HAIL MALTHUS!

[EugLoven]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 3:05am

Does ANYONE know the meaning and motivation behind the last words shouted at the end of Urinetown?

"HAIL MALTHUS! Thank you, and good night!"

Thanks to anyone who can shed some light.
Updated On: 9/3/05 at 03:05 AM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 3:26am

There's this great thing called Google.

YAY!

[EugLoven]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 5:11am

Fine... I guess I could do it the BORING way...
In case anyone wanted to know:

As the final production number ends, Officer Lockstock faces the audience and jubilantly shouts, "Hail Malthus!"

This is a reference to Thomas Robert Malthus’ famous 1798 An Essay on the Principle of Population in which he predicted that some portion of humanity must always live in misery and suffer famine because of overpopulation. This view remains popular with knee-jerk ideological environmentalists to this day. Why did the creators choose Malthusianism as the message of their musical? Perhaps it is nothing more than the fact that, as Lockstock tells Little Sally, audiences are happier with simple messages "and it’s easier to write." Updated On: 9/3/05 at 05:11 AM

[lfae]

Posted: 9/3/05 at 5:24am

oh god, first time I saw Urinetown was right when I was doing a subject called Darwinism and when they said "Hail Malthus!" I almost fell off my chair

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 10:17pm

I saw Urinetown for the first time today and I'm still confused about the connection with Malthus and Urinetown. How do the two relate to eachother? I googled it and it doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe I'm overthinking?

[C is for Company]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 10:32pm

As in, from my understanding, by the ending of the show his theory is fulfilled about humans having to suffer in famine, drought, and war for the population to stay under control.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 10:33pm

Yes.

Like C said.

The show ends saying that people are fated to suffer, in some way, because of the overpopulation of the city combined with the serious drought.

As Malthus predicted - OVERPOPULATION = SUFFERING

[sundaymorning6am]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 10:37pm

I'm involved in a production of Urinetown at my school right now - and I don't think 90% of the cast, if any of them, understands what it means. I know that I sure didn't! I would be surprised if a fair amount of the Broadway audiences did... maybe I'm just pressuming though!

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 10:59pm

For the longest time, I thought Malthus was the guy who joked that the Irish should eat their babies to get through famine.

[GEA113]

Posted: 11/10/06 at 11:00pm

what a coincidence! we learned about Malthus this week in AP Human Geo.

you know when you're first introduced to something and then its EVERYWHERE you look.... hahaha

sorry. i don't know a lot about Urinetown

[gumbo2]

Posted: 11/11/06 at 1:15am

Thank you for this thread. I just saw Urinetown at my school and I had no idea what that meant at the end. Of course I didn't think to look it up...

[Ourtime992]

Posted: 11/11/06 at 11:49am

In addition that what has already been stated, Malthus theorized that because humans would never take control of the population problem, the only way humanity would remain in balance would be through natural disasters, famines, and droughts controlling their growth.

Greg Kotis drops another reference to Malthus's theory when he asks Little Sally, "why, don't you think people want to be told their way of life is unsustainable?" The line is often lost because Little Sally's response is so funny.

When I asked Greg Kotis about this line and the Malthus reference, and keep in mind this was right after 9-11, he indicated that while the main purpose of the show is to be funny, there is a definite extent to which he feels that we are living extravagantly without regard to how it affects our future. We just pile up the garbage and byproducts and use up our resources like there's no tomorrow -- but of course there is a tomorrow and we don't know what it's going to be like. The piece being a satire, he said that he just couldn't resist throwing in one more emphatic line about the insanity. He hoped it would provide a little fodder for future conversations, and esoteric as the reference may be, clearly it has.