Track Title:               I'm Tickled Silly (aka 'Slapstick')


Prime Artist:              Olin Howland
Lyrics by:                 Arthur Francis (pseudonym for Ira Gershwin)
Lyrics by:                 Ira Gershwin     (b. Israel Gershvin)
Music by:                  Paul Lannin

Vocal:                     Oscar Shaw
Vocal:                     Fred Santley
From the Show:             Two Little Girls In Blue  1921 (S)

Lyrics:
Verse 1

When the lastest film by Sennett
Or by Fox is mentioned, then it
Is my one and burning wish
To get a seat for it.
All the highbrows call 'em frightful,
But for my part they're delightful,
So I comb the town and look
On ev'ry street for it.
I'm a gent, and I'm a scholar,
Yet I'd part with my last dollar
Just to see a slapstick artist frolic.
Though there's nothing that's dramatic
In his actions acrobatic,
There's an end to all that's melancholic.

Refrain 1

I'm tickled silly
When there is a scene
Where a chap gets a rap
On the bean;
When, willy-nilly,
A brick or a pie
Comes to rest on his chest
Or his eye.
Life is complete
When I gaze at his feet
As they gambol all over the street.
Off goes a gun,
And I chortle with glee,
When, on the run,
They all fall in the sea.
I laugh when they choke 'em,
The old movie hokum for me.

When you see a film by Chaplin,
Though your name be Smith or Kaplan,
I am very sure you're bound to be hilarious;
With young Lloyd or Keaton clowning
(Though you know your Keats and Browning),
You'll say slapstick hath a charm
That's multifarious.
When a fav'rite movie idol
Does a stunt that's suicidal,
Bookworms all declare it's not aesthetic.
Yet when he's hit by a wagon
Or he gets an awful jag on,
Who cares if the scene in not poetic?

Refrain 2

I'm tickled silly
And I've got to roar
When they all start to fall
Through the floor;
When, willy-nilly,
A club or a mop
Finds a home on the dome
Of a cop.
My heart's aglow
When they find things are slow
And they start slinging pastry and dough.
Scenes on the beach
Make me holler with glee;
When there's a peach
Losing her dignity;
Whenever they grill 'em,
Whenever they kill 'em,
Oh, that is the "fillem" for me!

Contributed by Carlene Bogle