a jester unemployed
January 29th, 2010KFan's post on knowing random songs makes me remember…
Lisa and Lars had their wedding out in the middle of rural Maryland, near where Lars's parents had a summer house. It was the middle of nowhere, in a forest by a river. Everyone who attended camped out, the ceremony was held in the forest, and afterwords the reception was held in a clearing in the forest around a giant bonfire. Drinking and much hilarity ensued. I remember at one point we were trying to roast marshmallows but the fire was so huge and fierce that we had to get branches that were like 15 feet long to put the marshmallows on. Otherwise it would scorch your face off.
I was talking for a while to Damien G, who I didn't really know that well. We were well on the way to being drunk, and somehow got to talking about how awesome Danny Kaye is (I would love to read a transcript as to how we got to that point!)…this led to me bringing up the best DK film, The Court Jester. When my family lived in the UK and had just gotten our first VCR, one of the first things we taped was a Channel 4 airing of The Court Jester, and my sister and I would watch that thing over and over. We got to the point where we could do most of the dialogue, and pretty much all of the songs. When we came back to the US, my dad got a special VCR and TV so we could still watch PAL VHS tapes, and KT and I would have a viewing every now and then.
When I brought it up to Damien he exclaimed how much HE loved the film too. And then we were off, singing the songs and stumbling around. It was amazing, our knowledge was so solid, we were rocking the songs so hard. Everyone else was looking at us like, what the hell? It was like a moment out of a musical brought to life. You know? Like those moments where everything was moving like normal life and then suddenly 2 characters burst into song and somehow they know all the words. It was amazing.
(the last time I saw The Court Jester was fantastic, Maxine put together a whole surprise birthday for me at a Diner and everyone at the party watched it while we ate onion rings and drank milkshakes…)
Even now I sometimes find myself singing the main Jester song to myself. I mean, check the rhyme scheme, it's so sweet…say it out loud, feel how well constructed it is:
when I was a lad, I was gloomy and sad as I was from the day I was born
when other babes gurgled and giggled and wiggled, I loudly was proudly forlorn
this slice of nostalgia and niceness and decency and good old-fashioned humor should make up for the creepiness of the previous post, right?