It Is To Laugh

Good luck getting your kids to keep straight faces during this silly piece. Not only does it have jokes, it asks performers to assume an air of pompousness while doing it. To sing the recurring verse, singers are asked to stand rigid with their hands interlocked in front of them. In theory, they hold this pose throughout, only moving their mouths or heads slightly as if they were aristocracy bred to dispassion. Therein, of course, lies the humor, for they are singing things that are anything but dispassionate. (Teresa says she was inspired by the snobby character Charles Emerson Winchester III from M.A.S.H. Remember him? Either that or Thurston and Lovey Howell from Gilligan's Island. Totally T.V. cliché, but fun.)

The use of the "ahem's" and short erudite laughs punctuate things nicely and help keep them in character. Interestingly, we found that our studio singers had a tendency to want to break into British accents, which made it even more amusing to us.

The jokes that are told during the song should be timed to fit as best you can. With the solo laughs in between (which should be very short), it gets a little tricky, but it keeps them on their toes. You can switch out jokes of your own if you prefer, but do vet them if your kids use their own.

We have a full performance version of this song that excludes the jokes so you can drop in your own and still have the singing reinforcement. We also have a silly clip of outtakes of our kids doing other jokes in the session just for fun. You will find these at our web site.