Mr. Bungle is the debut studio album by American experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. It was released on August 13, 1991, through Warner Bros. Records. The album contains many genre shifts which are typical of the band, and helped increase the band's popularity, gaining them a cult following.

The album cover features artwork by Dan Sweetman, originally published in the story, "A Cotton Candy Autopsy" in the DC Comics/Piranha Press imprint title Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children.

The album mixes a variety of musical styles, including ska, circus music, heavy metal, free jazz, and funk.^[2] AllMusic called it a "dizzying, disconcerting, schizophrenic tour through just about any rock style the group can think of, hopping from genre to genre without any apparent rhyme or reason, and sometimes doing so several times in the same song." The website described Mike Patton's lyrics as "even more bizarrely humorous than those he used in Faith No More", and "also less self-censored".^[8] At the time, the band's label Warner promoted the record as Mike Patton's "seriously weird new project".^[9]

The lyrics in the album are broad in themes, ranging from more comedic to dark or sexual. "Slowly Growing Deaf" was "inspired by the ironic need to wear earplugs while listening to music and also people’s inability to listen", according to bassist Trevor Dunn, and also marked as the first song in the "Sleep" trilogy, with parts two and three being featured on the band’s second album.^[10] "Squeeze Me Macaroni" is a song featuring strong sexual themes being illustrated through food metaphors. "Egg" is about asociality. "Stubb (A Dub)" is about Trey Spruance's dog, Stubb.^[11] "The Girls of Porn" is about pornography and masturbation. "Love is a Fist" is about domestic violence. "Dead Goon" is about an asphixiophile, whose actions lead to his death due to asphixiation.

Quotes from David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet are strewn throughout the album.

More information Review scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	8/10[12]
Entertainment Weekly	D−[13]
Kerrang!	[14]
NME	1/10[15]
Trouser Press	favorable[16]

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The album received mixed reviews upon release. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a negative review, writing "Adjectives like 'puerile' and 'unlistenable' take on entirely new dimensions when applied to Mr. Bungle".^[13] Trouser Press called it "one of the most ambitiously random, fractious records in recent memory" and "one of the finest records of its kind".^[16]

In 2015, Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer praised the album, stating "I loved their last album, California, but their self-titled debut had the biggest impact on me. There’s a song on there called "Love Is a Fist" that's fucking crushing. That set the tone for us and what we went on to do creatively. They were completely outside the box and just didn't care – they satisfied only themselves. It wasn't about record sales, it was just about creating a band."^[17]

Synyster Gates, from the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, named the album as "one of the most incredible pieces of music [he] has ever heard in [his] life".^[18] In 2021, Incubus vocalist Brandon Boyd stated that he was a fan of the album when it was first released, remarking that he loved how "irreverent and disgusting and scary the music was."^[19]

All songs credited to Mr. Bungle. Actual writers below, according to ASCAP.^[20]

Three more songs ("Mr Nice Guy", "Thunderball" and "Platypus") were also recorded for the album, but were cut at the last minute: "Platypus" later appeared on the band's second album, Disco Volante.

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.^[21]