A G&S Parody: My eyes are fully open to my awful situation

Having watched the Labour government nearly come apart over the last few days, I am reminded of a Spitting Image sketch comparing Labour's current opinions to the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Ruddigore and a song beginning with the words "My eyes are fully open to my awful situation."

The main characters in both the original song and the Spitting image parody admit that their opinions are irrelevant in a trio with the chorus line "It really doesn't matter."

The original song includes phrases like

"If I were not a little mad and generally silly I would give you my opinions on the subject willy nilly"

Spitting Image portrayed the Labour G&S Society under Neil Kinnock, then Labour leader, performing their version of the Ruddigore song, with Kinnock singing, almost too fast to make out (which is part of the joke).

Here is the original song "It really doesn't matter" from Gilbert & Sullivan's opera Ruddigore, which is being parodied:






And here is the Spitting Image parody:



 


For those who can't quite hear it, the words (a very close parody of the original) are

"My eyes are fully open to my awful situation
I'm increasingly unable to conceal my desperation
If you ask what I believe in I have simply no idea
Which is why I'm rather given to this verbal diarrhoea

What I'd really like to do is go back home & have a cuppa
'Cause I know that Mrs Thatcher's gonna have me for her supper
My economic policy's as mad as any hatter
But I'll never be elected so it really doesn't matter"

(Chorus of Labour frontbenchers singing

"No it really doesn't matter
No it really doesn't matter
No it really doesn't matter
No it really doesn't matter

Our economic policy's as mad as any hatter
But we'll never be elected so it really doesn't matter
matter, matter, matter, matter")

Verse two:

"I tread the road of socialism firmly down the middle
In the hope that I will die a very decent individdle
My philosophy of life is like the sound of one hand clapping
But try to find the content when I offer you the wrapping

I do not see the point of saying something controversial
When I'd rather get Drew Hudson to direct a new commercial
I've been packaged and presented like a foaming glass of Guinness
And I'll say what I believe in when I've had a word with Glenys

(Chorus)

Verse three

"The Labour Party lumbers me with complicated cases
Such as whether I intend to close down all those U.S. bases
But then even my opponents all agree that I am charming
Which is quite the only sense in which you'll find that I'm disarming

And when I'm making speeches I am desperately praying
That there's somebody who'll tell me what on earth it is I'm saying
My particularly rapid unintelligible pratter
Isn't generally heard and if it is it doesn't matter"

(Chorus)

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