Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (pronounced /ˌsuːpɚˌkælɪˌfrædʒəlˌɪstɪkˌɛkspiːˌælɪˈdoʊʃəs/) is an English word in the song with the same title in the musical film Mary Poppins. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke.
Since Mary Poppins was a period piece set in 1910, period sounding songs were wanted. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious sounds like popular folk songs "Boiled Beef and Carrots" and "Any Old Iron".[1]
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[edit] Origin
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is defined as a nonsense word that is used to describe the longest word.[2]
The critics' belief that the word itself has obscure origins has created some debate about when it was first used historically. According to Richard M. Sherman, co-writer of the song with his brother, Robert, the word was created by them in two weeks, mostly out of double-talk.[3]
Roots of the word have been defined[4] as follows: super- "above", cali- "beauty", fragilistic- "delicate", expeali- "to atone", and docious- "educable", with the sum of these parts signifying roughly "Atoning for educatability through delicate beauty." This explication of its connotations suits the fictional nature of Mary Poppins, in that she presents herself as both superlatively beautiful and also supremely intelligent and capable of great achievements.[citations needed] However, it should be noted that although the word contains recognizable English morphemes, it does not follow the rules of English morphology as a whole. The morpheme -istic is a suffix in English, whereas the morpheme ex- is typically a prefix; so following normal English morphological rules, it would represent two words: supercalifragilistic and expialidocious.
Additionally, according to the 1964 Walt Disney film, it's defined as "what you say when you don't know what to say".[5]
[edit] Backwards
According to the film version of the song, "you can say it backwards, which is docious-ali-expi-listic-fragi-cali-repus". Julie Andrews, the star of Mary Poppins, has said that her husband at the time, Tony Walton, devised this backwards version of the word.[citations needed] In that word, the main syllables are reversed, rather than the order of each letter, with the exception of the end part 'repus', which is 'super' spelled backwards. In contrast, the musical play's version of the song presents a version of the word with all the letters reversed (suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus).prounounced as sue-codiliap-exit-silly-garf-illa-creapus.[citations needed] In addition, they spelled and sang each letter of the famous tongue twister, similar to "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music.
[edit] Legal action
In 1965, the song was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit by songwriters Barney Young and Gloria Parker against Wonderland Music, who published the version of the song from the Walt Disney film.[6] The plaintiffs alleged that it was a copyright infringement of a 1951 song of their own called Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus. The Disney publishers won the lawsuit partially because affidavits were produced showing that "variants of the word were known (...) many years prior to 1949."
[edit] On Broadway
In the West End and Broadway musical, everyone runs out of conversations, and Mary and the children go to Mrs. Corry's shop, where you can buy them. Jane and Michael pick out some letters and spell a few words. Bert and Mrs. Corry use the letters to make some words (whose existence Jane doubts). Mary says that you could use some letters more than one time and creates the longest word of all in this song.[citations needed]
[edit] In Popular Culture
- Dance Rock band Cobra Starship uses the word in a parody version of Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl, entitled Hollaback Boy.
- Annie (Scarlett Johansson), herself a nanny, tells her pupil Greyer that this is the longest word in English in The Nanny Diaries. When he asks her what it means, she changes the subject.
- In the House of Mouse episode "Goofy for a Day", Goofy sings "Soup or Salad, Fries or Biscuits" which is set to the melody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
- An April Fool's Day weather promo created by Connecticut's ABC affiliate, WTNH, in 2005, was called "Supercalifragilisticexpialidoppler". The promos, now only seen on YouTube and the station's website, have become very popular.
- In a Saturday Night Live skit, about shortening words, Chris Farley says "Supercalifragilisticexpialidoc". This skit can be seen on the DVD "SNL Collection-The best of David Spade"
- The political satire group The Capitol Steps has parodied the word and song numerous times with songs such as SuperCaliforniaRecallFreakShowWasAtrocious, SuperJealousFragileMissWithSexualNeurosis, SuperCallousMeanAndNastyRightWingLegislation, and SuperFranticUnproductiveNothingLegislation. [2]
- Ross Bagdasarian had Alvin and the Chipmunks sing the song in their "squeaky" version. On CD's "Alvin and the Chipmunks Greatest Hits: Still Squeaky After All These Years" and "The Chipmunks Go To The Movies"
- Graeme Garden sang the words to the tune of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (Ode to Joy) (the European Anthem) on I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue on BBC Radio 4.
- That's So Raven star Orlando Brown remixed the song into a rap version called "Super Cali" for DisneyMania 4.
- The famous French boy vocal group Les Poppys recorded their 1977 album "Les Poppys Chantent Walt Disney" (The Poppys sing Walt Disney) which included the French version of this song entitled Supercalifragilisticexpidelilicieux.
- The thirteenth episode in The Simpsons (Season 8) was named Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious. It was also known as SimpsoncalifraglisticexpialaD'OHcious.
- When Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC remarkebly beat Celtic FC in the Scottish Cup 3-1 in February 2000 The Sun reported the story with the headline "Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious".
- Punk Rock band The Vandals did a cover of this song on their 1995 "Live Fast, Diarrhea".
- In the Adult Swim cartoon Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, in EP18 ("Gone Efficien... t"), there appears a PDA called the "Supercalifragilisticexpiefficaceous".
- At the end of Mindless Self Indulgence's 2008 tour Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was played and lip synced to.
- Ghostface Killah raps "Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious, Dociousaliexpifragalisticcalisuper" in Buck 50 from the 2000 album, Supreme Clientele.
- In the The Fairly OddParents episode "Remy Rides Again", after Remy sends Vicky into space, Timmy's new babysitter is Susie Califragilistic, and her personality (and name) is an obvious parody of Mary Poppins (and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). Also, in the episode "No Substitue For Crazy", the substitute teacher Ms. Sunshine is a parody of Mary Poppins herself, along with all the variations of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious used in the episode by Ms. Sunshine and Cosmo.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007) |
- ^ The Making of Mary Poppins, 2004
- ^ supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Definitions from Dictionary.com
- ^ LAist Interview: Richard M. Sherman, November 2, 2007
- ^ by Richard Lederer in his book Crazy English
- ^ [1]
- ^ "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" origins, The Straight Dope
- Sherman, Robert B. Walt's Time: from before to beyond. Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers
[edit] External links
- "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious" at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services (NIEHS). (Lyrics and Quicktime audio clip).
- Mary Poppins (1964) at Reel Classics; features "Multimedia Clips": incl. Mary Poppins Highlights: "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious!". (Quicktime video clip).
