# All hail Schoolhouse Rock! (and YouTube!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435 "2008-01-22T00:15:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/1 "2008-01-22T00:15:05Z")
My daughter is taking a government class, and she asked for my help…she has to memorize the preamble to the Constitution and write it for a quiz next week. So, I had her log onto YouTube and search for Schoolhouse Rock Preamble and watch [this](http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_TXJRZ4CFc) several times. Took her about 20 minutes. The Schoolhouse Rock version isn’t quite right…it’s “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,” not “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union,” but minor quibble. She also watched “I’m Just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction.” Saturday morning cartoons weren’t all dreck…they managed to sneak in education too, the dirty bastards. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/2 "2008-01-22T00:23:47Z")
We’ve been watching SHR a lot here, too. The sprog learned just enough about electricity to completely get it all wrong. So I found “Electricity,” which led to pretty much every other song. He enjoys them and if he learns from them, even better. Robin ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/3 "2008-01-22T00:36:21Z")
I’ve been waiting ages for the wonderful Tokens and their _Victim of Gravity_ to turn up. [Hooray! It’s finally there.](http://youtube.com/watch?v=iwjIWCuKbhM&feature=related)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Labelless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f19dbf/32.png) [@Labelless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labelless)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/4 "2008-01-22T02:59:22Z")
My youngest two kids love Schoolhouse Rock. I bought the DVD’s about a year ago. I love that it has a random feature, and will play them however. Even if they aren’t paying attention to the TV, later on they’ll be singing about Conjunction Junction. Nikki’s kg. teacher called me one afternoon, she wasn’t even aware you could get them on DVD. All hail indeed! ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/5 "2008-01-22T03:18:15Z")
Lynn Ahrens is a Tony-award-winning lyricist who has co-composed such musicals as _Lucky Stiff_, _Ragtime_, _Seussical_, _My Favorite Year_, and _Once On This Island_. But to me, she’ll always be the woman who wrote that song about the constitution. All of the composers- Ahrens, Bob Dorough, Dave Frishberg- they’re geniuses. They were all ad people. I guess that’s why they were so good at getting a simple message across in a catchy song. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/6 "2008-01-22T06:31:00Z")
Can I add some homage to the Tom Lehrer songs for The Electric Company: [Silent E](http://youtube.com/watch?v=EVC9TayQIh8) and [L Y](http://youtube.com/watch?v=XxVoHqgemWE&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/7 "2008-01-22T06:33:52Z")
I got the DVD with all of them on it a while back. Good stuff. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GiftofSchizo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giftofschizo/32/7280_2.png) [@GiftofSchizo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiftofSchizo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/8 "2008-01-22T09:51:08Z")
Good morning, Straightdopers; GiftofSchizo here. I loved SHR and especially MR; I was just the right age to enjoy it during its original run, and then in subsequent years. I’d love to have the sheet music for the MR Number Eight–the one with the ice skating girl. Is that available anywhere, I wonder… GoS ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/9 "2008-01-22T13:38:05Z")
**Warning - Warning** - There are a couple words of the Preamble that are not in the song. I can not recall what they are, but I ran into this when I did that exact same thing with my daughter a couple years ago. Just check it out & make sure she understands that. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/10 "2008-01-22T13:47:46Z")
[QUOTE=ASAKMOTSD] **Warning - Warning** - There are a couple words of the Preamble that are not in the song. I can not recall what they are, but I ran into this when I did that exact same thing with my daughter a couple years ago. Just check it out & make sure she understands that. [/QUOTE] She did. She memorized it by following along in her book, so she caught the missing words. She’s all set. I always want to sing the lilt to “do orDAIINNNN and ESTABLLLISH this Constitution…Of…the United State of…Amerrriiiicaaa!” ---
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/11 "2008-01-22T14:01:18Z")
Ah, Schoolhouse Rock… My problem was always that my teacher would always say “Does anyone know what a conjunction is?” and I’d think “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function…blah blah blah blah” I’d forget the important part!! And then, about five hours later, in the middle of doing something else, I’d remember the line. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/12 "2008-01-22T23:35:06Z")
imagine the surprise a law school teacher got when he asked his usual question: “does any one know the preamble to the constitution?” a few people in the class started singing and he was stunned. he got used to it for quite a few years, until he hit a class that watched after shr left the air. one of my fav. law school stories. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/13 "2008-01-23T00:22:16Z")
Floundering around for songs to sing, I recently sang the bluesy “Number 9” song to my goddaughters and for some reason they LOVED it. They begged me to sing it again. I wished I knew all the words, but I didn’t so I just had to repeat the first verse and chorus over and over. Bless Schoolhouse Rock. And three IS a magic number. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-hail-schoolhouse-rock-and-youtube/434435/14 "2008-01-23T00:45:07Z")
When I got pregnant, I bought the two-disc DVD of _Schoolhouse Rock!_ and rationalized that it was for my yet-unborn children. Yeah. Right. We watch it all the time. Disc one is all of the old-school songs and shorts, and disc two features some modern bands doing their versions of their favorite songs- Electricity and Mr. Morton are great!