Modern Major-General | The Pirates of Penzance | TUNE

[@Victorblud]

Wasn't this song meant to show that generals were kind of worthless because they knew a lot of things but nothing practical to battle. That's how my uncle explained it to me.

[@DivingDog0]

Exactly. He knows more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery (which is a poor boast), he has a "smattering" of "elemental" strategy (which is to say, not a lot), and he can tell a mauser rifle from a javelin (which anyone can do if they're not blind). They sum it up with "my military knowledge... has only been brought down to the beginning of the century". So he knows a lot about warfare in Napoleonic times, while he's living in the Victorian. Everything he knows is outdated and probably from a history book.

[@craisins95]

Those generals were the kind of dudes that Lawrence of Arabia dealt with daily. They didn’t recognize that guerrilla warfare had any merit because it was “savage and uncivilized.” Granted we could learn a lot from Lawrence of Arabia and his respect of the native cultures.

[@Leightr]

@@DivingDog0 Remember, he says "when" before each of those statements, in other words he does not yet know more of tactics than a novice nun or posses even a smattering of strategy, nor can he (just yet) distinguish a javelin from a Mauser. But when he finally does figure all that out then just watch out!

[@DivingDog0]

@@Leightr That's a great catch. XD

[@samuelbell2321]

At the time the Musical was Writen (1879) the last major war Britain had faught in was The Crimean war. There was at this time a strong sense of disolusion with the compitance of officers at this time and the habbit of them being braught from the gentry. The history and reasons behind this are quite intresting but the main reasons the ranks like major general where filled with the likes of this song where simple. Regular battle experince doesnt train you well for higher ranks, There was a idea arround the skills needing to be learnt on the job but that the best candidates to do this are thoes with aplicable skills. This was why the Idea of Martial prowess split apart, you can have good generals who are bad warriors hense why lawyers and business men where thaught good fits. You dont need to know how to hold a rifle or march a line to read orders from white horse and how to organises the logistic of a battle.

[@lavamatstudios]

I want to be as happy about my accomplishments in life as this man is about knowing high school math.

[@strugglingcollegestudent]

Pretty good for a pirate lol

[@joshuaplotkin8826]

@@strugglingcollegestudent he's a general, not a pirate

[@veebee854]

I just peed a little from laughing at your comment 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@insertnamehere_262]

@@joshuaplotkin8826 not just any general, but the very model of a modern major general

[@sudanemamimikiki1527]

All of the stuff this guy is bragging about knowing is stuff that any person who finished school was expected to know.

[@jobe616]

I didn't know "sat a gee" was a real phrase and thought he just made it up for the rhyme and everyone was playing along. I thought THAT was the joke, but the joke was on me.

[@B-Randall]

Well my guy was really good at riding a horse, so I don’t know what you expected lol

[@A4000]

The joke is not on you my friend. You are the joke.

[@MaizeAndBlueWahoo]

Don't beat yourself up....there's a lot of jokes in that song that were more easily understood by Gilbert and Sullivan's contemporary audiences than ones of today. For example, the full song contains a claim by the Major General that he can "hum a fugue", which is literally impossible as a fugue is a counterpoint composition that can never be played by one instrument or hummed by one person.

[@jpc2470]

@@A4000 I think you’re taking it a bit too seriously lol

[@A4000]

@@jpc2470 you can think? Good job.

[@SamPasserdoodlesandhappenings]

This must be one of the hardest songs to sing. It must be torture to memorize all the lyrics to the song and then sing it without stuttering or skipping a beat.

[@ahobbit1273]

Actually, Gilbert and Sullivan were fantastic at making fast-paced songs that still had a flow that made it possible to learn and pronounce!

[@kellydemando3303]

I think once you have any music memorized, the performing part comes a lot more naturally. I have the first verse memorized, and I can sing it pretty well. But I haven’t memorized the part that begins “I know our mythic history, King Arthur and Sir Caradox” as well, so of course that part is harder 😅

[@dovmorris407]

I've sung this in a production, and even a decade later I can sing it through. It sticks with you well

[@JoeLibby]

Once you know one of the patter songs, it's stuck in your head forever!

[@dovmorris407]

@@JoeLibby 100%

[@Gokou3036]

Nice high quality video of this song. Still like to listen to every once in a while since being introduced to it by a certain Salarian. This one makes me less sad 😂

[@Hotarg]

The VA recorded a full version with orchestra, just in case you haven't seen it.

[@B-Randall]

And once you know the song well enough, you can find it all over the place. Especially if it’s just the melody with “I am the very model of a ______” as the lyrics.

[@hermanmunster7672]

My xeno science studies range from urban to agrarian…

[@OceanHedgehog]

Pack it up, guys. This man can tell the difference between a rifle and a javelin. He's a military genius.

[@dominickeijzer5844]

He's more than just a military genius He is the very model of a modern major General.

