MR FORTY-FIVE (Parody of) Mrs. Robinson – Simon and Garfunkel

Everyone knows who Mrs. Robinson is, and everyone also knows who Mr. Forty-five is, though most people who use that terminology just say “Forty-five” and leave the “Mr.” off altogether. Aside from that, you will be surprised at how many of the words from “Mrs. Robinson” fit very nicely into this new parody, “Mr. Forty-five.”

Sign up for our mailing list below (never shared)
and we’ll notify you when we post a new parody:

If you’d like to become a patron of Parody Project
just click the button below:

LYRICS MR. FORTY FIVE

And here’s to you Mr. Forty-five,
Jesus will not bail you out you know.
Woe, woe, woe
God isn’t pleased Mr. Forty-five.
Heaven knows you don’t know how to pray.
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey

Mueller would like to know a bit about you for his files.
He’d like you to incriminate yourself.
Jail is not a place where you’ll see sympathetic eyes.
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.

And here’s to you Mr Forty-five.
You’re obsessed with pardons, wonder why.
Lie, lie, lie
You like the power of handing pardons out,
something that the judges can’t undo.
Woo, woo, woo
Woo, woo, woo

Kim Kardashian asked you, so you freed Alice Marie.
Wrote a message on your steak in catsup.
We know you’ve been thinking about pardoning yourself.
Most of all you should provide one for the kids.

Koo koo ka choo, Mr. Forty-five.
You’ve done far more damage than you know.
Woe, woe, woe
The world has all turned against us now.
What did you expect that they would do?
Boo hoo hoo
Boo hoo hoo

Give yourself a pardon on a Sunday afternoon.
Then tweet how you’ve done nothing wrong.
Talk about it, tweet about it, either way you choose,
any way you look at it you lose.

We wish you gone more than you could know.
The nation turns it’s weary eyes from you.
Woo, woo, woo
And we will be, Mr. forty-five,
relieved when you’ve left and gone away.
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
 

INFO ON THE SOURCE MATERIAL

Mrs. Robinson
Single by Simon & Garfunkel
from the album Bookends and from the feature film, The Graduate
B-side “Old Friends/Bookends”
Released April 5, 1968
Format 7″ single
Recorded February 2, 1968

“Mrs. Robinson” is a song by American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it is famous for its inclusion in the 1967 film The Graduate. The song was written by Paul Simon, who pitched it to director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The song contains a famous reference to baseball star Joe DiMaggio.

“Mrs. Robinson” became the duo’s second chart-topper, hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and peaking within the top 10 of multiple other countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain, among others. In 1969, it became the first rock song to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The song has been covered by a number of artists, including Frank Sinatra, the Lemonheads, and Bon Jovi.

Simon & Garfunkel reached national fame in the United States in 1965–66, touring colleges and releasing a string of hit singles and albums. Meanwhile, director Mike Nichols, then filming The Graduate, became fascinated with the duo’s past two efforts, listening to them nonstop before and after filming. After two weeks of this obsession, he met with Columbia Records chairman Clive Davis to ask for permission to license Simon & Garfunkel music for his film. Davis viewed it as a perfect fit and envisioned a best-selling soundtrack album. Simon was not as immediately receptive, viewing movies as akin to “selling out”, but he agreed to write at least one or two new songs for the film after being impressed by Nichols’ wit and the script. Leonard Hirshan, a powerful agent at William Morris, negotiated a deal that paid Simon $25,000 to submit three songs to Nichols and producer Lawrence Turman.

Several weeks later, Simon re-emerged with two new tracks, “Punky’s Dilemma” and “Overs,” neither of which Nichols was particularly taken with. Nichols asked if the duo had any more songs to offer, and after a break from the meeting, they returned with an early version of “Mrs. Robinson”. They had been working on a track titled “Mrs. Roosevelt,” and returned to perform it for Nichols. He was ecstatic about the song, later commenting, “They filled in with dee de dee dee de dee dee dee because there was no verse yet, but I liked even that.” Garfunkel later expanded upon the song’s placement in The Graduate:

Paul had been working on what is now ‘Mrs. Robinson’, but there was no name in it and we’d just fill in with any three-syllable name. And because of the character in the picture we just began using the name ‘Mrs. Robinson’ to fit […] and one day we were sitting around with Mike talking about ideas for another song. And I said ‘What about Mrs. Robinson.’ Mike shot to his feet. ‘You have a song called “Mrs. Robinson” and you haven’t even shown it to me?’ So we explained the working title and sang it for him. And then Mike froze it for the picture as ‘Mrs. Robinson’.[5]

The final version of “Mrs. Robinson” was completed on February 2, 1968, at Columbia Studio A in New York City.[6] The recording was released more than three months after the release of The Graduate, but through its numerous radio plays became an important cross-promotion of the film during its initial run in theaters.

For more from Parody Project you can watch our parody of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Also we have Tippy Top, a commentary on the Nuclear Posture Review of 2018.