Wow, Dale’s right. This newsletter really is more exciting than Star Wars Episode 2.
Well, my question about It’s a Small World made it into the newsletter, but it seems to be the object of some joke. I hope it’s not derogatory!
Hopefully someone will explain!
Kim
Kim, I hope you weren’t offended. It was just a little joke. Having been to Disneyworld about four times when my kids were younger, that song reverberates in my head like a migraine.
Sorry,
Dale
I live in the Disneyland area and have a wife and 4 children necessitating numerous visits to the park. A Small World is definitely the extremely, ultimately, positively, very last place to visit in the park. It has a cancerous little tune which can cause pure insanity in an incredibly short period of time and has a latency period of several days to several weeks!
I tried, Lord, I tried to stay out of this.
The whole subject of this song has been a huge joke for years among my friends, mainly along the lines of how awful and omnipresent the song is and how now creepy the little puppets looked as you go through it (now since replaced I hear). It became sort of a masochistic exercise for a friend who went there every year to endure the ride just for a years worth of wisecracks. I went through it last time for my trial and it was just as bad as I had always remembered it. Funny, though I actually kind of like the Tiki Room…Robotic Abe Lincoln always gave me the creeps, too.
Merely the fewest hummed notes of this “brain worm” as someone else coined such songs that stick in your head, elicited the rolled eyeballs, groans then laughs amongst the family.
Allison, you’re a lamer but you should know for being down there. You are 100%, absolutely, positively correct in your analysis.
Try to take it in a friendly fashion, Kim and others who might actually like the song and the ride. Maybe we’re just hardened, cynical coastal sophisticates or something…I guess its a little like Christmas fruitcake, ya know?
Regarding episode II: I did an experiment today, and played my 10 year old SW-Obsessed son Mahler’s 2nd today, and sure enough he managed to recognise where all the music came from! I’ll try him with Schostakovic’s 5th next week so he can find out where the rest came from.
Regarding ‘Its a Small World’: I think that we all mean it in good humor, but having had to sit through the ride three times in my life has severely stretched my vows of Pacifism. I’m not sure if it is the ‘BrainWorm’ tune (I LOVE that word!), the cultural stereotyping or the combination that makes this the tune we love to hate.
Regarding Ice-Cream (which is where it all started, remember?): I once heard of a mother who told her son that if the Ice-Cream van was playing a tune it was to let people know that it had run-out of ice-cream 
3 times in your life?!? Try 4 times in one day Which brings my lifetime SWA to around 30.
I suspect I’m in the minority, but I don’t get too thrilled about most sci-fi movies. I’ve dubbed this one “The Attack of the Clowns”.
Jef
There’s a movie out on video and DVD called Chopper. It’s the alleged biography of an Australian criminal named Mark Reid, if I remember correctly. Anyway, this movie is the antidote to Disneyland and Star Wars movies. There are no whistle tunes on the soundtrack, though.
I have not been on the ride in question or even to Disneyland, but I did have to teach this tune to a dozen Cub Scouts so they could sing in pack meeting a scout song that was set it. (It was not my choice – mrs. gonzo was den leader. I was pushing for “What Do You Do with a Drunken Sailor?”)
So even though I have not had the pleasure of visiting any of the Disney fiefdoms and enriching the coffers of the Mouse, I’ve done my time in hell.
As for what to do if you find yourself afflicted with Small World Syndrome, there is no real cure. You can only try to treat the symptoms and let it run its course. But repeated exposure to David Cassidy and the Partridge Family ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004VW4Q/qid=1023098155/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/104-7092552-1539139 ) will usually do the trick. It’s not necessarily any better for your own mental well-being, but at least fewer people will recognize “I Think I Love You” if you accidentally lapse into humming or whistling it in front of your friends or co-workers.
And for a look at the dark side of Disney, try Carl Hiaasen’s “Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World.” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345422805/qid=1023099247/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/104-7092552-1539139
On 2002-06-02 23:34, DaleWisely wrote:
Kim, I hope you weren’t offended. It was just a little joke.
Awww, nope…not offended. I just don’t know what’s going on with this “crystal people” business and too embarrassed to ask!
The only place the kids have ever heard the tune was from the neighborhood ice cream truck. I went to Disney when I was a kid. Silver Dollar City is better, IMHO.
Kim
On 2002-06-02 23:34, DaleWisely wrote:
Having been to Disneyworld about four times when my kids were younger, that song reverberates in my head like a migraine.
Don’t tell me they built that thing in Florida too!!!
OK…I have an admission to make:
I LOVE “IT’S A SMALL WORLD”…the ride and the song. It’s been one of my favorite Disneyland rides since I was about 10.
There, I’ve said it. I feel soo much better now!
Redwolf
BTW, Kim, if you like, I can score it out for you (assuming you haven’t found the sheet music somewhere on-line already).
Redwolf
You musta went to UC Santa Cruz, right?!!
: ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : )
When I was a young, we went through the “It’s a Small World” ride, and somewhere around the eskimos, something went wrong with the pumps and the boats came virtually to a stop… we were in that ride for over two hours, creeping forward every now and again…
For us as kids, it did get a bit slow and tedious… for my parents, well… let’s just say that in all our visits to Disney (and we lived in San Diego at the time, so we made a fair number of them) we never did go on that ride again, for some strange reason…
–Chris
Nope. I’m not quite THAT crazy!
Seriously, though, they have a good music program, and I’ve occasionally thought about going for a second degree there (my first degree is in English), but time and finances preclude. You just gotta love a university whose mascot is the banana slug!
Redwolf
On 2002-06-03 13:24, ChrisA wrote:
When I was a young, we went through the “It’s a Small World” ride, and somewhere around the eskimos, something went wrong with the pumps and the boats came virtually to a stop… we were in that ride for over two hours, creeping forward every now and again…For us as kids, it did get a bit slow and tedious… for my parents, well… let’s just say that in all our visits to Disney (and we lived in San Diego at the time, so we made a fair number of them) we never did go on that ride again, for some strange reason… >
–Chris
Chris, I can relate. I got stuck on that ride for about an hour when I was in high school. I still shudder a bit when that song is mentioned. We were one small step from swimming to shore and popping off puppet heads!
Duff beer for me
Duff beer for you
I’ll have a duff
You’ll have one two
Drunken Sailor is actually a pretty good cure for Small World. Of course, you’ll be stuck with that one for days, too. But then you can go on to lots of other sea shanties: Ranzo, Grey Funnel Line, Hieland Laddie - to name a few of my favorites.
Did ye ever see them wild birds, sailing o’er the ocean.
They’re just like them pretty girls, when they gets the notion.