Hive Five: Our daily listicle of musical musings.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away known as The Nineties, a man named Marilyn Manson became something of a cultural sacrificial lamb, absorbing the sound and fury of a nation's over-concerned parents and the media blowhards who "represented" them. The Phil Donahues of the world and the soccer moms were transfixed on this sometime transvestite, quivering at his Satan-hued industrial rock and the *gasp* moshing that it promoted, the whole time not realizing that their reactions were all a part of his performance art.

Light years away, those days are. Because last week, America's foremost ambassador of goth released Born Villain, his eighth studio album, to nary a protest or shred of societal outrage. This is partly because our culture has grown up a little bit; we're exponentially more cynical and harder to shock than we were in those weirdly innocent, earth-toned '90s of Abercrombie and TRL. But it's also because Manson himself has lightened up. He stopped taking his shtick so seriously, and has revealed himself to be quite the charming, wry provocateur in the process. Don't believe us? Here we've created 5 GIFs of Marilyn Manson yukking it up like a terrifying clownbaby to prove it.

1. On The Late Show with David Letterman, 1998

Just before this interview during the Mechanical Animals cycle, Manson found himself in jail for arson. Classic late night talk show comedic fodder, right?

2. On The O'Reilly Factor, 2001

Bill O'Reilly loves honing in on musicians who he deems to be toxic influences on children. Manson likes to laugh in the face of those who don't like him. Or his hats.

3. On The Sharon Osbourne show, 2003

Just gabbin' with the gals.

4. On The Late Show with David Letterman, 2003

You know what they say, "chrome teeth are a window into the soul."

5. On BBC's The Graham Norton Show, 2007

Things covered in this interview: cooking, taking ecstasy in the baboon cage at the zoo, penis tattoos. No big deal.