Sister Mary Elephant

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Sister Mary Elephant is a comedy skit by Cheech and Chong. The recording was released as a single in 1973 and climbed to #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1974. It was also included on Cheech and Chong's second album, Big Bambu, released in 1972.

1 Synopsis
2 Sargent Stadanko
3 Legacy
4 External Links

[edit] Synopsis

The title character is an exceedingly prissy, monotone nun substitute teacher (voiced by Cheech) teaching in a parochial school ("Our Lady of 115th Street") classroom of exceedingly irreverent, noisy teenage boys (voiced by Cheech and Chong through overdubbing). She attempts to teach the class, but the boys totally ignore her. She then tries to get the boys' attention by speaking increasingly loudly, to no avail, and then finally screams, "SHUDD-UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" at the top of her lungs, in startling contrast to her usually placid manner. She follows this with a once again prissy "Thank you". This becomes a running joke throughout the skit.

Sister Mary Elephant announces that she is the substitute for their regular teacher, Sister Rosetta Stone, who has sent her love and the artwork she is making: fingerpaintings and dustcloths, indicating that she has likely been institutionalized. After introducing herself, the class erupts in laughter upon hearing the substitute's name, prompting a repetition of the above routine. Sister Mary Elephant then asks a student to give her his knife. He complies, but not quite the way she had in mind (we hear it come flying and stick in the wall with a twang). She responds with another prissy "Thank you". She continues to try to teach the class, during which the boys continue talking, necessitating further repetitions of the screaming bit.

Sister Mary Elephant tells the class that they will read their previously assigned essays on "How I Spent My Summer Vacation". She chooses one boy (Chong), who stands up and reads in a monotone voice how on the first day he woke up, went downtown to look for a job, then hung out in front of the drugstore. He repeatedly describes this same daily routine verbatim for each day of his vacation as well. Sister Mary tries to get the student to stop reading, but he ignores her and continues, finally noting that on the fourth day he got a job keeping people from hanging out in front of the drugstore. Sister Mary beseeches the boy to "SHUT UP!" before he can continue any further.

Sister Mary Elephant then reads from a book of excessively flowery poetry. The class responds with their usual razzing but fall silent except for scattered snoring after a few verses. Once again she goes into her "Class...claaaass...CLAAAAAAASS...", but this time it's, "WAKE UUUUUUUPPPPPPP!"

[edit] Sargent Stadanko

The character of Sister Mary Elephant reappeared in a later Cheech and Chong skit Sargent Stadanko, on their Los Cochinos LP. The nun introduces the titular narcotics officer (voiced by Chong) as a guest speaker. Her rowdy classroom immediately falls silent at the mention of Stadenko's profession. Later one student (voiced by Cheech) rats out another student, Billy (voiced by Chong) to Stadenko for selling him oregano packaged as marijuana. The students begin fighting and Sister Mary beseeches Stadenko to intervene. Stadenko sheepishly informs her that he will call the police.

The two skits are segued together on Cheech & Chong's Greatest Hit.