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| Performer:
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Monty Python
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| Album:
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Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album
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| Released:
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October, 1980
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| Recorded:
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1980
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| Genres:
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Hymn, Comedy, Parody
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| Composer:
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William Henry Monk
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| Writer:
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Cecil Frances Alexander, Graham Chapman, John Cleese
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| Length:
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1:35
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All Things Dull and Ugly is a comedic parody song released by Monty Python originally published on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album. The song parodies the Anglican hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful whose music was adapted by William Henry Monk with lyrics by Cecil Frances Alexander. While the song is originally meant to point out all the wonderful aspects of nature Christians believe God created, Monty Python members Graham Chapman and John Cleese altered the lyrics to point out that, if God made the good things, he must also have made all the dull and ugly things, as well as those dangerous and diseased. Monty Python actually uses a boy's choir to sing the lyrics giving it an authentic sound.
The modified lyrics don't address the original's dated endorsement of the class system, "The rich man in his castle / The poor man at his gate /
God made them high and lowly / And ordered their estate" which is often removed from modern recitals.
Song
Lyrics
All things dull and ugly
All creatures short and squat
All things rude and nasty
The Lord God made the lot
Each little snake that poisons
Each little wasp that stings
He made their brutish venom
He made their horrid wings
All things sick and cancerous
All evil great and small
All things foul and dangerous
The Lord God made them all
Each nasty little hornet
Each beastly little squid
Who made the spiky urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did
All things scabbed and ulcerous
All pox both great and small
Putrid, foul and gangrenous
The Lord God made them all, Amen
