'oly 'ell, gunvor! It's all here! Van Dyke's rediculous attempt at a Cockney accent...Hollywood's snubbing of Julie Andrews...tons of references to the movie and current events of the time...and all set to the break-neck rapid fire patter of the original song. I wish I could score this a 50 rather than 15! Here's a few additional nuggets you might not know. Some Hollywood bigwigs proposed that James Cagney (an accomplishes song and dance man as well as an iconic gangster actor) be given the Alfred Doolittle role rather than Holloway. Audrey Hepburn wanted to do her own singing but instead was dubbed by Marnie Nixon, who also sang for Deborah Kerr in The King And I and Natalie Wood in West Side Story. Rex Harrison, who had never been a singer, literally had to be threatened with a lawsuit when he had second thoughts about going on stage for My Fair Lady's Broadway opening night. ;D

I laughed meself up to the ceiling again and that don't happen too often...

Lifeliver, anyone else who attempts this parody now is going to have an uphill struggle to live up to this one in terms of quality! I loved all the cockernee references, and the wonderful new words that made excellent ryhming subs (e.g. emotious/anti-socious.) And of course the pacing was spot-on too. 555 just isn't enough.

And, to add to the Mary Poppins trivia... the woman who wrote the original Mary Poppins novel HATED the Disney version, claiming that she actually cried when she saw it, so horrified at the way they'd sanitised and schmaltzified it. Her original story was much darker; among other things, Mary Poppins was more like a Nanny McPhee-type character, and the children's father was much colder and crueller. There was eventually a new stage musical made that was closer to her original tale, but it didn't do nearly as well... presumably because the public, having become more familiar with the Disney version, just didn't want the 'grittier' one.

this parody was... how can i describe it? supercalif... you get it 5's

Thanks Ribber, Dave, Wendy, Jonathan. Where are my other 'usual suspects'? Guess the board's a bit slow right now.

@ OMR: high praise indeed and thanks for the background. I knew all about Marnie Nixon but not the James Cagney and Rex Harrison snippets. I saw Cagney in 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' (The George M. Cohan Story) many years ago and remember being very surprised and impressed at his 'hoofmanship'. Speaking of which, to be fair to Van Dyke, his work in that department was first-rate and always was - and so was Julie's!
Rex Harrison was of course in the original movie version of 'Pygmalion' opposite the great Wendy Hiller. He was George Bernard Shaw's favorite 'Shavian' actor and therefore the obvious first call for Henry Higgins. But he was no musical star and I could imagine him being jittery on his first night. Of course he never looked back and is still the definitive Henry.
About Marnie Nixon's dubbing: Deborah Kerr was grateful; Audrey was disappointed but resigned to it; Natalie Wood, however, was furious. She had recorded the soundtrack and wasn't told about the dubbing till the last minute. There was a bitter feud with the producers over it. I've heard some of her singing on 'West Side Story' and it was pretty good. But they wanted a trained soprano on the record, and Marnie did a great job, no question.

@ Dave W: an apt reference to 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks', am I right?

@ Wendy: A comment from you usually makes my day and no exception here. Actually, there are some amazingly good parodies of this, but who has time to read them all? Still, I think this one will become one of my personal favorites among my own efforts. It felt good right from the start. As a writer yourself, I'm sure know that feeling, when you know you're on a winner.
I didn't know much about the books, except that the original was set in the 30s, not the Edwardian era, so your extra info was very interesting for me. I had to look up Nanny McPhee. I missed that one, sounds like great fare for kids and family viewing, and I adore Emma Thompson. I wish I'd been at Cambridge with her and Fry & Laurie, though they probably would have ignored me.

The thought came from Mary Poppins...When they sang - I love to laugh...I'll have to revisit Bedknobs and Broomsticks soon and check out what you mean....Did you know that I gave my shot at Supercal in 2011.....I have a mere 13 parodies here, under Dave W. that is....2 under David Werwinski ...song by the Angels and one by Hank Snow..and then there is one under Dav W. (spelling error) by the Boxtops...........I will see if I can bunch them together later if I can

Sorry Dave, my mistake. I was referring to the scene with Bert's uncle where they float up to the ceiling. It's in MP, not Bedknobs. It's quite a while since I've seen either movie.