Whoopee!, a musical produced by Flo Ziegfeld and
Sam Goldwyn and featuring the song "Makin' Whoopee,"
opened at the New Amsterdam, Broadway's oldest theatre,
in 1928. Three years later Emma Harris, Whoopi Goldberg's
mother, was born.
Within Savannah's vast savanna
roosts the grus americana
aka the whooping crane.
For years, that plain proves crane’s domain.
One year land ships. Sick souls slip off.
(It seems same suffer whooping cough.)
They hack. And honk. And then they “whoop!”
(Flo Ziegfeld croons, “They’ve got the croup.”)
Said Ziegfeld, Goldwyn – Flo ‘n’ Sam --
in Times Square’s old New Amsterdam,
near 1928 (or so),
make Whoopee! -- does same Sam ‘n’ Flo.
(What else, in 1928,
makes '28 again so great...?
A company call’d Berwick Cake
brands Whoopie Pies, for heaven’s sake.)
It twice three half-years later when
is Emma Harris (years from then
who births one Whoopi (different spelling))
born. [Excuse my tell: I’m kvelling.]
Ancient Romes and Middle Ages
flatulence find "all the rages."
Whoopee cushions, farty bags
and pootin' blasters* -- many tags --
...monopolize the fart-joke scene...
till Jared “Whoopee!” Kushner’s seen
to 'surp their spot. So: “whoop-dee-do!”...?
Says I, “big whoop!”’s more like. Don't you...?
* That the pootin' blaster bears any relationship
to the dear leader of Russia remains unverified.