[@robertoorrego4374]

no he cant. he's saying *when* I can tell a Mauser rifle from a javelin. once he figures it out you'll say a better general has never rode a horse. but at the moment he cant

[@deadbydayinblack]

But he does know what a commissariat is exactly....and..yeah that was a problem. Back then

[@samuelgates5935]

This is the best version yet!!!!

[@KingLouisII]

Nah… it cuts a verse. Disqualified.

[@gawainethefirst]

Mordin’s version is pretty good too.

[@Hotarg]

​@@gawainethefirst8 bit big band did the full version, if you want to see it in full glory

[@rashakor]

Waaah! Kevin Kline and Rex Smith are in their absolute physical prime here.

[@bucketsdoesstuff2824]

PSA that listening to this while writing an essay makes you feel like you know everything and can write at the speed of light. I speak from experience.

[@azvascos7542]

And I listened to mellow music like James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel. I had it wrong!

[@shimyku7820]

You know, Yakko's World doesn't seem that hard to sing, actually

[@toga941]

He did sing a parody version of this song too.

[@12neef]

@@toga941you are so right. I completely forgot about it.

[@savannahnowicki4453]

This has 69 likes so I don’t want to mess that up but do know that I love your comment

[@Booker8991]

"Cup of tea!" "Allergy!"

[@cretanarcher5914]

Drake's been real quiet since this dropped...

[@JaceDanielFilms]

I like that random intimidation kiss at 0:32

[@adventureswithaurora]

Same. 🤣🤣🤣

[@AitorMolina.]

*Top 10 rappers Eminem was too afraid to diss*

[@kaybryant5099]

Fr though

[@racoonracer7878]

Old stuff. Classic stuff. Still entertaining when I first watched this decades ago. Man, I feel old now 😢

[@l.salisbury1253]

1:31 - "Scary hippopotamus! Scary hippopotamus! Scary hippopotamus!" -Martin Crane

[@AveCaesar2025]

I would really really hate to be the one having to sing this. Nothing but unbounded admiration for the performance.

[@craigmcfly]

The only crime with this version is that the middle verse is removed.

[@JustineWittich]

G&S, beautifully done, is always a delight!

[@akiva2112]

“I am the very model of a Scientist Salarian!”

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

Thanks. Now I have to go to the corner and cry.

[@TheTrueDiablix]

Would've liked to study those seashells.

[@robertmiles1603]

lol when homer tried to sing this while backflipping but crashed into a wall

[@barahng]

3:18 The original Rap God

[@lynnzomkowski4284]

Rap God at his best

[@bubzgonzola_supreme]

3:45 The sheer look of madness as man realizes he is becoming a god.

[@StarWarsMoments]

He might be a major general, but he's also completely alone.

[@LextheRobot]

The tallest daughter, unless I am mistaken, was the Muppet performer who played Annie Sue Pig.

[@CatherineLopez-fp4ox]

Thank You For You’re Service’s To George Rose R.I.P Royal Marine 🇲🇵

[@SwampNymph522]

This is one of the most difficult songs to sing because of its patter lyrics. I learned this year that the key to acing them is to move your mouth like you’re chewing.

[@ScrubDaddy265]

I had no idea as a kid that this was so “gay.” I liked pirates and music and wackiness. 🤣 I still love this.

[@zardox78]

At a certain point, the closed captioning just outright gives up trying.

[@weswolever7477]

My sister and I shared a house for some time and would have mom and dad over for dinner quite often. One time this was the after dinner entertainment

[@nathanielhirshfeld5618]

Aha! So this is where The Sailor's Hornpipe comes from

[@goddessmelanisia]

Is that a young Kevin Kline in eyeliner and leggings? 😂

[@MidwesternDiva]

Yup! He’s said it’s one of his favorite roles ever.

[@ponyote]

Kevin looking so very patient.

[@daneelolivaw1972]

Wow... How hard it must be to sing at that speed... 😮

[@SunnyC.D.A221]

That Xylophone player though

[@58christiansful]

This is supremely funny.

[@drivingonice]

I wonder why they cut out the middle of the song.

[@dplatt7290]

This is a fun movie!

[@cobracorporal6738]

1:07 - *I am the very model of a modern major general, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral* *I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical from Marathon to Waterloo in order categorical* *I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical, I understand equations both the simple and quadratical, about binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news*

[@martythetickler]

*Got it - with many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse!!*

[@thephysicistcuber175]

​@@martythetickler*I'm very good at integral and different calculus, I know the scientific names of beings animaculous, in short in matters vegetable animal and mineral I am the very model of a modern major general.*

[@JahJah-CleverHandle]

@@thephysicistcuber175 *I know our mythic history: King Arthur and Sir Caradoc’s, I answer hard acrostics I’ve a pretty taste for paradox, I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus, in comics I can floor peculiarities parabolis.*

[@EcaciaOfficial]

