This song appeared on a "Perry Mason" episode where the plot turned on a Perry Mason 'ringer' hired to get the eponymous hero into trouble by making it look like he showed up where he shouldn't and did a bad thing. The plotters had the problem that the 'ringer' was a cockney sailor with a penchant for drinking and singing. He sang that very song with the gravy variant:

"It's the same the 'ole world over,
it's the poor what gits the blime,
It's the rich what gits the grivy,
'Cor ain't it a bloomin' shime!"

When faced with Perry Mason himself he referred to him as his "NEM-I-SIS"