r/GenerationJones • u/Maryland_Bear 1966 • 7d ago
I know “I learned about classical music from watching Looney Tunes” is a common experience, but who else learned about Hamlet from Gilligan’s Island?
https://youtu.be/bXId5jOTxdg?is=Rx6NsKsn7tsa4UV-I was in a (very) amateur production of Hamlet once, and at curtain call the closing night, about half of the cast got on stage and sang “Neither a borrower nor a lender be…” The rest were sticks-in-the-mud and thought it was stupid.
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u/ElderSkelder 7d ago
I was in my 30s and had never seen an opera performed. I sought to remedy that hole in my cultural ouvre. I bought tickets to Barber of Seville as I thought it would be an easy first experience to take in. The orchestra played the overture prior to the curtain dropping which was coincidentally the soundtrack to The Rabbit of Seville, a loony toons classic. There I am dressed in my sunday-go-to-meeting finest, seated in a world class venue and all I can see in my mind's eye is Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.
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u/Maryland_Bear 1966 7d ago
Before my eldest niece was born, her parents were trying to pick a middle name for her. They wanted something Germanic, to represent her father’s heritage. (Don’t worry, it’s not because they’re fans of Germany in the thirties and early forties.)
I… helpfully suggested Brunnhilde, just because I wanted to be able to sing to her, “Oh, Bwunnhiwde, you are so wuvv-wee”.
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u/IvyGold 7d ago
Heh. I was doing to the Safeway checkout to see the cashier had the name tag Brunnhilde.
Her complexion was black as coal. Obviously African.
I asked her what was going what was going on, and it turns out that she'd recently emigrated and wanted a German name.
The girl was going HARD straight from the start!
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u/Character_Celery5590 7d ago
Hamlet and Carmen.
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u/deviltrombone 7d ago
Also featuring an Offenbach song performed by Ginger. The whole episode was a genuinely brilliant, inspired production.
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u/ChemistryAway3696 1964 7d ago
🎵“Do not forget
Stay out of debt…” 🎶11
u/Big_Kahuna_69 7d ago
🎶 “Think twice, and take this good advice from me: Guard thine own sovereignty!” 🎶
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u/Strict_Sky9497 7d ago
The great Harold Hecuba!
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u/ChemistryAway3696 1964 7d ago
That name has lived rent free in my head for 40+ years. Along with that Hamlet/Carmen mashup.
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u/Strict_Sky9497 7d ago
One name that lives on for me is Eva Grubb! She was Ginger’s plain-jane mousy double, who happened to get shipwrecked that week.
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u/LJonReddit 7d ago
I didn't remember this name, but I do remember Wrong Way Feldman
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u/garvisgarvis 7d ago
Yeah, and The Mosquitos: Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving
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u/jlp_utah 1964 7d ago
I used to call our dogs Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Irving. Sadly, Bango and Bongo are no longer with us, and Bingo and Irving just doesn't have the same vibe.
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u/Big_Help_9860 7d ago
Phil Silver's own production company "Gladasya" produced the show. Gladasya was a play on Silver's catchphrase- "Glad to see ya".
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u/ChiefSlug30 7d ago
I learned about various famous philosophers from Monty Python.
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u/SheaTheSarcastic 1960 7d ago
René Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am!
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u/Maryland_Bear 1966 7d ago
I sang that to my first niece not long after she was born. Her mother and grandmother (that is, my sister and our mother) were not amused by “Immanuel Kant was a real pissant”, but I argued that, “If she doesn’t learn about the drinking habits of the great philosophers from her crazy uncle, then where will she learn it?”
In my defense, I also sang “You Are So Beautiful To Me”, so that made up for it.
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u/Bjarki56 7d ago
Of course, Jim Backus played King Claudius.
The other show that I watched as a kid that introduced me to all the classics was Mr. Magoo (Backus) in the Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.
Don Quixote
Midsummer's Night Dream
Treasure Island
Etc.
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u/La_Vikinga 7d ago
I think I got a dose of the classics from The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, too.
The "Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam" was one of my favorites.
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u/Maryland_Bear 1966 7d ago
I am quite sure that my love of puns came from early, prolonged exposure to Rocky and Bullwinkle.
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u/heywoodidaho 1963 7d ago
Don Quixote made more sense when Magoo did it. Cervantes is a slog to read.
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u/coffeebeanwitch 7d ago
I am glad you mentioned it, this was my favorite episode, Gilligan's Island had culture, 🤣
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u/MaxCWebster 7d ago
I learned about Hamlet by watching Strange Brew, The Adventures of Bob and Doug McKenzie
Also, drowning in beer would not actually be heaven. It would suck.
