ARF LOGO
THING-FISH

 The Mammy Nuns

Notes and Comments
Previous entry This Album Refs Global N&C Refs Songs Index Next entry
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
ENSEMBLE:
(singing)
We got de talkin' shoes!
We de MAMMY NUNS!
From: Román <donlope@ono.com>
  I've just heard on the radio a song called "Mammy" sung by Al Jolson a long long time ago. I've never heard it before but it's supposed to be a true classic.
  Well, it sounded to me EXACTLY as Napoleon Murphy Brock turning into a Mammy Nun while singing "Wistful Wit A Fist-Full."
  Have you heard it?
From: Patrick Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
  Yeah, Al Jolson is the most visible remnant of that embarrasing nugget of american culture known as minstral. Way back a long time ago whites used to dress in "blackface" and tour the southern states in these minstral shows, displaying the worst possible black stereotypes for the amusement of other whites. It must be the ultimate theft of culture anywhere, one which excludes participation of the culture being co-opted. Jolson was really really really popular, 'cause dey say dis de sort o' folks dat belongs on BROADWAY!
  Zappa's Mammy Nun character is without question influenced by Jolson's embarrasing display of the racism popular at the time, and by the stereotypes in general which allowed Jolson and minstral shows to prosper.
  On the all music guide (http://allmusic.com) you can find more info on Al Jolson, with a good pic of the most well-known (and often parodied) pose of him down on one knee, in blackface, undoubtedly whining, "Mammy!"
  I'm not black, but there's a whole LOTSA times I wish I could say I'm not white.
From: Vladimir Sovetov
  By the way, making fun of racist stereotypes and probably the polit correctness witch-hunt as well was Frank's favorite sport
  Check out
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
THING-FISH:
(Dominose Vobiskmmmmm!)

ENSEMBLE:
We is important news!
We de MAMMY NUNS!
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
THING-FISH:
(Et cum spear a TU-TU, Ohhhhh!)
  CC
Dominus vobiscum Et cum spiritu tuo
  See APOSTROPHE('). Father O'Blivion
  and Undaunted, The Band Plays On. AHEAD OF THEIR TIME
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
ENSEMBLE:
We destroy de blues!
We de MAMMY NUNS!
From: Walter Moczygemba <lafco@vvm.com>
  In "The Mammy Nuns", the line "We destroy de blues!" reminds me of a scene in Ralph Ellison's book "Invisible Man". This man is selling little dancing dolls that look like racially insensitive stereotypes of blacks. He had this whole spiel he was saying about how they would make you happy and, while I can't recall if he actually said that they destroy the blues, it was damn close to that. It sounds to me like the kind of comment someone in the old days would make to promote the entertaining exploitation of colored folk.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
THING-FISH:
Sho' am, y'all!
(MAMMIES, step faw'd 'n express yo'sevs!)
From: Patrick David Neve <splat@gladstone.uoregon.edu>
  I'm too young to remember, but I've been told that Thing-Fish is, in part, a parody of a 50's tv show called King-Fish. This is the supposed origin of Ike's exaggerated accent, which at first had bothered me from a racial standpoint, but I could understand it in a parody context. Any help?
From: bill@ERA.COM (Bill Flynn)
  It's a take off on "Amos and Andy", one of whose characters was known as the King Fish. I am too young to remember the show, but from snippets I have heard (it was also on radio), the enunciations that Ike and others use on Thingfish are not too far removed from those on the show. Anyone who has a problem with Thingfish being racially insensitive probably (prob'bly? ;^)) would consider "A & A" racially insensitive.
  Ike's own explanation of his accent goes back further. In an interview I read in Society Pages sometime back, he said he bases it (in addition to A&A) on the writings of a black author/poet (whose name I cannot recall at work) who was active in the late 1800's/early 1900's.
From: ulrich@sfu.ca (Charles Ulrich)
  Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). See Society Pages (US) #4. They quote the following line from Dunbar's poem "Encouragement":
  "Speak up, Ike, an' 'spress yourself."
From: "L. Hirsch" <lverre@u.washington.edu>
  The lyrics from the original "You Are What You Is" give reference to the original Kingfish character, as well. One of his notable questions was "Who be dat go der?"
From: Charles Ulrich <ulrich@sfu.ca>
  George "Kingfish" Stevens was a character on Amos and Andy (CBS, 1951-1953), the first dramatic series on television with an all-black cast. The Kingfish was played by Tim Moore.
  The television show was based on the Amos and Andy radio show (1926-1960). The radio show was created by two white men, Freeman Gosden (who played Amos and the Kingfish), and Charles Correll, who played Andy.
  CC
  Check out YOU ARE WHAT YOU IS. You Are What You Is for more Amos and Andy clues
  and
  JOE'S GARAGE. Introduction for discussion on Ministrels and FZ
 
