Der Fuhrer Follies: A long long time ago, maybe back in the 80s, I typed out a pastiche of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “A Policeman’s Lot,” from the “Pirates of Penzance”… (I may have intended to use it in, “Taffy & the Pirates” before that project went down the plug ‘ole)… In any case, it’d been long forgotten, til last year in an exchange on facebook (I think it was with Brian O’Connell) that I recalled the thing… I looked around to see if I could find the original – of course I couldn’t, So I rewrote the lyrics from a somewhat faulty memory, Walt later was a big help in working out the cod-German accent… And now here it is in B&K… I do sort’a wish that I’d spent more time in designing the choreography which could be a lot better, but I was trying to cram it all into a single page – We’ll see the rational for the song in the next B&K page as Katz’ deviously deranged plan unfolds… However, before that I need to finish inking the Rudie Easter story, also featuring a somewhat familiar bit-player Bunny…
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Ven he finds a time-bomb in his apple-strudel,
Und his Henchmen are not Henching vorth a damn,
He vill find dot he don’t haf to use his Noodle
To underschtand why dey vent on der lam!
Ven Dictatoring ist no longer any fun, any fun,
A Führer’s lot ist not a happy vun!
Ven his underlings skedaddle vor der borders,
He vill schtart to feel forsaken und alone,
Ven there’s no vun left to carry oudt his orders
Und his allies are not answeringk der phone,
Mit his Kriegs-kaputten armies on der run, on der run
A Führer’s lot ist not a happy vun!
A better version than “In der Fuhrer’s Face”!
If you mean the song in the cartoon, “Donald Duck in Nutzi Land” then I agree with you, seems the Disney crew rather dropped the ball there and the Spike Jones version was far wackier and fun!
From what I’ve read, seems the song was written for the cartoon, but for some reason, before the cartoon’s release Disney wanted it recorded by other musical groups and a few different versions were put on shellac – in particular seems they wanted the Hoosier Hotshots to record it, but there was some snag with recording contracts that precluded that, so they turned to Spike Jones, who at the time hadn’t really had a hit, but his City Slickers had recently recorded, “Little Bow Peep has lost her Jeep” with a new style arrangement by his bass player, Country Washburn, which introduced what would become the band’s style, (previously they’d recorded slightly corny western style numbers)… “Der Fuhrer’s Face” became the City Slicker’s first real hit and made them known as a novelty act…
addendum: Freddie Fisher’s Schnickelfritz Band actually pioneered what became familiar as the Spike Jones style, but the Schnickelfritz Band has been largely forgotten… If you watch, “Gold Diggers in Paris”, the Schnickelfritzers perform several numbers showing off their wacky virtuosity – Shortly after appearing in the movie the band split up with most of the original members forming The Korn Kobblers, who continued recording, but apparently without great success…
“One and one’s two/ Two and two’s four/ I feel so bad ’cause I’m losin’ the war!”
Lorenzo St. Dubois, “Springtime for Hitler”, The Producers 1967.
Ha, the captain is upset, in part. Because he knows the song would have been different if his side had come out the winner. A bit less of his doctor’s (um) super vitamins (meth) – and who knows. And Katz, the ultimate invader himself, who is directing everyone with the song he apparently wrote. Deliberately ignoring the irony of the matter.
Der Kap is probly just peeved because he didn’t get to lead the chorus…
Yep! You need to!
Why be merciful?
Hey Look! Josh! You give one of the famous line of popeye into Ze U-boat captain’s mouth! Thanks for all this menskin (mention in popeye’s tongue) about disgustipated
Wow Mike, you nailed it! I’d kind’a wondered who might pick up on the Popeye quote – though both Popeye & von Krakkt being sailors, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Krakkt would be familiar with the expression… He might even have watched some of the original Fleischer cartoons before the war…
you’re welcome,Josh!
I remember seeing a Popeye cartoon (I think it was on YouTube) where he was taking a shipload of spinach to England. The Germans were busting everything they had to try and stop him.
More or less all the WWII area Popeye cartoons are by Famous Studio, (the remnants of the Fleischer studio, moved back to New York after Max & Dave had been forced out by Paramount)… At first Famous did some very good cartoons, slowly running downhill in quality over the years… I recall one that heavily borrowed from Tex Avery, “The Hungry Goat 1943″ where a goat ate holes in a battleship that Popeye was guarding… Meanwhile the ship’s Captain had gone to the movies, where in a theater crowd shot he sees his own ship being devoured… Showing the theater audience interacting with the cartoon is a shtick that Avery originated and used in a number of his Leon Schlesinger cartoons for Warners…
They may also have been borrowing from Frank Tashlin’s “Scrap Happy Daffy” where a Nazi goat tried to eat the scrap pile of recyclable metal that Daffy had accumulated…