Pigs singing the Happy Wanderer

[MartyMuppets]

Part of me does feel a little sorry for those three pigs. Murdered by that cold-hearted goat up in the alps.

Well, maybe they weren't murdered, maybe they got sent to a well furnished rest home and decided happy wandering was highly overrated!

I know what we've been saying about them enjoying what they went through, however if heralde is correct in his/her speculation about them, then in that case I know what they were thinking.
They probably moved into the rest home all in perfect agreement that they'd go happy wandering again the day that pigs might fly.
And I'd bet they wished that pigs really were able to fly when they were climbing that mountain to begin with

 

[Skye]

..."What's that rumbling noise?" cries the distraught pig on the end.
Then they all look up and scream as they see the boulders rolling towards them. And the three pals are all turned into ham pancakes on the mountain side.
And the evil goat is laughing with glee.

Yes that is a funny thought to me but I'm glad they didn't notice him. Else we would've lost two thirds of our musical comedy.

Oh yeah, that would've been quite entertaining too, and the goat still would've been very, very thrilled! But, it's much cooler being the way it is now, of course!

That's really weird that Amazing Grace can be sung to our Happy Wanderer song! It's cool, but it's very weird, haha. It's great that you sing hymns while you're at work sometimes, by the way. Very cool that you were able to discover this little fact with Lynnie! And it certainly was very clever of you!

That's a very cute sounding gag from that British comic you saw, too! Haha, it's funny how we can have so many different things that remind us of this silly sketch!

But naturally the Wolf crying out '"Yikes" and running off with them a split second before the boulders landed would have provided some sort of light relief to conclude on.
It would have been later on perhaps that many of us realized that the Big, Bad Wolf had escaped with his life to enjoy making a tasty feast out of the Three Little Pigs.

Exactly, that light relief at the end is what I was thinking about. Hah, I didn't think about how we might realize later that he went off to enjoy that tasty feast, but hey, if Muppets really do survive everything, then maybe he carried them off and they managed to get away somehow. The possibilities of that are endless!

And I'd bet they wished that pigs really were able to fly when they were climbing that mountain to begin with

Ha! I love that, Marty. And it's so very true! And I had forgotten about that speculation of heralde's, but that is a very entertaining thought also. Hey, who knows... we couldn't see it, so maybe the pigs started to fall, but then they started floating back up and realized they could fly! Hey, with the Muppets, anything can happen!

 

[MartyMuppets]

Thank you once more Caroline for all your entertaining replies to my posts.

I thought I'd share my thoughts about when I first saw the sketch. I would have been either 10 or 11 years old at the time when I first ever saw the John Denver episode. I remember how much I was completely taken by surprise by our sketch in question.

First of all when it first began I didn't expect anything to go wrong in it at all. I thought to start with that it was only going to be a straight song and was actually not terribly enraptured in it. I was even starting to not watch it with my eyes off the screen just listening to the soundtrack. But when I heard the first pig screaming I quickly jerked my head back towards the television and as I watched the other two pigs and heard what they said I realized what had happened. So afterwards my eyes were glued to the sketch but I still didn't expect anything unfortunate to befall the others. I was thinking to myself, "Now the other two will be all right for the rest of the song because they're being extremely careful." But I was wrong again.

So naturally after seeing two of them take a plunge I thought well then the mountain will claim them all. And was I taken aback when the last one didn't fall. But then the boulders put paid to him. I can certainly identify with somebody else who once told me that sketch kept tricking you all the time when you initially saw it. And in fact it wasn't until I was grown up towards the end of my teenage years that it conclusively dawned on me about the implications of the sneaky goat appearing at the end. Well I was a bit slow, wasn't I? But I was so young that's probably why part of it went over my head. But still I always loved the sketch after that.

In fact I was so obsessed with it that I even wore a tape or two recorded off of television out replaying it over and over.

Anyway Caroline. Does your memory of how you felt and what you thought when you first saw it compare any significantly to my account? And if anyone else would like to answer as well I'd be keen to find out your thoughts.

 

[Skye]

Oh yeah, Marty, I agree that since you first saw it when you were so young, that was probably the reason that the evil goat thing went over your head.

Well, since I first saw it when I was quite a bit older (I mean, really, I just saw it for the first time back in July of this year), my memory of seeing it is slightly different than yours. When it first started watching it, I also expected nothing to go wrong, and I was having a good time watching and listening to the piggies singing. And then the first one fell, and I pretty was surprised, but when that wore off a bit, I started laughing and laughed at what they said after it as well. So, then when they started singing again, I knew something else was going to happen, but I'm not sure if I figured the others would fall, too. So then the second one fell, and I laughed. And then, the third one was so nervous, that I thought it would be anti-climactic if he did fall at the same time as the other two. So, when he didn't, I wasn't too surprised, and then the boulder came, and the goat showed up, and I was pretty entertained, I must say. The goat being there did surprise me, but I loved it!

 

[MartyMuppets]

Yes Caroline. It is amazing how people can react to things in different ways, especially depending on whether they are still kids or grown-up at the time.

I was speculating about how you never noticed the nervous displays of the first piggie until I pointed it out to you and I suppose it could easily be subtily missed at a first viewing. This is because the pig on the opposite end has his snout turned towards the upwards direction at the same time so maybe it's intended to be camouflaged by the pattern of him looking up, him looking down and he between them just looking straight at the camera. It probably is a subtil, gentle hint as to what will happen during the song if the viewer takes time to notice the scrunched-up snout when they all look towards the camera. They might have wanted to leave it open for people to pick it up or not so there'd be a mixture of surprise and suspicion to start with.

But it is a clever touch that they somehow presented that pig as truly singing happily at the same time as his moment of unsureness, isn't it?

