# Water and the Wicked Witch of the West **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 18, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557 "2012-06-18T19:36:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/41 "2012-06-26T19:15:55Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > According to the song, the WWotW was flying around the house in the tornado when the house landed on her. I think you made an error. The WWot_West_ did not have a house land on her. She was melted by water. The WWot_East_ has a house land on her. The song lyrics do not mention if the witch is the East or West variety, but since the witch that had a house land on her was the East one, it is fairly clear the East witch is the witch riding around in the tornado. [QUOTE=BigT] If you’re going that route, then why would she have imagined them at all? [/QUOTE] They showed up when the narrative required them. In other words, the movie-makers didn’t expect us to be scrutinizing this movie to this detail 100 years later. They just had a witch in the tornado, and had ruby slippers when they needed ruby slippers. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/42 "2012-06-26T19:28:17Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > How do you get that from the song, **qazwart**? I don’t see it. > > And **Fenris** takes exactly the same lines to mean it was the _East_ witch earlier in the thread. Given that the house only fell on one witch, and it was the East witch, yeah. Any other interpretation of that verse is wrong. This really isn’t subject to debate. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/43 "2012-06-26T19:31:29Z")
No, but it’s opened up several other avenues of questioning, like, what, exactly, is a slitch, how can a kitchen take one, how does Dorothy know the witch was thumbing for a hitch, and why would someone with what seems like a perfectly serviceable mode of transportation be hitchhiking anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/44 "2012-06-26T19:56:41Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > No, but it’s opened up several other avenues of questioning, like, what, exactly, is a slitch, how can a kitchen take one, The guys who wrote those lyrics were notorious for just kinda making words up to fit the meter or stuffing random words in, regardless of context. So…slitch? not so strange. In one of their lyrics, someone who’s happy claims to feel that: > [@](#): > > I might be manishish or mouseish > I might be a fowl or fish, > But with thee I’m Eisenhowzish > If you’ll accept my proposish In another of their songs, the word “onion” is, inexplicably used to mean “young” > [@](#): > > Ever since that day > When the world was an onion > T’was natural for the spirit to soar and lay > The way the Lord wanted (Apparently this is Stephen Sondeheim’s favorite lyric ever! This probably explains something) > [@](#): > > and why would someone with what seems like a perfectly serviceable mode of transportation be hitchhiking anyway? Because the witch’s butt was getting tired sitting on that broomstick and the witch wanted to sit in the slitchy kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/45 "2012-06-27T21:21:52Z")
I don’t recognize these “Ding Dong” lyrics… are they from the film? Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/46 "2012-06-27T23:54:52Z")
> [@Powers](#): > > I don’t recognize these “Ding Dong” lyrics… are they from the film? There are words here and there that I’m not certain of, but, yes, they are essentially the words of the film. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/47 "2012-06-29T18:52:35Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > Maybe this might help: The lyrics from the song _Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead_ > > (Dorothy) > It really was no miracle > What happened was just this: > > The wind began to switch the house to pitch > And suddenly the hinges started to unhitch > Just then the witch, to satisfy and itch > Went flying on her broomstick thumbling for a hitch > > (Munchkin Man) > And oh what heppened then was rich > > (Munchkins) > The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch > It landed on the wicked witch in the middle of a ditch > Which was not a healty situation for the wicked witch! > The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch > It landed on the wicked witch in the middle of a ditch > Which was not a healthy situation for the wicked witch > Who began to twitch, and was reduced to just a stitch > Of what was once the wicked witch! > > According to the song, the WWotW was flying around the house in the tornado when the house landed on her. Sorry. I meant the Wicked Witch of the **East**. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/48 "2012-06-29T19:01:46Z")
> [@Powers](#): > > I don’t recognize these “Ding Dong” lyrics… are they from the film? The song “Ding Dong” is rather long and convoluted. It has several different parts, and not all the lyrics site list them all. I found a more or less complete set [here](http://www.lyricsmania.com/the_munchkin_land_song_ding-dong_the_witch_is_dead_lyrics_wizard_of_oz_the.html). You can catch the lyrics in this [Youtube video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOEq-ImGWJ0). The relevant words begin around the fifty second mark. Most of the Youtube clips start right after that point. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/49 "2012-06-29T19:05:55Z")
I’m wondering if people are being confused by post #44. As far as I know, those lyrics aren’t part of Ding-Dong. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/50 "2012-07-02T21:19:20Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I’m wondering if people are being confused by post #44. As far as I know, those lyrics aren’t part of Ding-Dong. No, those lyrics are from “Something sort of grandish” from _Finian’s Rainbow_, and from “The eagle and me” from _Bloomer Girl_. (The first song is sung by a leprechaun who is slowly turning mortal and finds it both terrifying and exciting—he’s just discovered girls—, and the second by a runaway slave tasting Northern freedom.) But they’re by the same lyricist (though not all by the same composer), E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, who was indeed devoted to the sport of Extreme Rhyming. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/51 "2012-07-02T22:37:19Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > No, but it’s opened up several other avenues of questioning, like, what, exactly, is a slitch, how can a kitchen take one, how does Dorothy know the witch was thumbing for a hitch, and why would someone with what seems like a perfectly serviceable mode of transportation be hitchhiking anyway? Thanks IS, the new generation of Oz conspiracy theories can begin in earnest. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/52 "2012-07-03T00:46:05Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > You can catch the lyrics in this [Youtube video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOEq-ImGWJ0). The relevant words begin around the fifty second mark. Most of the Youtube clips start right after that point. They did sound familiar, but I couldn’t find a video of that section of the song. Thanks for finding it! Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/53 "2012-07-03T01:02:48Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Emerald … colorless … glaringly obvious … right… :smack::dubious: It was a many-fauceted scarlet emerald? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557/54 "2012-07-03T01:08:08Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > No, those lyrics are from “Something sort of grandish” from _Finian’s Rainbow_, and from “The eagle and me” from _Bloomer Girl_. (The first song is sung by a leprechaun who is slowly turning mortal and finds it both terrifying and exciting—he’s just discovered girls—, and the second by a runaway slave tasting Northern freedom.) But they’re by the same lyricist (though not all by the same composer), E. Y. “Yip” Harburg, who was indeed devoted to the sport of Extreme Rhyming. Thanks John…I absolutely should have been clearer. I was using some of Harburg’s other musicals as support for the fact that he just crammed in words that “felt” right, whether the word was appropriate (or even real 😉 ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/water-and-the-wicked-witch-of-the-west/625557.md?page=2)