Bawdy Song: Difference between revisions

* The famous whistling scene in ''[[The Bridge on the River Kwai]]'' is an attempt to get "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|past the radar]].

** The song is called the "[[wikipedia:Colonel Bogey March|Colonel Bogey March]]," and has been a favorite for adding smutty lyrics to since 1914. It was supposedly inspired by an officer who whistled the first two notes instead of shouting "fore" on the golf course, so the song was insulting even when given its original title.

** "Colonel Bogey March" inspired a [[Call Back]] of sorts about a decade after ''Bridge On The River Kwai'' was released when the Smothers Brothers did a comedic performance of the South African marching tune "Marching to Pretoria" in which they briefly stopped the song to discuss their favorite marching songs. They briefly reference "Colonel Bogey" (which they mistakenly call "March of the River Kwai") and note that you could never sing it because it was all whistling...then surmise that the song's lyrics must have been dirty, which is why they had to be whistled instead. Then, when they start singing again, one of them shifts to whistling just as their improvised lyrics are getting ''really'' naughty, prompting the audience to laugh.

* The theme song of ''[[Team America]]: World Police'' ({{spoiler|"America, Fuck Yeah"}}) makes a great one.

* Mondain from ''[[Les Choristes]]'', being the resident [[Delinquent]], loves singing these in the face of the teachers. Maxence almost kicks him to the punishment room, before [[Save Our Students|cheerful music teacher]] Mathieu notices his baritone would be great for his choir.

* Surprisingly (or not so much, if you're one of those surprised that this is supposed to be a children's film), ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' has one in the form of Other Spink and Other Forcible's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGuJXsBqLRA&feature=PlayList&p=DCD67CE98D531DCE&index=6 stage play], in which they argue over whether the ass or the boobs is a more important seduction figure.

* [[Charlie Chaplin]] is to sing one as part of a musical act in ''[[Modern Times]]''... only he loses the paper on which the lyrics are written, and has to use pantomime and gibberish. He brings the house down.

* The [[Jukebox Musical]] ''Oh! What a Lovely War'' included a version of the folk song "Christmas Day In The Cookhouse" where the dirty rhyming words are [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion|blatantly dodged]].

{{quote|It's in May, it's about sex.}}

** Then there's this from ''[[Discworld/Eric|Eric]]'': "- vestal virgins, Came down from [[Overly Long Name|Heliodeliphilodelphiboschromenos]], And when the ball was over, There were -" which alludes to "The Ball of Kerrymuir". Google at your leisure, [[Not Safe for Work|preferably at home.]] The verse in question, the only clean one in the entire (extremely long) song:

** ''[[Discworld/Soul Music|Soul Music]]'' gives a mention to "Gathering Rhubarb" as a "...song you can snigger along to...". While there are no lyrics given in the book, the [[Cosgrove Hall]] animated adaptation did include it. The version used in the actual production is cut short, but it can be heard in full (and with transcribed lyrics) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rcPV8fnkQo here].

* There's a passing mention in ''[[The Once and Future King]]'' of an old song about an Old King seeing with each verse more and more of a fair maiden. We only hear the (heavily-accented) first verse:

* In the [[Sven Hassel]] novels the songs "I Was Born And Brought Up In A Brothel" and "The Girl Who Made Love To Electricity" are mentioned several times, fortunately (?) without lyrics.

* In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s novella ''The Monarch of the Glen'' (printed in his ''Fragile Things'' anthology) the Norse god Odin is singing one of these (drunkenly, if that needs to be said) when Shadow meets with him. To the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean":

* Eve Forward's book ''Anamist'' has a song sung by a sailing crew that apparently describes "various obscene things that could be done with most of the trading races."

* The [[Dune]] series has the slightly bawdy song that is not explicitly given a title in the series, focusing mainly on prostitution:

* [[The Wheel of Time]] ("The Dragon Reborn", to be precise) has a song about an easy girl from Lugard sung in a rowdy Illianer tavern. The beginning is given and sounds rather innocent:

** But the rest, not given by Jordan, mightily embarrasses Perrin who takes some time to understand what precisely is this song about.

* Danilo Thann, a bard from [[Forgotten Realms]] novels by Elaine Cunningham, used to sing these as a part of his [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] image and even wrote some himself. The books include a few fragments of the ''Ballad of the Zhentish Raiders'' who "[[But You Screw One Goat!|kill off all the women / For they much prefer the sheep]]" and "[[Be Careful What You Wish For|Elminster's Jest]]" ([http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1888&whichpage=22#61128 see its full lyrics]).