 

[anythingmuppet]

Hey all!

Y'know, I just saw this skit yesterday and I didn't like it too much, I thought it was kinda dark. I mean, the pig falling, and the screaming, eww...lol But it was cute, and the goat was like a sadist or something...he enjoyed killing the innocent hiker pigs..

 

[MartyMuppets]

You're right Nick. It is sort of dark and sadistic but it does have a certain touch of cuteness at the same time. Good to hear your honest opinion.
Thanks for replying to my thread.

 

[Barry Lee]

I wonder who originated the song....

 

[MartyMuppets]

The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.

My knapsack on my back.
I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!


Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann,
Und mir steckt's auch im Blut;
Drum wandr' ich flott, so lang ich kann,
Und schwenke meinen Hut.

Refrain 1:
Faleri, falera, faleri,
Falera ha ha ha ha ha ha
Faleri, falera,
Und schwenke meinen Hut.

Refrain 2&3:
|: Hei-di, hei-da, hei-di, hei-da!
Und schwenke meinen Hut. :|

Das Wandern schaffet frische Lust,
Erhält das Herz gesund;
Frei atmet draußen meine Brust,
Froh singet stets mein Mund:
Refrain:

Warum singt Dir das Vögelein
So freudevoll sein Lied?
Weil's nimmer hockt, landaus, landein
Durch and're Fluren zieht.
Refrain:

Was murmelt's Bächlein dort und rauscht,
So lustig hin durch's Rohr,
Weil's frei sich regt, mit Wonne lauscht
Ihm dein empfänglich Ohr.
Refrain:

D'rum trag ich Ränzlein und den Stab
Weit in die Welt hinein,
Und werde bis an's kühle Grab
Ein Wanderbursche sein!
Refrain:


******************************************************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_Wanderer


Here is a link for information on the song The Happy Wanderer,in the site Wikipedia.Hope this info. helps you out.

*exits post*

Barry you might find the link provided by JaniceFerSure of great interest

 

[MartyMuppets]

Here's a little story I've been thinking about.


The manager of the Alpine Lodge Hotel looked up from his desk as a trio of pigs entered the front door walking up to his reception desk taking off their knapsacks. "Can I help you?" He asked politely.
One of the pigs with squinty eyes and a large snout said "Hi. My name is Gerald. My two best buddies, Dick and David are hiking around the country with me together and we'd like a room to stay in for a couple of days' rest."
"Certainly piggies. I can put you up in a nice room. Are you going to hike up any of the beautiful alps surrounding our little town here?"
To his surprise the pigs started to get nervous and shake.
"Uh no. We only wander along the foothills in the valleys when we hike, or just very low hills. The last time we went up into the alps themselves somewhere we fell off one by one."
"What? It seems incredible to me that the three of you can possibly still be alive after that occurence! How could you have possibly survived?"

The pigs settled down and Gerald explained to the manager.
"We still don't know exactly what happened to this day, but we could have been killed for sure. We were strangely fortunate. We were singing together happily as we were climbing when suddenly David's line somehow came loose and he fell. Dick and I both thought he was a goner for sure. But it turned out a family had set up camp at the base of the mountain and the children had a trampoline right at the very bottom. They were just about to jump on it themselves when David came landing on it with a scream and bounced up and down for five minutes scaring them."
"Goodness me." The manager was amazed by the story so far and David nodded his head to assert it was true. He told them to please continue.
So Gerald went on, "So Dick and I were getting worried about meeting the same fate ourselves and we climbed higher singing some more paying close attention to our footing and I held up the rope to verify it was firm and secure but inexplicably it came loose again and poor Dick went tumbling down after David. Back down at the bottom the children's parents were alerted to their crying and were demanding to know what was going on when Dick fell upon the trampoline also and startled them as much as their children."
The pig named Dick added, "We can't understand what happened to our climbing rope and we don't know how we fell but David and I both felt like something hit us hard in the back of our legs knocking us off." David nodded agreement and the manager's eyes were almost popping out of his head in astonishment.
"And what about you?" He asked Gerald.
"Well. I was pretty upset since I had no idea what was going on and I was so nervous and apprehensive that I was trembling with every step I took and I was so relieved at not falling when I reached the same moment in the chorus of my song at which my buddies had fallen. But then I was pushed down the mountain by two huge, solid boulders that came rolling from out of nowhere."
"Oh me! Oh my!" The manager could barely believe the story.
"Yes it's true." Gerald asserted, "And I almost was killed but David and Dick had fervently pleaded with the family to leave the trampoline in place for the sake of me, their very best friend and so I landed on it. But as I was bouncing everybody cried out when they saw the rocks and as the parents grabbed their children, my best friends grabbed me and quickly pulled me off the trampoline and away to cover just before the boulders smashed it to pieces."
David added "We had to pay the family the cost of the trampoline or go to court, so we paid them. But in the end we were just so happy to have miraculously survived our ordeal and we have never been able to set foot on another mountain track since it happened a week ago."
The manager said that was a very amazing story and gave the piggies their room-key and had a porter take their three knapsacks up the elevator with them. He didn't really believe their story. He thought they were spinning an elaborate yarn, and so silly and far-fetched too when he noticed a goat come to the reception desk next carrying a suitcase.
"Hello. Can I help you? He asked.
"Yes. I live way up in the alps twenty miles away from here." said the goat. "I thought I'd try to get a room here for a few days so I could have a holiday here in your alpine town."
"Certainly Mr.Goat. Do you have a nice home in the alps?"
"I sure do. Though I had to deal with some invaders last week. They were disturbing the peace singing rowdily. But I fixed them between bumping two of them off and using a couple of heavy boulders to dispatch the last one."