British Comedy Guide

Burning far under song

Not a very cheery one I'm afraid

To the tune of LAND DOWN UNDER by MEN AT WORK (agan)

Travelling down in Aussie country
Deep in the bush, drinking morning tea
I switched to the news, on the foreign service
And what they spoke made me real nervous
'Cos they said:

"Forest fires in a land down under
Where trees glow, burnt to a cinder
Can you hear, it sounds like thunder?
You better run, you better take cover!"

We drove fast to the fire station
The head, he made a grim accusation
I said to him "Do you know what caused it?"
He grimaced and said it was a bloody arsonist
And he said:

"It's the worst ever forest fire
Has turned Victoria into a Pyre
Now we've got to search there
To catch the evil mass murderer"

Fires are still raging today
Can see the smoke - they're coming this way
The flames move fast, they travel quickly
I'd better start running to safety
And I cried:

"Oh what's happened to this land down under?
Where people burn, makes you wonder
The advancing flames sound like thunder
I'd better run, I'd better take cover.

It's good but it's not funny. Seems more like the sort of thing they'd do over a montage at the end of Bremner, Bird & Fortune.

I'm surprised no-one has done a Midnight Oil Beds Are Burning one yet.

Agree with Afinkawan, but I think you were on a hiding to nothing with this one, it would be almost impossible to make funny without losing the audience.

I think the first two responses neatly identify the cleft stick you find yourself in here: it's clever but not funny, and if it was funny it would be too cruel. Picking your target is important in satire. The audience would need some sort of sense the target 'deserves' your scorn, or that the scorn was at least proportionate.

Yeah wasn't really written as a jokey one. More a commentary in song. Song just fit topically and really just formed in my head quickly. You're all absolutely right, wouldn't work as parody, but sometimes write sad songs depending on how I feel about stories.

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