Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (listen^ⓘ, IPA pronunciation: [ˌsu.pəˌkæ.lɪˌfræ.dʒəl.ɪs.tɪkˌɛk.spi.æ.lɪˈdəʊ.ʃəs]) (super-cala-frag-a-listic-ex-pee-al-a-dough-shus) is a word in the song with the same title in the musical film Mary Poppins and in the musical play Mary Poppins by Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman (The Sherman Brothers).

The song describes how using the word is a miraculous way to talk one's self out of difficult situations and even a way to change one's mood. It occurs in the film's animated sequence where Mary Poppins is harangued by reporters after winning a horse race and responds to a reporter's claim that there are not words to describe her feelings of the moment, and her life long dream of being in theater. Mary disagrees with that claim and begins the song about one word which she can use to describe her feelings. Following the successes of the film and musical play, the word has been used as an adjective signifying rather redundant superlatives, such as "the most absolutely stunningly fantastic" of experiences.

In the West End and Broadway versions of the musical play Mary Poppins, 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 up 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.

Critics' belief that the word itself has obscure origins has created some debate about when it was first used historically. According to Robert B. Sherman, co-writer of the song with his brother, Richard, the word was created mostly out of double-talk.

Roots of the word have been defined, as Richard Lederer writes in his book Crazy English as follows: super- "above," cali- "beauty," fragilistic- "delicate," expiali- "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 character of Mary Poppins, in that she presents herself as both superlatively beautiful and also supremely intelligent and capable of great achievements.

According to the film version of the song, "you can say it backwards, which is dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupus". Julie Andrews, the star of Mary Poppins, has said that her husband at the time, Tony Walton, devised this backwards version of the word. Strictly speaking, in that word, only each individual root is reversed, rather than the order of each letter, with the exception of the part rupus, which is somewhat reversed, misspelled, and mispronounced. In contrast, the musical play's version of the song presents a version of the word with all the letters reversed.

Legal action

In 1965 the song was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit by two song writers against the makers of the Walt Disney film. The plaintiffs alleged that it was a copyright infringement of a 1951 song of their own called Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The suit failed because affidavits were produced showing that "variants of the word were known to and used by them many years prior to 1949." and because no copyright was registered with them in Washington D.C. doesnt make sense

Allusions in popular culture

• In the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Julie Andrews was given this word to spell on KIDS night. She missed the word.
• It was ranked #36 in the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Songs in Movie History in 2004.

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The Sun headline.

• The headline "SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS" was used by The Sun newspaper in 2000 following a famous upset in the Scottish Cup and was voted pun of the year for the year 2000 on The Big Breakfast.^[1]
• The eclectic songwriter and performer Prince included a song called "Superfunkycalifragi " on The Black Album.
• The television series The Simpsons had an episode called "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", which is a parody of the Mary Poppins movie.
• Also in The Simpsons, Professor Frink refers to supercalifragilistics as a field of science.
• In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman #8, Morpheus's sister Death uses this phrase when she meets Morpheus in a park feeding the birds. She states that her brother's actions remind her of a quotation from the movie Mary Poppins ("You do that [feeding pigeons] too much, you know what you get? Fat Pigeons!"), then she talks about how much she loves the movie and eventually ends up explaining to her brother the meaning of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ("Fantabulous word, huh? It means y'know, great. Wonderful, ginchy, gnarly.") She also uses the term in Captain Atom #42, when she takes Captain Atom to Purgatory during a near-death experience.
• The Red Hot Chili Peppers have coined part of the term in their song "Right on Time" of their album Californication.
• The song's melody is also frequently used with altered lyrics, for the purposes of political satire, by the Capitol Steps. Recent examples include SuperCaliforniaRecallFreakShowWasAtrocious (2003), SuperJealousFragileMissWithSexualNeurosis (1998), and SuperFranticUnproductiveNothingLegislation (1997).
• The Vandals made a cover featuring all the words of the song, but to a different tune, that appeared on the album Live Fast Diarrhea.
• Amateur Transplants, best known for the London Underground song, parodied the song to refer to a fictitious drug, "Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin".
• Lyricist Spaff.com has written four parodies of this song, "Superpowers-Go-Ballistic-Execute-Bin-Laden," "Federal Unclean Communica-ti-ons Kommission" (about the FCC), "Esther Madge Veronica Louise Ciccone Ritchie" (about Madonna), and "Supertelevangelistic Sex-and-Drugs Psychosis" (about Ted Haggard). The latter two of these were recorded by parody artist Robert Lund.
• In 2006, Orlando Brown reprised this song for DisneyMania, Vol. 4. Its title is "Super Cali (BoiOB Version)."
• In 1966, Alvin and the Chipmunks were nominated for a Grammy Award for their version of the song.
• A famous comedy bit from The Benny Hill Show called "Continental Cabaret" featured Benny Hill, his sidekick Jackie Wright and the beautiful and scantily-clad Diana Darvey.[2] Darvey called Hill and Wright "a pair of twits", then spelled out twits while emphasizing each letter with a finger-poke to Hill's chest and then pronounced the word again while rubbing Hill's chest. Hill then called Darvey, "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Darvey asked how that word is spelled and Wright, much to Hill's disappointment, immediately spelled it out before Hill could even raise his finger.

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" also is a modern term for Doocats in Australia (of the Tipuana state).[3]

• In Canadian law circles, the explanation for the term Equity's Darling is often sung to the same tune, with the words 'Bona fide purchaser for value without notice'.
• The television show House of Mouse featured an episode where Goofy and Max sing a song called "Soup or Salad, Fries or Biscuits, Extra Olives, Donuts." It is sung to the same tune as "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
• The Pensylvania production of Forbidden Broadway SVU and the original cast of Forbidden Hollywood parodied this song with "Stupidcarelessfictionalnonsensicalverboseness"
• The band Cobra Starship uses the word in their song "Hollaback Boy."
• In the Fairly OddParents episode entitled "No Substitute for Crazy," Mrs. Sunshine uses a variation. Cosmo uses two later. There is also a babysitter named "Susie Califragilistic" (a pun of the song's name) in the episode "Remy Rides Again" whose personality parallels that of Mary Poppins.
• In late 2006, a graffiti artist spray-painted the word, in large-scale lettering, on the side of Toronto's busy Don Valley Parkway as it approaches the Prince Edward Viaduct.
• Used in several wordplay style jokes, one of the most commonly known referring to a theoretical Dalai Lama as a "Super calloused fragile mystic with shocking halitosis"
• In 2007, 13-year-old Morgan Pozgar became the first US "National Text Messaging champion" (an LG contest) by typing the word into her cellphone in a record time of 15 seconds
• The University of Waterloo's FASS annual music revue included a song called "BLCRA" to this tune in 1981's FASSified Information. [4]

References

• Sherman, Robert B. Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond. Santa Clarita: Camphor Tree Publishers

External links

• "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" 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: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!". (Quicktime video clip).

See also

• Antidisestablishmentarianism
• Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic