The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #34322   Message #463665
Posted By: Abby Sale
16-May-01 - 09:14 AM
Thread Name: Help: Psychology songs
Subject: RE: Help: Psychology songs
How comfortable you'll be doing this in class, I can't imagine but it's clearly Folk. From the Happy! file for Havlock Ellis' birthday:

O Mr. Ellis, O Mr. Ellis!
Sex has peculiar angles, as you say;
But I don't see the idear of coitus from the rear,
Though it seems to be the fashion of the day.

O Dr. Freud, O Dr. Freud!
Do you mean to say that you have never hoid?
The position you suggest, is in fact the very best --
I deny it, Mr. Ellis --
You should try it, Dr. Freud!


O Mr. Ellis, O Mr. Ellis!
Does a naked woman make you stand erect?
When you're reading Pushkin's verse
And she diddles you or worse,
Does it bother or disturb your intellect?

O Dr. Freud, O Dr. Freud!
My reactions are extremely anthropoid;
And the sight of her behind
Forces Pushkin from my mind --
Forces Pushkin, Mr. Ellis? --
Pushes foreskin, Dr. Freud!

from Gershon Legman, "Bawdy Monologues," Southern Folklore Quarterly #40 (1976)

It is clearly based on minstrel show comic dialogs, a parody of Gallagher and Shean's trademark routine. The first half was published in 1927. The second half surfaced in 1947.