Silly Songs with Larry

Silly Songs with Larry is a regular feature in the Big Idea's popular 3D cartoon series VeggieTales. It generally consists of Larry the Cucumber singing either alone or with some of the other Veggie characters. Occasionally, another character or an ensemble gets the lead vocal. It is occasionally used as an intermission on Chuck E. Cheese's animatronic shows.

Introduction

Typically this feature is introduced with a static picture of Larry and the words, "And now it's time for 'Silly Songs with Larry', the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a Silly Song," voiced by an unseen narrator. However, this format is used loosely; sometimes it is renamed, adapted to the context of the episode, or eschewed altogether. Not all episodes have a Silly Song: most notably, the Larry-Boy episodes lack this segment. The Silly Song always appears in the middle of an episode, usually at a cliffhanger moment, or between two segments.

The Silly Songs have proven to be a very popular part of the show and has also prompted the release of several "sing-along" videos that feature compilations of these segments culled from other episodes, wrapped with new material that threads them into a fresh context. To date there have been three of those:

• Very Silly Songs! (1997)
• The End of Silliness? (1998)
• The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown (2001)

The Silly Songs almost always take place on the familiar countertop which opens and closes most episodes. The background scenery appears as a stage set, behind which electrical outlets and ceramic tile can be seen.

Often, a Silly Song is interrupted for comical effect. This first occurs in the very first Silly Song "The Water Buffalo Song", where Archibald Asparagus stops the song to tell Larry that, contrary to his lyrics, everybody does not have a water buffalo and that he fears "nasty letters" complaining about said lack of water buffalos. In "The Dance of the Cucumber", the song is halted when Larry's increasingly-personal Spanish taunts towards Bob makes the tomato lose his temper.

On a few occasions, the song is stopped and replaced before it can even begin. When this occurs, the brief images that are shown of the original song are intentionally more outlandish than usual, leaving the audience to wonder what it might have been. In Madame Blueberry, the title card despicts Larry in a coonskin hat and caught in a bear trap, but his intended song never begins when Archibald cancels the segment in favor of "Love Songs with Mr. Lunt". In Lyle the Kindly Viking, the title card shows Larry in a clown costume with a hula hoop accompanied by cheery carnival music, but Archibald interrupts and introduces "Classy Songs with Larry" in its place. In Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue, the title card showed Larry in a cowboy hat flying through outer space with a jet pack and holding a platypus puppet, but Larry realizes that he forgot the script and Archibald has to take over.

List of Silly Songs

The following list itemizes the Silly Songs that have appeared in the all VeggieTales videos to date. The episode in which each first appeared is given in parentheses, along with a brief description of the song.

The Silly Songs with Larry

• "The Water Buffalo Song" (Where's God When I'm S-Scared?) Written by Phil Vischer - Wearing an oversized cowboy hat, Larry comes out and sings that "everybody's got a water buffalo," but Archibald brings the song to an abrupt end over the obvious falseness of the statement.

• "The Hairbrush Song" (Are You My Neighbor?) Written by Mike Nawrocki - Larry, wearing a towel and having recently emerged from the tub and next to the sink, rues the loss of his hairbrush. Pa Grape and Junior Asparagus try to help him, but it's Bob who finally solves the mystery. "The Hairbrush Song" marks the first of many cameo appearances by the Peach, which has become a running gag for the series. The song also won "Silliest Silly Song of All Time" on The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown.

• "Dance of the Cucumber" (Rack, Shack, and Benny) Written by Mike Nawrocki - Larry sings and dances to a "traditional Argentinian ballet" in Spanish while Bob translates. However, Larry's lyrics rubs the tomato the wrong way when they begin taking a very personal turn.

• "I Love My Lips" (Dave and the Giant Pickle) Written by Mike Nawrocki - Larry lies on a couch while he sings to his psychiatrist (played by Archibald Asparagus) about his fear of losing his lips. His focus on lips is so absolute, a Rorschach test reveals that Larry sees everything as a lip (and sings as much to the tune of the William Tell Overture). The Rorschach test in the original release featured a picture of Sonny Bono, but was later edited out after Sonny's death.

• "Oh, Santa!" (The Toy that Saved Christmas) Written by Mike Nawrocki - Larry awaits the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, interested to give him Christmas cookies. He is first visited by a bank robber (Scallion #1), a Viking (Pa Grape), and an IRS agent (the Peach), whom Larry shares his cookies with (except the IRS agent). When Santa (Bob) arrives, however, it's revealed that Larry's guests have stolen parts of his outfit as well.

• "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (Very Silly Songs!) Written by Mike Nawrocki - The infamous pirates (Larry, Mr. Lunt, and Pa Grape) sing of their lack of ambition, but Larry doesn't seem to grasp the concept of the song. This song was covered by Relient K for the Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie soundtracks.