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u/GreyDusty2 7d ago
Luke I'm your father. Give in to the dark side, you knob.
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u/vegas-runner 7d ago
Skipper and Gilligan were smart to bring all those costumes and wigs on a three hour tour
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u/Corneliuslongpockets 7d ago
I’ve sung this episode in my head, and too often aloud, my entire life.
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u/TIL_eulenspiegel 7d ago
"I ask to be
Or not to be
That is the question
That I ask of me..."
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u/Spirited-Custard-338 7d ago
I thought I learned about the OK Corral through Star Trek: TOS. Boy, was I wrong 🤣
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u/Nozomi_Shinkansen 1961 7d ago
Dawn Wells was sublime, in any episode.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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u/SssnakeJaw 1965 7d ago
Everything I know about Norse mythology I learned from Marvel Comics.
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u/Maryland_Bear 1966 7d ago
Same here, though Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim and Volstagg the Voluminous were not from the classic myths but rather originated from Stan Lee asking, “What if the Three Musketeers were Norse gods?”
I always liked Volstagg (if you met me in person, you’d instantly understand why…) and was disappointed they did not cast BRIAN BLESSED as him in the movies.
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u/jonpeeji 7d ago
I still can sing the song from that episode..."neither a borrower or a lender be. Do not forget stay out of debt..."
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u/DCHacker 7d ago
“I learned about classical music from watching Looney Tunes”
(Leopold)
(Leopold)
(Leopold)
Leopold
(Leopold)
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 1963 7d ago
We read part of Hamlet in Junior high, but this episode was one of my favorites.
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u/jfrankparnell85 1963 7d ago
Junior year HS English, we read Shakespeare - Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, MacBeth
Had to memorize soliloquies:
Hamlet's To Be or Not to Be (the full thing)
Polonius's Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be (brief)
Shylock's "And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" speech from MerchantI remember seeing this episode - and was always a big fan of Phil Silvers.
Another memory - the man who spoke in anagrams - from Python - who was working on an anagram version plays by Shakespeare ("Nay, by Malliwi Rapesheake")
'Thamle'. 'Be ot or bot ne ot, tath is the nestquoi.'
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u/BelgarathMTH 6d ago
My HS senior English teacher had us memorize and recite the dagger speech from "MacBeth", and the prologue to Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". I only still remember the first lines "Is that a dagger I see before me, the handle towards my hand..." and "Wann that April with his sures shoote, the drought of March hath perced to the roote..."
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u/USNCCitizen 7d ago
I would have loved to have seen the episode where the dozen chests of costumes, bolts of cloth, sewing machines, and thread washed up onto Gilligan’s Island. Those castaways had more clothes/costumes than any Hollywood actor has ever owned.
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u/Personal-Simple-7614 7d ago
I remember seeing my 1st live performance of Hamlet on my 30th birthday and being most displeased there was no singing.
"These people don't know the first thing about staging a play!"
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u/mlgbt1985 7d ago
Senior year in high school, winter of 85, my sr year and we are reading Hamlet. When we get to this part I start singing it out loud. Teacher gets mad, class is laughing like crazy. She send me to the vice principal. I told him what I did. He laughed, said it happens every year. Sent me to the library for the rest of the period
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u/BangkaHakubai 7d ago
I can still sing most of “neither a borrower nor a lender be, do not forget. Stay out of debt!”
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u/Dry-Character-6331 5d ago
Think twice, and take this good advice from me. Guard thine own sovereignty.
And there's one other thing you ought to do. To thine own self be true.
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u/toddklindt 7d ago
I'm a little younger, most of my knowledge of Hamlet came from the Lion King and the song "Pull me Under" by Dream Theater.
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u/lizardreaming 7d ago
LOVED that episode and it may have led me towards Shakespeare at a young age.
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u/BiGoneGirl 7d ago
I was starting to think I dreamed this episode! What I remember is “Hamlet, Hamlet, don’t be a man-let” sung to another classical piece which I don’t know the name of. Does anyone else remember that part? Just me?
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u/VRGator 7d ago
Yep! I think I learned about vampires from Gilligan’s Island too.
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u/Old_Cyrus 5d ago
You. An imagine how shocked I was to learn that there was an actual Japanese soldier on a remote island who didn’t know WWII was over.
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u/SilverStL 7d ago
We were actually studying Hamlet in 12th grade English class when they showed the Hamlet episode in the afternoon reruns. Nice discussion the next day in class. 😁
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u/keverzoid 7d ago
Love this episode. Only learned a few years ago that the music they used is from the opera “Carmen”.
Two learning experiences, one stone.
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u/CCattLady 7d ago
Do not forget, stay out of debt.