* In the Castings Trilogy there's one that details the relative merits of girls from different cities. Ash, the son of a pair of folk singers, notes that he learned the song as a child and it [[Late to the Punchline|took him years to realize]] just what it was that "the fellows all agree" about girls from Turvite.

* [[Thomas Pynchon]]'s books are ''full'' of these. It's one of his most notable stylistic tendencies. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' actually contains a bawdy song entitled "Bawdy Song".

* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] has Venusian expert Benny Summerfield reveal that the "Venusian lullaby" the Doctor sings to Aggedor in the Peladon stories is actually "one of the most bawdy rhymes in the known universe". The Doctor replies "Venusian is a language as dead as dead can be. If I say it's a lullaby, it's a lullaby".

* In both of the first two ''Dream Park'' novels, Gamers keep each others' spirits up while trekking around the Gaming areas with hearty renditions of the likes of "Cats on the Rooftops", the dirtiest verses of "That Real Old Time Religion", and (of course!) "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell". In ''The Barsoom Project'', a modest Gamer bribes another '''not''' to finish singing the latter in mixed company; the bribe-ee promptly starts singing "Kafoozalem" instead.

'''Edmund''': It's a lovely old hymn, isn't it. }}

*** [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Interestingly safe]], as, unless you'd actually heard the song you [[Unusual Euphemism|wouldn't know for sure what a ''dickie di-do'' was]]. It's exactly as bad as you might suspect - the following is a relatively ''tame'' verse;

** In the third series, Blackadder warns Prince George that when wooing a lady with poetry, "Harold the Horny Hunter" might not be such a good idea. ("Harold the horny hunter/Had an enormous horn...")

** Jazz trumpeter Bix Biederbeck made a film called ''The Boy with the Big Horn'' which for similar reasons had to be renamed on release in the UK...

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0wRStGT1Bg Sometimes] it [[Gone Horribly Right|fails to be a parody]].

* Period drama ''[[Upstairs, Downstairs]]'' has one of these, and it's a [[Theme Tune Cameo]], at that! In her music hall act, Sarah performs the stately march of the opening theme as a rollicking Bawdy Song, "What Are We Going to Do with Uncle Arthur?"

** The complete lyrics are [https://web.archive.org/web/20110717052947/http://www.updown.org.uk/sounds/lyrics.htm here].

* In season three of ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', Joxer sings a bawdy version of his theme song, accompanied by an entire brothel. "Just check out my shoe size", indeed.

*** Also, Gabrielle's little ditty in ''Fins, Femmes, and Gems.''

* Parodied on ''[[The Gillies Report]]'' with a 'politically correct' version of ''The Good Ship Venus''. The first verse went:

* The [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just After the Plague Singers]] followed up their "Aire On a Delta Knight" with one.

{{quote|'''Servo, Servo, Servo and Girl-Servo:''' I love to mush me buggles in me sweetie's Christmas pie...}}

* ''[[Frasier]]'' and Niles:

* In ''[[Bottom]]'', Richie sings this version of [[wikipedia:The Sailor's Hornpipe|The Sailor's Hornpipe]]:

* In ''[[Spartacus: Blood and Sand]]'', and its sequels, the gladiators have a song called "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|My Cock Rages On]]". This is apparently the only song they know.

 

*** Indeed, [[Discworld|Granny Weatherwax's]] assessment of the genre is fairly accurate: "I knows all about folk songs. Hah! You think you're listenin' to a nice song about...about cuckoos and fiddlers and nightingales and whatnot, and then it turns out to be about...about something else entirely."

* Samantha Fox's songs are definitely this trope. The titles of her songs might be enough to clarify.

** "[[Double Entendre|Big Balls]]".

{{quote|''Some balls are held for charity

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' used to occasionally publish filk. And limericks:

 

 

== [[Theater]] ==

** And [http://www.imperial-library.info/dfbooks/b068_rudesong.shtml the song it's less rude than] appeared in [[The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall|Daggerfall]]'' an earlier game in the Elder Scrolls series.

* The [[Sound Off]] "quote" upon building a Network Node in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'' is one of these [[Double Entendre|when you]] [[Unusual Euphemism|think about it]]:

|Spartan Barracks March (Yes sir!)}}

 

{{quote|

'''Tavern patron''': Bard! I say, bard! Do you know the one about the lady and the sausage-maker?

* In ''[[Life with Lamarr]]'', the Cactus [http://jill-sandwich.com/lwl/index.php?episode=139 sings one].

{{quote|She's got shoo-fly pie / Apple pandowdy / Makes your balls rise up and your pecker say howdy / You can huff and you can puff and you can strut your stuff / But you can't eat enough of her wonderful muff!}}