Broom Hilda by Russell Myers for November 05, 2009

‘Tis the season….

“Tis the season to be folly, fa la la la, la la la la.”

“Bark us all bow wows of folly…”

Deck the halls with Boston Charlie, Walla, Walla, Walla, Washington.

Finally, Broomie found a man who can’t run away from her!!

Since you guys started it, here are the Original, Authenticated, and Time-Tested lyrics (as are well-known, and beloved by all):

Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla, Wash. an’ KalamaZOO! Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley, Swaller Dollar Cauliflower Alley-GaROO! Don’t we know archaic barrel, Lullaby, Lilla Boy, Louisville LOU, Trolley Molly don’t love Harold, Boola Boola, Pensacoola, Hulla-BaLOO!

Bark Us All Bow-Wows of Folly is sometimes considered a second verse, but it’s more properly accounted a knock-off, propagated by those who don’t know the words of the One True (and Totally Original) Version.

You’ll also sometimes hear the words garbled as “Deck the halls with boughs of holly” (or something like that), but only by heathens.

Poor Cliff.

Yep. They’re in the mail daily now. Best wishes to all the brave mailcarriers!

Point taken, choll. In my defense, however, I offer:

a) I wasn’t the first one to bring up “Boston Charlie”;

b) I’m generally aware when I’m being pedantic (sometimes I’ll do it anyway); and

c) I checked to make sure I had the lyrics correct before I pointed out the mistakes of the others.

“Check the b@lls on Uncle Charlie…” (Family Guy)

Part One (seen on icanhascheezburger):

Don your cat in gay apparel Fa la la, la la la, la la la Put yourself in mortal peril Fa la la la la, la la la la

Part Two (idle musing):

Someone or three must’ve seen my comment on being pedantic.

Part Three (meant for myself too):

Be nice, children, don’t fight.

Good King Sauerkraut, LOOK OUT! On your feets uneven…

(Rakkav, the topic of rambling pedantry has been floating around this site in a number of places…)

fritzoid, you’ve performed a noble service for all Pogo fans out here today. Ignore the slings and arrows of those with ADD.

fritzoid, I shouldn’t be surprised about the widespread comments about rambling pedanticism, considering the target of many of them. And thank you for the Pogo texts.

Joe: I don’t believe you just said that.

fritz, is it just me, or was your post more or less a direct quote from Pogo when the characters were arguing about their lyrics to the song? I took no offense to your post, as I believed it was such. Too bad it started the maelstrom that it did. It’s just comics and poor attempts at humor on my part.

No offense meant, MisngNOLA. It wasn’t a direct quote from Pogo, but it was in the spirit of the arguments in the strip over the proper wording.

The lyrics I posted are, however, canonical. That’s the way they first appeared, and those are the ones that were printed pretty much once every year at some point. Beauregard was vocal in his support of “Bark Us All Bow Wows of Folly” as being the Genuine Original and Fully Authentic version, but pretty much every time he sang it it would be slightly different.

Kelly devoted a whole book of original material (titled “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie”) to the song, which had Howland delivering a lecture on the variants of the carol, and its disputed origins. In the book, there were about a dozen different versions presented.

Good stuff.