• "The Song of the Cebú" (Josh and the Big Wall!) Written by Mike Nawrocki - In a "sequential image, stereophonic, multimedia event" (a.k.a. a slide projector and a bedsheet), Larry presents the audience (Junior, Jerry, and Jimmy) with a weak-plotted song about a boy who owns 3 Cebús (and a hippo), with Archibald repeatedly interrupting the presentation with questions against the song. When the song ends abruptly and without any sort of conclusion, Archibald storms off in a huff.

• "His Cheeseburger" (Madame Blueberry) Written by Mike Nawrocki - In the intro, Archibald announces the cancellation of Silly Songs with Larry "as a result of the disastrous outcome of the previous silly song" and replaces it with a new segment: Love Songs with Mr. Lunt. Mr. Lunt sings of Jerry Gourd's unrequited love for a cheeseburger in this spoof of a rock 'n' roll ballad.

• "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps" (The End of Silliness?) Written by Mike Nawrocki - Narrated in song by a barbershop quartet (consisting of the Scallions and Frankencelery), Larry is portrayed as a veterinarian who believes he is able to cure sick pets by yodeling to them. Meanwhile, his nurse (Pa Grape) is slipping medicine to the pets' owners behind Dr. Larry's back. After refusing to give his nurse a raise, Dr. Larry realizes the painful truth when a bear stuck in a trap is entirely unaffected by his 'treatment' and runs amok.

• "Endangered Love" aka Barbara Manatee (King George and the Ducky) Written by Mike Nawrocki - While watching a soap opera on television, Larry sings of his love for the main character, a manatee, and his desire to accompany her to a ball. Onscreen, the story of lovers Barbara Manatee and Bill is told. Bill wants to "go into the world and do noble things for the good of all", but in order for her to go with him, Barbara must learn French. She succeeds, but Barbara insists on going to a ball before they embark, and Bill admits that he can't dance. However, the song is abruptly stopped when Bob comes in and suggests that Larry read a book.

• "Larry's High Silk Hat" (Lyle the Kindly Viking) - Archibald Aspragus presents the first (and last) episode of Classy Songs with Larry. Sung by Archibald and Larry to the tune of Funiculì, Funiculà, Larry expresses his joy at having a lovely hat and a box of chocolates while sitting at a trolly stop, but must contend with nosy people (Art Bigotti, Mr. Nezzer, Miss Achmetha, Apollo Gourd, and Scallion #1) and the hot sun.

The New and Improved Silly Songs with Larry

• "Bellybutton" (The Ballad of Little Joe) Written by Mike Nawrocki - In the introduction to this song, the latest boy band "Boyz in the Sink" (Mr. Lunt, Larry, Jimmy Gourd, and Junior Asparagus) dramatically state their intent to be "serious" artists. During the song, Mr. Lunt confesses that he lacks a navel in this song and he goes to the hospital to see the doctor and nurse (Khalil the Caterpillar and Miss Achmetha) for help. The song is a direct parody of such groups as The Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, and O-Town, and the band itself is named after Boyz in the Hood. This is the first Silly Song to not be shot on the normal countertop stage.

• "Sport Utility Vehicle" (A Snoodle's Tale) - Larry and Miss Achmetha sing of their admiration for each other's SUV's, but stuck in their sedentary lifestyles, they can only dream of going off-road and performing daring rescues.

• "Schoolhouse Polka" (Sumo of the Opera) - Presented as "Schoolhouse Polka with Larry". In a parody of Schoolhouse Rock!, Larry plays the accordion and sings a song about homophones that is sung to the tune of Oklahoma. Larry's appearance in this song, with hair, glasses and clothing, is based on a real-life teacher named Hans who was one of Mike Nawrocki's childhood teachers.

• "The Blues With Larry" (Duke and the Great Pie War) - Larry enthusiastically tries to sing the Blues, but lacks the life-experience as his version of the Blues is filled with sunshine and happiness. A blues singer named Blind Lemon Lincoln tries to help by making Larry sad so he'll get it right but there is always something that makes Larry happy again. A frustrated Lemon eventually gives up ("Sorry, man, you way too happy to sing the blues!"), but Oscar arrives to give Larry more appropriate backup.

• "Pizza Angel" (Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush) - Larry is awaiting his order of pizza, which has been late for hours, and sings a desperate 50's-style love ballad as he waits. When the pizza finally comes, it is revealed that the delivery man missed the door because a number was upside down (and that he ate the pizza out of boredom).

• "My Baby Elf" (Lord of the Beans) - Presented as "Silly Songs with Elves, the part of the show where Ear-a-Corn comes out and sings a silly song for elves". Ear-a-Corn (Larry, dresses as Elvis Presley) sings a song about an elvish girl, whose elf-language disdain for Ear-a-Corn is mistranslated as compliments towards him. Leg-o-Lamb (Jimmy Gourd) interrupts near the end, pulling Ear-a-Corn's fake ears off and accusing Ear-a-Corn of being an "elvish impersonator".

