The Lumberjack Song | Monty Python’s Flying Circus #montypython #flyingcircus

Audiovisual services: Dubbing / Post-production / Regular video to HDR / Subtitling i@ The Lumberjack Song is one of the best-known and most popular sketches by the Monty Python comedy troupe. The song was written by Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Fred Tomlinson. I never wanted to do this job in the first place! I... I wanted to be... A LUMBERJACK! (piano vamp) Leaping from tree to tree! As they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia! With my best girl by my side! The Larch! The Pine! The Giant Redwood tree! The Sequoia! The Little Whopping Rule Tree! We’d sing! Sing! Sing! Oh, I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay, I sleep all night and I work all day. CHORUS: He’s a lumberjack, and he’s okay, He sleeps all night and he works all day. I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-try. On Wednesdays I go shoppin’ And have buttered scones for tea. Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, He goes to the lava-try. On Wednesdays ’e goes shoppin’ And has buttered scones for tea. CHORUS I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers. I put on women’s clothing, And hang around in bars. Mounties: He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, He likes to press wild flowers. He puts on women’s clothing And hangs around.... In bars??????? CHORUS I chop down trees, I wear high heels, Suspenders and a bra. I wish I’d been a girlie Just like my dear papa. Mounties: He cuts down trees, he wears high heels Suspenders?? and a .... a Bra???? (spoken, raggedly) What’s this? Wants to be a “girlie“? Oh, My! And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter! CHORUS All: He’s a lumberjack, and he’s okaaaaaaayyy... The sketch appeared in several forms (on the original television series, film, stage, and LP). It first appeared in “The Ant, an Introduction,“ the ninth episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It also appears in And Now for Something Completely Different and Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus. After a homicidal barber, Bevis, is caught not cutting his customer’s hair, he proceeds to sing about the life of a lumberjack he would rather have and lists various trees by their scientific names. He then rips off his coat to reveal a red flannel shirt, walks over to a stage backed by a coniferous forest, and begins to sing about the wonders of being a lumberjack. He is unexpectedly backed up by a large set of male singers, all dressed as Canadian Mounties (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, The Fred Tomlinson Singers). His “best girlie“ (Connie Booth) joins him and as the song continues, he increasingly reveals cross-dressing tendencies, which both distresses the girl and confuses the Mounties, who continue to repeat and chorus his lines until they walk off in disgust. The girl cries out “And I thought you were so rugged!“ before running off. At the end of the song, the lumberjack is pelted with rotten fruit and eggs by the mounties, who can also be heard shouting insults. Another notable difference is that in the original version the lumberjack wishes he was a girlie “just like my dear mama,“ whereas the And Now For Something Completely Different version substitutes “mama“ with “papa,“ implying that the lumberjack inherited his tendency for transvestism from his father. Part of the melody appears to be a direct quote from the English folk song Foggy Dew. The music is also similar to “Là ci darem la mano“, Don Giovanni’s and Zerlina’s duet in Act 1, Scene 2, of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Thematic successors In Spamalot, the song “He is Not Yet Dead (playoff)“ is thematically similar. Both feature a masculine man singing about seemingly masculine items, but gradually degrading, and both ending in the singer expressing a wish to wear “suspenders and a bra“, and both choruses being disgusted at this point. In Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy), the song “A Fair Day’s Work“ makes references to “The Lumberjack Song“, with Eric Idle singing about the masculine virtues of work, but also of dressing in women’s clothing to go to “naughty bars“. The chorus responds: “That’s enough of that, okay. We don’t give a duck if you’re completely gay.“ In “Truck Drivin’ Song“ by Weird Al Yankovic a similar theme has a deep voiced singer starting to sing about very masculine activities juxtaposed with applying make-up and wearing high heeled shoes. The French rock band Underzut pays homage to the Monty Python with two songs including “Lumberjack“ (and also “Bicycle Repairman“) on the album “Bubbles in my blood“. Both titles were the subject of video clips.