Photo by Highstone

Less than two weeks ago, Gotham’s local operetta group announced that, in response to PC pressure, it would cancel its production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Why it couldn’t meet objections by performing without yellow makeup is hard to understand. But the culture-hating spirit of the protesters, and the cravenness of the company’s director, deserve a song.

I am the very model of a modern PC activist,
I’ve grievances that flare at actions racist, classist, genderist,
I’m sensitive as maidens from the age of Queen Victoria,
I take offence at things that ought to bother many more a ya.

When New York’s operetta group for Gilbert and for Sullivan
Announced that The Mikado would be part of this year’s Christmas fun,
I natur-ally called to see, if all was as it ought to be,
Especially within the realm of ethnic authenticity.
Imagine my surprise and fright, to learn the cast was lily-white
And merely acting Japanese, as if pretending was alright.

I’m very good at blogging so I sat at my computer screen
And let loose some invective that was aimed to cause an awful scene.
I charged the group with outraging my racial sensitivity,
And found that thousands more as sensitive were scandalized like me.
I’m horrified that Shakespeare used young boys to act his female parts,
Or whites to play Othello, even Christians to ply Shylock’s arts.
Forget about Kabuki played in greasepaint most unnatural,
In modern times the arts must stick to what is actually actual.

Of course I don’t burn books or anything that seems facistical,
And censorship is something reprehensibly fanatical.
But yay for me, the head of this New York artistic company
Has crumpled like a house of cards and given me the victory.
The Pirates of Penzance will play instead of The Mikado then,
And Sullivan and Gilbert can join Huck Finn in oblivion.

So still at grievances at actions racist, classist, genderist,
I am the very model of a modern PC activist.

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