Help me identify referants for Simpsons musical numbers

Cafe Society
1

I’m thinking about the “Simpsons” episodes that feature parodies of musicals – in particular, “Stop the Planet of the Apes: I Want to Get Off!” and “Oh !Streetcar!!”

It seems to me that there are several levels of parodies here. First, there is the most obvious generalised parody of Broadway and Lloyd-Weber style shows. (“The Tall Guy” with Jeff Goldblum did something with “Elephant! The Musical.”)Then there is the parody of the specific works in question – the movie “The Planet of the Apes” and the play and movie “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Third, there is the parody of the titles themselves (references to “Oh! Calcutta!” and “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.”

However, it seems to me that there is at least one more level of parody, at the level of the individual songs. Each of the songs in these parodies, indeed particular characteristics of those songs, seem to have elements that are very familiar. Unfortunately, my knowledge of musicals isn’t very good and I am unable to identify the particular referants.

Can anyone help me out here? The general question is “Why is this so familiar?” It seems to me that most of these songs are parodying specific devices used in real songs.

Streetcar

– “You’re a dame and I’m a fella”/“Stop it, Stanley, or I tell Stella” - Something familiar about the speedy exchange between Stanley and Blanche here.

– “Long before the Superdome where the Saints of football play” - Something familiar about the shouts of “New Orleans!” alternating with more descriptive lines in a sort of haunting minor key.

– “I’m a faded southern dame without a dime”

– “Oh, what’s a paperboy to… doooooo?” – something about that high last note strikes some kind of chord

– “Stella! STELLLAAAA! Can’t you hear me YELLA!”

– “A stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met.”

Planet of the Apes

– “Dr. Zaius” – Could this be “Rock Me, Amadeus”? But the interspersed gags (“I think you’re crazy”/“I want a second opinion”/“You’re also lazy”) seem to come from some other source

– “Yes, you’ve finally made a monkey out of me”

2

Yes, the song is to the tune of “Rock Me, Amadeus.” As to the gags, they are just old one liners that someone like Groucho Marx might have told.

“So I went to the doctor, and he tells me I’m crazy! I go, I want a second opinion! He goes, alright then, you’re also lazy!” rimshot

3

Musical theatre isn’t my area of expertise, but I think a number of these aren’t references to anything specific. They’re just mocking Broadway tropes- cliches, rather than specific elements of any one show.

It’s just ridiculous to hear Stanley break into song after the famous yell. And the rhyme is intentionally terrible.

A finale made out of a horrifyingly inappropriate twist on Blanche DuBois’s fate and final lines.

Yes, it is.

It’s a very old joke, possibly from vaudeville. The second opinion is some other insult instead of an opinion from a second doctor… get it? :wink:

They’re mocking standard musical theatre irony, as I see it. I don’t know how to explain this better, but I’ll try to think of something.

4

Yes, but I’m looking for the original or most famous usages of these particular cliches. And it’s not the literary cliches I’m interested in (I get the irony), but the musical ones – tunes or keys or other musical devices, like the shouts of “New Orleans!” or the way Apu’s voice goes up really high at the end of the “Paperboy” number.

Yeah, I got the joke the first time. I just wanted to know if there was a paradigmatic example of interspersing hoary gags into a song like that.

I understand this, but I’m looking for the original or best known uses of these particular devices, and it’s not the irony I’m interested in, but the musical cliches.

5

Smithers’ “Malibu Barbie: The Musical” and its showstopper number “Sold Separately” were entirely original, baby.

6

“I hate every ape I see
from chimpan-A to chimpanzee” :smiley:

7

Well, the Simpson’s takeoff on Mary Poppins used deliberate song-spoofs from the Disney movie.

8

Well thre was an episode (“All Singing, All Dancing”) that started out with the family watching Paint Your Wagon:

Gonna paint this wagon
Gonna paint it fine
Gonna use oil-based paint
Because the wood is pine

But then turned into a clip show of many of the musical routines that had sneaked into Simpsons up to that point.

Homer: He lied to us through song! I hate when people do that!

9

I love the completely inappropriate turnaround (like in Oh! Streetcar!). “Oh my God, I was wrong/it was Earth all along/You’ve finally made a monkey [apes]Yes, we’ve finally made a monkey[/apes]/yes you’ve finally made a monkey out of me. I love you, Dr. Zaius!”