Dorothy
A funny song in English

I thought I'd post this song for people to get a laugh in English. The singer has a strong New York accent so in the lyrics they write muddah for mother and faddah for father and bruddah for brother to reflect the accent. 

 

Some other vocabulary:

Camp ... where parents send their children to in the summer to enjoy outdoor activities

Camp counselor ... young people a little older than the children that take care of the children

Poison ivy ... A plant that if you touch it you get a rash and start to itch badly

Ptomaine poisoning ... a form of food poisoning where you get very sick

Sissies ... boys that are not strong and "manly" 

Ulysses ... A classic book that is very hard to understand and that some people would call boys a "sissy" for reading 

Ya ... how New Yorkers sound often when they say "you"

Bunkmate ... someone that shares the bed next to you in camp

Malaria ... terrible disease spread by mosquitoes

Guys ... other boys

Gee ... this is short for "by jesus" but is considered a juvenile way of expressing suprise. 

 

I didn't realize that there was so many strange words in this song, but if your English is intermediate to advanced you might get a chuckle. I've always thought this song was funny so thought I'd share it. It's a very old song. 

Jun 20, 2014 3:53 AM
Comments · 27
2

Here is a funny video, depicting misunderstanding the language by foreigners :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9iY5y94s

 

For most of the above videos I get this error message:

"Unfortunately, this video is not available in your country because it could contain music from UMG, for which we could not agree on conditions of use with GEMA"

although I can watch these videos throgh a proxy server.

June 24, 2014
1

I remember listening to "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" in the 1960's.  It was a time when parents weren't too embarrassed to listen to music with their children.

 

Yeah, da guy really tawks like a Noo Yawka.  I guess he was bawn at the hospital at the cawna of Toity-Toid Street and Toid Avenue.

August 11, 2014
1

:) Nice song. 

June 24, 2014
1

Now they're staying up the chimney
And we're living on caviar and honey (hooray!)
Cause they're earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose for radio shows
It's the-er (what? )
It's the gnome service of course
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing gnome and you don't catch me"
Ha ha ha, oh, dear me
(ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me"
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
"I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me")
(one more time, yeah)
Read more: http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/150242/#ixzz35BYYirPX

Gnome office is a pun on home office
A toadstool is a kind of mushroom
Eastbourne is a place in England
A fag is slang in England for a cigarrette
Gnome man's land is a pun on no-man's land
Metrognome is a pun on metronome which is a device to keep time in music
'ome is short for home
Gnomad is a pun on nomad
Rolling gnome is a pun on the Rolling Stones a rock group that had long hair
Ecognomics is a pun on economics

June 20, 2014

Oops... I meant to post that to the funny song in SPANISH discussion. hahaha

 

June 18, 2015
Show more