The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85390   Message #3553991
Posted By: GUEST,Mike in Santa Monica, CA
29-Aug-13 - 01:18 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Singing Telegram Cante Fable (Joke)
Subject: RE: Origins: Singing Telegram Cante Fable (Joke)
BEATRICE LILLIE used to tell this joke during her show, "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie" --in the early fifties. It is very representative of her special brand of absurdity.

THERE ARE NO ADDITIONAL LYRICS because there is no song. That's the joke: it's NOT a singing telegram, it's a single, brief and very grim sentence, that he sings anyway.

If additional lyrics have evolved in the past sixty years, I suspect it is the work of children--it sounds like jumprope rhyme--and that it has nothing to do with the joke--besides riffing on its punchline.