WE'RE DESPICABLE ("PLUNDERER'S MARCH")We're despicable.
We make ourselves
Plain sickable.
Berate ourselves,
Hate ourselves
Viciously;
Still none us of wishes he
Would change.
We're slick and shifty birds,
With fingers quick
As fifty birds.
While stealing your purse
Or your ticky-tock
Just for a kick we knock
You flat!
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la...
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la...
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la....
We're just blankety-blank-blank
No good!
We're not tea party blokes,
No chitty-chat
Or artichokes.
We're twice as blood-thirsty
As cannibules,
And wilder than animules
Are we!
We're reprehensible.
We'll steal your pen
And pencible!
Then sneer at you,
Leer at you
Naughtily,
And really we ought to be
In jail!
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la....
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la....
La...la...
La-la-la-la-la...
We're just blankety-blank-blank
All bad!
Ah, the bragging song. The point in any musical when some less than totally admirable character (or his supporters) explains with verve and gusto just who he is and what he does. Snow Miser and Heat Miser in The Year Without a Santa Claus. Richard Henry Lee in 1776. Jubilation T. Cornpone in Li'l Abner. Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. These are the humming, toe-tapping tunes that people bring away even from less than memorable productions. And in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol it is this song sung by the laundress, housekeeper, undertaker, and pawn shop owner as they divvy up Scrooge's belongings. After one viewing my nephew went tromping around humming the tune and any lyrics he could remember for an hour afterward.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol has the honor of being the first animated Christmas special, premiering in 1962. The lyrics to this song are by Bob Merrill and the music by Jule Styne; it is sung by Royal Dano, Joan Gardner, Laura Olsher, and the great Paul Frees.
2 comments:
I have to say, I couldn't find these lyrics written down anywhere, and so had to transcribe them as I heard them. What I put down as "artichokes" could very well be "hearty jokes" in a Cockney accent, but after listening to it four times, I hear "artichokes", though "-'earty jokes" would seem to make more sense.
i laughed out loud at artichokes, though! Much better!
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