Classic; often root of great skits and take-offs.

[skeptic]

https://1funny.com/allan-sherman-performing-camp-grenada-1963/

[RememberSchiff]

Out of curiosity, I searched for "boy scouts" and  "Allan Sherman". The search returned this link with 1956 camp letters from Scout Harlan who attended Camp Lenape, BSA in (Medford Lakes) Burlington County, NJ.

My old troop often camped at Camp Lenape...back in the day.

Edited November 23, 2021 by RememberSchiff
NJ

[skeptic]

So, for fun, not whatever contentious opinions might transpire, share some old songs and skits we used before the age of "verybody" is offended, and there is unacceptable innuendo in that skit or song.

The old "mine is longer than yours" skit.  It was a standard in the fifties and sixties.  Or, the original Region 12 song; the one we sang literally to death at the 1960 Jamboree.

[RememberSchiff]

Well ... we did sing Shaving Cream a lot

[skeptic]

34 minutes ago, skeptic said:

So, for fun, not whatever contentious opinions might transpire, share some old songs and skits we used before the age of "verybody" is offended, and there is unacceptable innuendo in that skit or song.

The old "mine is longer than yours" skit.  It was a standard in the fifties and sixties.  Or, the original Region 12 song; the one we sang literally to death at the 1960 Jamboree.

The reason the Region 12 song was put aside, to be kind, is because it suggested sleeping in the nude, and it sort of snubbed noses at other regions in its chorus.  Ane we loved it.  I still occasionally sing the original, just for fun.  

[TAHAWK]

chorus:

 

"That's the way we do in Utah,

Arizona and Nevada

California and Hawaii,

Out west in Region Twelve.."

 

I suppose anyone can be offended by about anything.  😗

[RememberSchiff]

Some humor for @skeptic

 

[SSScout]

WHO has my IMPORTANT PAPERS ? ? ?

 

[skeptic]

Another skit that has fallen to the arrows of misdirected offence.  

[InquisitiveScouter]

The VIPER is coming!!!

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

On 11/23/2021 at 11:59 AM, skeptic said:

https://1funny.com/allan-sherman-performing-camp-grenada-1963/

Thanks for posting this! I had no idea that this was originally an American song. We sang what apparently was an inspired take on this original by singer-songwriter Cornelis Vreeswijk around the campfire. Our version is definitely less clean, though:

Hey mom, hey dad!

Here's a letter from your favorite son

We're having fun at summer camp

There are 28 of us gangster kids in a

 

Large barrack with lots of beds

Can you send more money?

That would be a good deed

I have lost it all playing dice 
 

It's lots of fun here I can promise

Although a little hard to sleep

The guy in the bed above me

Doesn't wake up when he needs to, no
 

I have lost two front teeth

When I tried to walk on my hands

When we were playing charades

So now when mom sees me she'll be furious

Out in the forest there are germs

But my friend he has pills

That he bought from a bad guy

And if you eat them you turn into a super fun guy
 

The leader, he has gone

He will never be the same

Because the police came and arrested him

Last week when we played forest fire
 

Out in the forest there are deer

In the barracks there are nits

And my best friend Tage

He has a little pocket knife in his stomach
 

They're going to operate on him

Well, now I can't think of anything more

Hug and kiss and heartfelt thanks then

Now we're heading out to burn the barrack next to ours!

The lyrics rhyme in Swedish just as they do in the original but I didn't even try to make the meter and rhyme fit.

 

Does this thread mean that someone might be upset if I teach my cub scouts the American original? It seems fine to me, even ends on a happy note and nobody goes to jail 🤣

Edited March 7, 2023 by AwakeEnergyScouter

[MattR]

This might help you learn the melody.

https://www.whosampled.com/cover/170658/Cornelis-Vreeswijk-Brev-Från-Kolonien-Allan-Sherman-Hello-Muddah,-Hello-Fadduh-(A-Letter-From-Camp)/

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Thanks @MattR, but I know the melody very well from scouts already. We sang it around the campfire all the time, usually followed by joking about all the ways we were going to traumatize our leaders and get them sent to jail 😂

There are lots of other Swedish scout songs I wish I could share with my cub scouts, but of course the only scout who would get the jokes is mine (who speaks Swedish), so not much point. I see a modified BP Spirit in the Cub Scout Songbook, and a few English scout songs we also sang, and here I found what I thought was a Swedish scout song already has an English translation!

Do we sing the Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald's song here in the US too? That one always struck me as the most American of the English scout songs. The younger kids might enjoy the movements and nutritional naughtiness.

[InquisitiveScouter]

I learned this one 40 years ago at our Nykterhetsrörelsens Scoutförbund Konfirmationsläger mealtimes.

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glädjens_Herre,_var_en_gäst

Jag älskar svensk mat!!

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Oh, wow, you guys in NSF scouts must have been very religious! I noticed the mention of confirmation at a scout camp earlier, which struck me as very unusual, but I thought maybe it was some extra thing a few scouts happened to be doing at the same time the scout camp was on. Is NSF a Christian organization? I thought they just wanted people to drink less. This is a scout song I've never heard! We just trolled our leaders by drumming our cutlery on the long tables like a drum circle until someone announced that we could come take food 🤭 Bonus points for for chanting Mat! Mat! Mat!

I do think we stopped that at some point because, well, we matured and it wasn't funny anymore. We started relating to the leaders more as advisors than rule-setters. 

Does this mean you sang a lot of religious songs at your campfires if everyone was a Christian? Did you sing the usual ones too, or is there a split between us regular scouts and the religious ones? By the usual ones I mean starting with fram med lägerbålshumöret.., Trampa på gasen, Temperaturen, Gasflygmaskinen, Omkring vår eld, En kulen natt, I natt jag drömde, Brev från kolonien, I medelhavet, Vem kan segla, När lägerelden brunnit ner...

That last one I always loved ending with, and it's short, so I actually translated it to sing at our last campout. 

Vad är det du tycker så bra om med svensk mat? Det har jag nog aldrig hört någon säga om Sverige 😂