neighborhood decades earlier. Skip, a cheerful man who operated an ice cream parlor in town, had murdered his family with an ice pick and left them to decompose in the basement of his house.
Regarding the question about the inspiration for Mr. Smiley, the song reminds me of a scene in the movie The Burbs (1989) in which Tom Hanks is the protagonist. Hanks's neighbor recounts a notorious murder that occurred in the neighborhood decades earlier. Skip, a cheerful man who operated an ice cream parlor in town, had murdered his family with an ice pick and left them to decompose in the basement of his house.
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