Cultural Influence of Gilbert and Sullivan - Songs and Parodies

Songs and Parodies

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, filled as they are with parodies of their contemporary culture, are themselves frequently parodied or pastiched. A notable example of this is Tom Lehrer's The Elements, which consists of Lehrer's rhyming rendition of the names of all the chemical elements set to the music of the "Major-General's Song" from Pirates. Lehrer also includes a verse parodying a G&S finale in his patchwork of stylistic creations Clementine ("full of words and music and signifying nothing", as Lehrer put it, thus parodying G&S and Shakespeare in the same sentence).

Comedian Allan Sherman sang several parodies and pastiches of Gilbert and Sullivan songs in the 1960s, including:

• "When I was a lad I went to Yale" (about a young advertising agent, based on the patter song from H.M.S. Pinafore, with a Dixieland arrangement - at the end, he thanks old Yale, he thanks the Lord, and he thanks his father "who is chairman of the board")
• "Little Butterball" (to the tune of "I'm Called Little Buttercup" from H.M.S. Pinafore), about Sherman's admitted corpulence. This was actually a response to a song on the same subject by Stanley Ralph Ross (who was parodying Sherman's G&S routines) called "I'm Called Little Butterball", on the album My Son, the Copycat.
• "You need an analyst, a psychoanalyst" (from Allan in Wonderland) which is a variant of "I've got a little list" from The Mikado presenting, with a samba accompaniment, reasons why one might want to seek psychiatric help.
• "The Bronx Bird Watcher" (from My Son, the Celebrity) - a parody of the song "Titwillow" from The Mikado, in which the bird sings with a stereotypical Yiddish accent. Sherman is so impressed by the bird's singing that he takes him "down from his branch", and home "to mein shplit-level ranch". His wife, "Blanch", misinterprets the gift and fricassees the bird, whose last words are, "Oy! Willow! Tit-willow! Willow!"

Anna Russell performed a parody called "How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera." The Two Ronnies' Gilbert and Sullivan parodies include their 1973 Christmas special. In addition, numerous G&S song parodies and other references to G&S are made in the animated TV series, Animaniacs, such as the "HMS Yakko" episode, which includes its well-known parody of the Major-General's Song, "I Am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual", as well as pastiches of "With Cat Like Tread" (Pirates) and "I am the Captain of the Pinafore" and "Never Mind the Why and Wherefore" (H.M.S. Pinafore). Animaniacs also presented a version of "Three Little Maids" used as an audition piece in the episode Hello Nice Warners. Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers features four songs from The Pirates of Penzance and part of the overture to Princess Ida. Other comedians have used Gilbert and Sullivan songs as a key part of their routines, including Hinge and Bracket. From 1968 to 1978 Iain Kerr and Roy Cowen toured as "Goldberg & Solomon", including their two-man show, Gilbert & Sullivan Go Kosher, which they recorded.

News outlets continue to refer to the operas in news commentaries and to parody songs from the operas. Theatre parodies include a 1925 London Hippodrome revue called Better Days included an extended one-act parody entitled, A "G. & S." Cocktail; or, A Mixed Savoy Grill, written by Lauri Wylie, with music by Herman Finck. It was also broadcast by the BBC. It concerned a nightmare experienced by a D'Oyly Carte tenor. Gilbert and Sullivan songs are sometimes used in popular music. The popular song, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here," is set to the tune of "With cat-like tread" from The Pirates of Penzance (in particular, the segment that starts, "Come, friends who plough the sea"). The musical group Peter, Paul and Mary included the song, "I have a song to sing, O!" from The Yeomen of the Guard on one of their children's albums, Peter, Paul and Mommy (1969). In addition, the music has been used in musicals and other entertainments. For example, the song, "My eyes are fully open" (often referred to as the "Matter Patter Trio") from Ruddigore is used (with some changed lyrics) in Papp's Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance, and the tune of the song is used as "The Speed Test" in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie and is heard in a season 5 episode of Spitting Image where Labour leader Neil Kinnock is portrayed singing a self-parody to the tune.