"You Gotta Get A Gimmick" -- Why is this song funny?

Can somebody please explain to me why this song is so hilarious? I think all 3 of the ladies are very funny, but the song really does nothing for me. Does anyone else think it's not a very funny song? It is a HUGE crowd pleaser, but I really just do not get what is so funny...

---

There's really nothing to explain. It's just a brilliant number.

I've often wondered how the song would play if the order in which the girls present their gimmicks is changed. It seems like Tessie Tura's gimmick is a bit anti-climactic compared to the ones that came before her.

It is a funny song, but I never liked it that much before I saw this production. These 3 ladies are hilarious. I love Electra's performance.

It's in the stage directions in the script: It's funny because they each say they're doing something unique, but in the end, they all do the same bumps and grinds that every stripper did.

Funny stripper story: Arthur Laurents, the Bitchiest Man Ever to Work in the Theater, infamously turned on director Sam Mendes during previews for the Bernadette Peters revival.

Despite knowing that Arthur was saying awful things about him all over town, Mendes still wanted Arthur's approval.

So Sam called Arthur one night after the performance to tell him how well it had gone and how much better Bernadette was getting. But nothing could change Arthur's mind: The production was a debacle.

Finally, near defeat, Sam said, "Well, Arthur, the strippers got a big hand."

"Oh, please, Sam" Arthur said. "ANYONE can make that number work. You could cast Saddam Hussein and his two sons as those strippers and they STILL would get a big hand. Good NIGHT."

And with that he hung up the phone.

---

It's a great character song. It's a song that you have to see performed. The comedy comes from these three women trying to make art out of a bump and grind routine.

---

The song is hilarious. Love that anecdote about Arthur. I think he really cast the strippers incredibly well this time. This revival and the one before are the only times I've thought that the women were old enough.

It might be my favorite funny song. It just gets me every time. From the age of six, when I was first introduced to Gypsy, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick" has always been my favorite song. Look on youtube for the Jerome Robbin's Broadway version with a very young Faith Prince, and my personal favorite Mazeppa, Debbie Shapiro (Gravitte) who won a Tony for this show.

In the scene leading up to the song, Laurents gives Tessie and Mazeppa some extremely funny lines, creating indelibly comic characters even before the song starts:

"Tell 'im to use Mazeppa. Everyone else has."

"Cut the ballet. It stinks anyway."

"Somethin' WRONG wit' strippin?!?"

---

legally_popular- I agree with you 100%. The ladies that Arthur Laurents cast definitely made the difference. I didn't like the women In the Bernadette Peters production, or the Bette Midler movie. But, the ladies in this production blew me away!!!

---

"legally_popular- I agree with you 100%. The ladies that Arthur Laurents cast definitely made the difference. I didn't like the women In the Bernadette Peters production, or the Bette Midler movie. "

You don't like Christine Ebersole??

While in many ways a great talent, and a man who I personally find really annoying (from reading his memoirs alone--despite him writing some of my fave musicals) I still think that's kinda an awful thing to say...

The placement of the song is important. Rose is losing Herbie, and the act is reduced to playing burlesque. their world is collapsing. Having a comic number from supporting characters as the leads are in a downward spiral serves two purposes: Comic relief when it's needed, and intensifying the tough drama that's about to follow.