THING-FISH:
(D'ja get any on ya down dere?)
  CC
  See. WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH. Didja Get Any Onja
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
ENSEMBLE:
We's doin' everything!
We's a lot o' fun!


THING-FISH:
(pointing to his skirt)
(Fo' those of you unfamiliar wit de' nakkin,
Dis be de nakkin'!)
From: Daniel Smolenski <dlsjdd@airmail.net>
  The "nakkin'" referred to is described in the printed stage directions from the Prologue as follows:
  The 'MAMMY NUN' costumes resemble the habits of some unknown order from the neck to the waist, with skirts patterened after the blue & white checkered napkin material favored by the lady on the 'Aunt Jemima' Pancake Box.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
THING-FISH:
Step right up, folks, 'n meet de 'MAMMY NUNS'!
You two ugly white folks
hafta excuse de SISTERS,
as what dey put in de mash potatoes have rendered
dem INCONTINENT! Anyhow, ovuh heahhhh,
de scintillating SISTER OWL-GONKWIN-JANE COW-HOON,
From: Charles Ulrich <culrich@istar.ca>
  Algonquin J. Calhoun was another character on Amos and Andy.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
and de delectable SISTER GHENGHIS-ADONIS-OSMOSIS...
  Greg Russo, author of Cosmic Debris book, believed that this sister "named after Ghenghis Khan, the Greek god and the chemical process") p.121 of revised edition.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
'long wif SISTER POTATO-HEAD BOBBY BROWN,
  To know more about Bobby who looks like a potato check out ONE SIZE FITS ALL. San Ber'dino
  And for Bobby Brown' story go here SHEIK YERBOUTI. Bobby Brown
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
and de ever-popular SISTER ANNE de DEVINE ...
  That's very popular these days:-)) trans-sexual mutation of Andy De Vine ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Andy
  It's Greg Russo, author of Cosmic Debris book, opinion that this sister' name "based on Noxema lotion" p.121 of revised edition.
  To Album Refs
To Global Refs
an' her unscrutable companium, SISTER OB'DEWLLA 'X'...
an' I's yo host: de THING-FISH!
  Of course Frank used this name OB'DEWLLA 'X' for himself when played guitar on two pieces of George Duke' '74 album 'Feel'
From: Walter Moczygemba <lafco@vvm.com>
  And the name Ob'Dewla X makes me think of a mutilated version of the part of the brain called the Medulla Oblongata.
 
THING-FISH:
We is dressed to kill!
From: Patrick Neve <splat@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
  Dressed to kill.. just a common american expression for being well-dressed.
  CC
  Compare with SHEIK YERBOUTI. Dancing Fool
The disco folks all dressed up to kill
Like they's fit to kill
Previous entry This Album Refs Global N&C Refs Songs Index Next entry
SOVA NOSE Any proposal? I'd like to hear!
Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004
You could download, copy and redistribute this material freely as long as you keep copyright notice intact and don't make any profite on it.