Posted on 10/23/2008 7:21:21 AM PDT by Reaganesque
One week of every year is designated National Brotherhood Week. This is just one of many such weeks honoring various worthy causes. One of my favorites is National Make-fun-of-the-handicapped Week which Frank Fontaine and Jerry Lewis are in charge of as you know. During National Brotherhood Week various special events are arranged to drive home the message of brotherhood. This year, for example, on the first day of the week Malcolm X was killed which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is. I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another and I know there are people in the world that do not love their fellow human beings and I hate people like that. Here's a song about National Brotherhood Week.
Oh, the white folks hate the black folks,
And the black folks hate the white folks.
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule.
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
Lena Horne and Sheriff Clarke are dancing cheek to cheek.
It's fun to eulogize
The people you despise,
As long as you don't let 'em in your school.
Oh, the poor folks hate the rich folks,
And the rich folks hate the poor folks.
All of my folks hate all of your folks,
It's American as apple pie.
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
New Yorkers love the Puerto Ricans 'cause it's very chic.
Step up and shake the hand
Of someone you can't stand.
You can tolerate him if you try.
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Muslims,
And everybody hates the Jews.
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you.
It's only for a week, so have no fear.
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!
Tom Leherer parody
I’ve got most of his recordings.
I can’t help but think that Tom would be having lots of fun at the expense of the global warming/climate change crowd if he were still around.
I still enjoy poisoning pigeons in the park.
Ummm, he *is* still around (he doesn’t seem to age) and has a severe case of BDS to boot.
Last I knew he was still alive and kicking in Cambridge and Santa Cruz. I think he's retired now. And, for a committed leftist, he is/was pretty funny.
OK who can remember (without googling) who Frank Fontaine was?
I’m not at all surprised by the BDS ... even in his heyday, he leaned “left”.
A great classic of satire. Thanks for the post.
He’s still around, just not doing the music anymore.
I grew up listening to Tom, and I’ve never heard better intelligent satire. He’s a lib, but you can’t deny the quality of the songs. It probably helps that I don’t have any sacred cows and can laugh to good jokes even when they’re making fun of my side.
Dittos - me two. Vunz ze rockets go up who cares vhere zey komm down? Zat’s not my department, says Werner Von Braun.
Among other things, he played the drunk (forget his name) on the Joe the Bartender scenes on the Jackie Gleason show.
Crazy Guggenheim (Mentally Challenged Guggenheim?) on the Jackie Gleason Show.
Another good one is:”It is a sobering thought to think that, when Mozart was my age, he had been dead two years”.
Whoa...bring me back to my mis-spent youth! Now I’ll have the tune running through my head all day..
Laughter cures:)
Tom Lehrer (along with Allan Sherman and Stan Freberg) was one of my main early influences as a parodist. He's great.
Can’t post that without this:
“It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee-house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.”
- Folk Song Army, Tom Lehrer
One of my all-time favorites!
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