The Merry Old Land Of Oz

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The Merry Old Land Of Oz is a song from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. It is sung by the townspeople of the Emerald City, who are joined at appropriate times by the group of four travelers: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion.

The verse of the song suggests that the people of the city do no actual work, since they "get up at 12, start to work at 1, take an hour for lunch, and then at 2 we're done". Their actions contradict that funny sentiment, as they are clearly doing plenty of work to "freshen up" the group of four.

There are not very many English words that rhyme with "Oz" (homophone of "ahz"), so the song has a number of words that are similar, and whose pronunciation is altered to rhyme: "strahz" instead of "straws", "brahz" instead of "brass" (or perhaps "bronze"), "clahz" instead of "claws", etc.

The revelers "Ha-ha-ha, ho-ho-ho" is interrupted by the Wicked Witch of the West, who is circling over the city doing some sky-writing with her broom, ordering the citizens to "SURRENDER DOROTHY". Reportedly there was to have been an addendum of "OR DIE" which was cut from the film as being a little too strong for the presumably young audience.