December 09, 2002

Bomb Iraq Tapped has posted

Bomb Iraq

Tapped has posted these snarky, satirical anti-war lyrics, to be sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands."

They say its original inspiration was this Tom Tomorrow cartoon, and it was elaborated and eventually distilled from the efforts of various blog contributors. (There may have been some discussion of this at the time-- around Sept.-- but if so I missed it because of my blogging hiatus.) The Atrios stanzas cited as an example of the blog-collaboration angle (and there are a great many) aren't particularly distinguished, but the finished product is actually quite clever. Despite the purported composition by committee, the first three verses bear the hallmark of a single, focused, pretty talented author; the remaining two aren't of the same quality.

(As an aside, I can't help wondering if this might not be one of those cases where an old standby has been revamped for contemporary use. Does anyone more knowledgeable about the folklore of protest songs know if this "clap your hands" parody has a remote original in some other source? Just curious.)

In response, Tapped says "yup." I don't say yup. I disagree with the sentiments root and branch-- though there may be a couple of twigs I wouldn't entirely dismiss. (Hey, wait a minute: I basically do think we should bomb Iraq. Confused... Oh, right, it's a parody of people who think we should bomb Iraq.) But it is notable for being just about the only example of its kind that actually scans and makes sense. That may not sound like much, but it's extremely rare. And I don't think it can be doubted that it's also one of those rare parodies that surpasses the original, though in the case of the "clap your hands" song that might not be saying much. Still, you take what you can get. Nicely done.

Posted by Dr. Frank at December 9, 2002 09:43 AM | TrackBack