@@JahJah-CleverHandle*I can tell undoubted raphaels from gerard dows and zoffanies i know the croaking chorus from the frogs of aristophanes then i can hum a fugue of which ive heard the musics din afore*

[@lionsjourney29]

Though the lyrics are the same, did anyone manage to keep up with the fast paced bit? I got almost 90% lol the rest seemed a bit slurred/combined

[@RiverandtheWorld]

The man who played the Major General, George Rose, was murdered in the Caribbean 5 years after being in this movie. He was tortured and beaten to death by his adopted son, the boy's biological father, his uncle, and a friend of the father. They tried to make it look like he died in a car accident, but they later confessed. All four were charged and spent time in prison, but no trial was ever held; and eventually all were released. RIP Major General.

[@lynnzomkowski4284]

Yes I read that years ago so tragic

[@TooRudeProductions]

I'm so glad I dropped out of this musical in high school

[@nigelis2345]

But can the Modern Major General beat a Scientest Salarian?

[@jester9217]

Not only is it a rap its better than most modern raps because it actually rhymes

[@reginabillotti]

Why did they cut out a verse?

[@Phoenixesper1]

If you listen to this song, slow it down, and remove the words and add in horns, you have quite literally... the jack sparrow theme to pirates of the Carribean.

[@cube-drone]

if you take this song, rearrange the notes, change the words, and set it to a sweet house track you have "Contact" by Daft Punk

[@WanderingWayfinderLibrarian]

What a rockstar

[@davidbaxter4910]

I SMILE...

[@mitchweiss4568]

I SAW THIS ON BROADWAY, 41 YEARS AGO

[@MIAKRI-pi2bq]

now it's Freeman's Mind reference

[@TattyDarling]

AKA: warmup

[@CSLucasEpic]

Man... I wish I was a Modern Major-General...

[@kurtporschmann2530]

I want to know why this was recommended to me... I've watched three different versions so far...

[@LoftBits]

If they were to make this movie today, they'd have problems finding actors who can speak that fast whilst remaining intelligible... Watch another jewel from this flick "It doesn't really matter" with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury.

[@kaybryant5099]

I can I just need words

[@reginabillotti]

Not at all, unless they insist on Hollywood a-listers. Plenty of theater actors could handle these roles.

[@JahJah-CleverHandle]

I mean, I learned this song in a few weeks practicing only a bit each day. I can (and have done) the whole song on beat.

[@thomasrinschler6783]

I really like the Broadway album with this cast, and while I mostly like the movie version here, they cut too much out - the biggest offender of which is cutting the entire second verse of this song.

[@ktznchz]

Kevin Klein!!!??!!

[@51migneri]

Poor George Rose…

[@inforeactors7442]

class

[@pippipster6767]

Very nice quality, but not a patch on the performance by Andrew Shore as Major General-Stanley, with Joshua Bloom as Pirate King and Claudia Boyle as Mabel in the ENO production by film director Mike Leigh. (Is on YT.)

[@A4000]

lol, terrible taste.

[@NoahSpurrier]

What is meant by commissariat?

[@ErinChappel]

I wonder how long it took for him to get all that right.

[@matthewhodgson7388]

👍

[@Shadowkey392]

How many times do you think people have fainted while rehearsing this?

[@lucase.garcia8026]

The perfect AI cover for General Grievous...

[@miamouse]

the final boss of one piece

[@christopherneufelt8971]

They don't make anymore such generals😁

[@davidbaxter4910]

HA! HA A RRR AH!

[@lorenwoirhaye4687]

Now, in my 50s, I like this stuff. These silly kids know nothing.

[@laurenconrad1799]

I saw this film when I was 8. Also, there’s a revival coming to Broadway intended to attract millennials and possibly Gen Z’ers. Silly kids are learning. 😉

[@sashafierce4524]

Family Guy brought me here for some reason 🤣

[@Lazarus1095]

Eh. Mordin Solus did it better.

[@bcsny47]

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium....

[@KingLouisII]

Kind of unnecessary to cut out a verse. Pffff… 80s adaptations. 🙄

[@joshuasimons9887]

All that and I still dont actually know what a major general does besides win rap battles...

[@robertkojima5188]

Anyone here from Freeman's Mind? 😂

[@jorinmangiduyos7131]

Whats is hes country Prussia?

[@Booker8991]

UK

[@jenniferweston7621]

Penzance is a port in Cornwall, England, so...

[@phily8093]

Very obviously England.

[@martinfiedler4317]

@@phily8093 Very obviously Cornwall...

[@phily8093]

@@martinfiedler4317 exactly. Cornwall, England

[@andrewsnyder9148]

Eminem got nothing on him

[@chloeburrescia9001]

Minion Vibes, anyone?😅

[@DarkOverlord96]

*NO*

[@jenniferweston7621]

Even Minions can't sing that fast.