America the Beautiful

"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song which rivals "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States, in popularity. It is often found in Christian hymnals in a wide variety of churches in the United States, and may be sung as part of a Christian service of worship to God.

Takeoffs

A song as popular and familiar as "America the Beautiful" inevitably gets used out of its proper context or time frame, for humorous effect. As the song seems to have "always been there", it is often presented as if Christopher Columbus had written it when he arrived at the New World (though in fact, Columbus never set foot on North America; all his voyages were to the Caribbean islands, South and Central America). Some examples:

Related Topics:
Christopher Columbus - New World - North America - Caribbean islands - South - Central America

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• A Far Side cartoon from 1982 (reprinted in Sherr's book) shows Columbus nearing land, with his crew of conquistador types, and saying, "Look, gentlemen! Purple mountains! Spacious skies! Fruited plains! ... Is someone writing this down?"
• In one of his comedy club routines in the early 1960s, Flip Wilson did a Columbus story with an African-American twist... ironically, the catchphrase repeated by Queen Isabel (an early "Geraldine") is "Chris gon' find Ray Charles!" When his Columbus sees land, he comments, "It's America, all right... just look at those spacious skies... those amber waves of grain... dig that purple mountain's majesty... I'll bet there's fruit out there on the plain!"
• In his satirical, musical record album, The United States of America, Volume 1, Stan Freberg plays Columbus, Jesse White plays a skeptical King Ferdinand, and Colleen Collins does Queen Isabella (mimicking Tallulah Bankhead), resulting in this bit of dialogue: http://freberg.8m.com/text/usa1.html

:Ferdinand: Look at him in that hat! Is that a crazy sailor?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Isabella: Crazy? I'll tell you how crazy! He's a man with a dream, a vision, a vision of a new world, whose alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears, with purple mountain majesties above the Two Cents Plain . . .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Ferdinand and Columbus: Fruited!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Isabella: Fruited.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

George Carlin performed a satirical version around 1970, when environmental issues were becoming a hot political topic: http://www.creativequotations.com/one/1309b.htm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:Oh beautiful, for smoggy skies, insecticided grain

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:America, America, man sheds his waste on thee

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~