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

[Parks]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 3:57pm

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...

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:00pm

The fun is only in the performances that the ladies give, and the ridiculousness of their "strips". For instance, Dorothy Stanley, who I saw as Electra, could barely get the words out of her mouth and walked around like she had a stick up her ass. It made no sense, but it was hysterical.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:03pm

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

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:04pm

Exactly. I just laughed reading your description, actually.

It all depends on the performers and how they interpret the role. The song itself is funny too but it depends on the performers to make it both hysterical and oddly touching which the current cast is doing to a T. It's uproariously funny but in a way, poignant because of how washed up these performers are. The song, to me, is much more than just a barrel of belly laughs...if done well, it is also purposeful and not just a filler song.

[morosco]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:04pm

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.

[Kevn520]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:06pm

Electra purposely sings the way she does. It's meant to sound as if she's being electrocuted while singing, at least that's my interpretation.

[legally_popular]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 4:13pm

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.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 8:43pm

And I thought this was the least funny I'd seen!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 9:36pm

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.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 9:43pm

Priceless.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 9:48pm

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.

[Mealz1042]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 9:51pm

im in the minority of people who really does not find it that funny. Just not my sense of humor i guess.

[Boq101]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 10:02pm

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.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 10:11pm

It's even funny on morning TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCi1eg1t3nk

[jewishboy]

Posted: 11/9/08 at 11:48pm

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.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:03am

Sondheim created some perfect lyrics for the characters.
He somehow knew how we assume strippers talk and then he made them even more clever with the cheapest of rhymes:
Schleppa
Mezzepa
Electrifyin'
not even tryin'
Bump it with a Trumpet

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:37am

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?!?"

Posted: 11/10/08 at 12:41am

It's funny cuz the more different and over the top each performance is the more it's basically exactly the same. You don't need a gimmick whatsoever.

[jeniferrenepatricia]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 2:08am

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!!!

[jewishboy]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 2:10am

To add to PalJoey's list:

"There is a lady present"
"WHERE?"
"Open your Eyes Instead of your mouth."

and

"You're even younger than I was, when I started stripping"

Posted: 11/10/08 at 4:05am

"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??

[A Director]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 4:10am

Many people would smile if Arthur Laurents died before the upcoming revival of West Side Story opened on Broadway.

Posted: 11/10/08 at 4:22am

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...

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 6:11am

A Director, you're a jerk.

Only you would wish death upon a Broadway legend, who, into his 90th year, is still contributing to the well being of the Great White Way.

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 11/10/08 at 9:14am

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.