• "Gated Community" (Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler) - Larry's ball bounces behind the wall of a gated community. Instead of helping him, the residents of the community just sing about how lovely life is there, much to Larry's irritation and annoyance.

• "Lance the Turtle" (Gideon Tuba Warrior) - With Larry absent (he ran off to host with The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything), the French Peas force Bob to stand in with a replacement segment, "Ukulele Karaoke with Bob". Confused and completely unprepared, Bob sings the lyrics to his backup singers, "The Wiggly Turtle Toobies" (a trio of peas perched on turtle-shaped cutouts). Just as Bob is starting to enjoy singing, he accidentally shreds his script through a fan, forcing the Peas to hastily tape the script back together and creating completely-nonsensical lyrics.

• "A Mess Down In Egypt" (Moe and the Big Exit) - The would-be boy band, Boyz In The Sink (Larry, Mr. Lunt, Jimmy Gourd, and Junior Asparagus) interrupt the Silly Song announcer in order to tell the actual Moses story in their own way. However, Bob comes in and tells them that the show is sticking with its own Western version of the story.

• "Monkey" (The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's) - While on a photo safari, Larry continually repeats what he heard from an expert about the difference between monkeys and apes ("if it has a tail then it's a monkey, if it doesn't have a tail then it's an ape"), applying such logic to everything he sees. Bob repeatedly tries to correct Larry, but after Larry mistakenly identifies a cow as a monkey, the tomato gives up in frustration.

• "The Biscuit of Zazzamarandabo" (Huckleberry Larry) - When Larry forgets to write a silly song, Archibald jumps in with a song of his own. In the song, Larry, Archibald, Pa Grape, Mr. Lunt, and the French Peas go a journey to see the famed "Biscuit of Zazzamarandabo". However, Larry (the driver) is constantly stopping to get something, which leaves Archibald frustrated. After a long journey (in which they first accidentally end up at the "Biscuit of Doug") and with 0.1 miles left to the Biscuit of Zazzamarandabo, they turn around to take a "potty break", with the nearest restroom 57 miles in the opposite direction.

• "Sneeze if You Need To!" (Abe and the Amazing Promise) - Bob needs to sneeze and visits the Sneeze Doctor (Larry) who tries multiple methods (potpourri, flowers, bright light, a bowling ball, a toilet plunger) to get Bob to sneeze. Meanwhile, the nurse (Mr. Lunt) shares trivia about sneezing.

• "Sippy Cup" (Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah's Umbrella) - Larry goes to a fancy restaurant and asks for some water in a glass. The waiter (Mr. Lunt) won't because Larry has spilled grape juice in the past and forces the cucumber to use a sippy cup. Larry tries to argue his case with the waiter, busboy (Jimmy), and maître d' (Madame Blueberry), but they insist that Larry uses the sippy cup. When a courtroom judge (Mr. Nezzer) is about to pass the sippy cup sentence, the governor calls in and says that Larry can have a glass of grape juice... which he promptly spills.

• "Donuts for Benny" (Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving) - Presented as "Helpful Humanitarian Songs with Mr. Lunt". Mr. Lunt sings about Benny, a poor old mutt who sits outside a donut shop and begs for donuts. At Mr. Lunt's urging, passersby keep giving Benny donuts, but he learns the hard ways that dogs shouldn't be fed donuts when Benny goes off on a hyperactive rendition of "Waltz Me Around Again, Willie".

• "Where Have All the Staplers Gone?" (Pistachio - The Little Boy That Woodn't) - Presented as "Obscure Broadway Show Tunes with Larry." Larry and Petunia lament the misplacement of various office supplies and reminisce about the time when they were plentiful. At the end, the narrator promotes Act 2, "Revenge of the Staplers".

• "Pants" (Sweetpea Beauty) - Presented as a "Veggie Shopping Network" infomercial. Larry and Pa Grape sell pants to viewers while Jimmy and Jerry Gourd show them off on stilts.

• "Goodnight Junior (It's a Meaningful Life) - Presented as "Bedtime Songs with Junior", Junior overworks his mom into getting everything he needs for bedtime.

• "Hopperena" (Twas The Night Before Easter) - Presented as "The Latest Dance Craze with Jean-Claude and Philippe", the French Peas invent a new dance craze (a spoof of the Macarena), which Archibald becomes a big fan of... too much so.

• "Astonishing Wigs!" (The Princess and the Popstar) - In an installment of "The History of Fashion with Archibald", Archibald and a pack of singing pigs sing about wigs.

• "The Eight Polish Foods Of Christmas" - (The Little Drummer Boy) - At "A VeggieTales Christmas Party", Oscar the Polish Caterer arrives to serve his filling cuisine (sung to "The 12 Days of Christmas"). Originally recorded for the "A Very Veggie Christmas" album, but played for the first time with animation.

Compilation album

• "And Now It's Time for Silly Songs with Larry", Action Music ASIN B00005N8X1, Nov. 16, 2001.
• "25 Favorite Silly Songs!", Jul. 16, 2011.