The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #42394   Message #615690
Posted By: Mark Cohen
24-Dec-01 - 04:12 AM
Thread Name: Congrats Liland (pat self's back) re G&S
Subject: ADD: The Formulary Song
Mazel tov, Liland! As an inveterate parodist (have you ever met a veterate parodist?), I feel empathetic joy at your accomplishment. And I must say, rhyming "Nineveh" was quite audacious. Nice work!

You might be interested to know that I once wrote a parody of Tom Lehrer's G&S parody "The Elements", and it was published....in the New England Journal of Medicine! When I sent it to Tom, he wrote back, "As a lifelong apostle of plagiarism, I certainly have no objection."

Aloha,
Mark

All right, let's see if I remember it. (Hard for me to believe it's 25 years old...many of these names no longer exist.)

THE FORMULARY SONG

words (c) 1976 by Mark Cohen
With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan, Tom Lehrer, and the Physician's Desk Reference

There's Aldomet and Atromid and Antivert and Atarax
And Dexamyl and Donnagel and Demerol and Dulcolax
There's Tylenol and Tegretol and Riopan and Regitine
And Pertofrane and Pavabid and even Pyribenzamine
Now if you're down there's Dexedrine and Benzedrine and Elavil
And if you're up there's Librium and Valium and Vistaril
There's Thorazine and Stelazine for calming schizophrenics with
There's Seconal for sleeping and for mania there's Eskalith
There's Benadryl and Gelusil and Placidyl and Peritrate
And Decadron and Parafon and Sinequan and Sorbitrate
There's Miltown, Motrin, Medrol, Maalox, Myleran, and Miradon
And Mycostatin, Micronor, Mandelamine and Mylicon

There's Omnipen and Principen and Tegopen and Torecan
And Betapen and Versapen and Pyopen and Percodan
There's Robitussin, Garamycin, also Butazolidin
There's Furadantin, Coricidin, even Triaminicin
There's Dimetane and Dimetapp and Dymelor and Dimacol
And Diuril and Dialose and Diamox and Disoprol
There's Darvocet for headaches, when you really want to stay at home
But if the other end is sore...the one you need is Proctofoam!
I know you must be weary and this song is getting pretty grim
With all these pharmaceuticals from Actifed to Zyloprim
But just imagine what would happen if I tried to fan the flames
By starting over once again, and using all generic names!

(Like hydrochlorothiazide or phenylpropanolamine
Or propylthiouracil -- I think you see just what I mean!)