Gnu Atheists, Meet the Gnu Muppet

January 22, 2012 by Daniel Fincke 12 Comments

Are the Gnu Atheists in the market for a theme song? I can’t speak for the Gnus—camels (like me) are apparently not gnus as I just learned from the gnu in this video, who spelled out this point quite explicitly.

Your Thoughts?

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About Daniel Fincke

Dr. Daniel Fincke has his PhD in philosophy from Fordham University and spent 11 years teaching in college classrooms. He wrote his dissertation on Ethics and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. On Camels With Hammers, the careful philosophy blog he writes for a popular audience, Dan argues for atheism and develops a humanistic ethical theory he calls “Empowerment Ethics”. Dan also teaches affordable, non-matriculated, video-conferencing philosophy classes on ethics, Nietzsche, historical philosophy, and philosophy for atheists that anyone around the world can sign up for. (You can learn more about Dan’s online classes here.) Dan is an APPA (American Philosophical Practitioners Association) certified philosophical counselor who offers philosophical advice services to help people work through the philosophical aspects of their practical problems or to work out their views on philosophical issues. (You can read examples of Dan’s advice here.) Through his blogging, his online teaching, and his philosophical advice services each, Dan specializes in helping people who have recently left a religious tradition work out their constructive answers to questions of ethics, metaphysics, the meaning of life, etc. as part of their process of radical worldview change.

Trebuchet
What’s gnu? Not much, what’s gnu with you? Wildebeest!
Trebuchet, who is gnot from gNome.
Stewart
This is Flanders and Swann and goes back much further than the Muppet Show. If you nose around places where Gnus have written/been written about, you’ll find folks can’t resist bringing it up occasionally.
- http://freethoughtblogs.com/camelswithhammers Daniel Fincke
  HA! I had no idea. Thanks, Stewart.
Kevin
Recursion joke:
Q: What’s “Gnu”?
A: Gnu is not UNIX.
Stewart
If you weren’t familiar with them, (Michael) Flanders (words) and (Donald) Swann (music) are well worth getting to know. They wrote and performed a great deal of very amusing material and the gnu song was one of many that featured animals. They were so identified with witty songs about animals that they were the original choice to write the songs for the late 1960s Dr. Doolittle movie. I believe they did turn in a score which was, however, not considered suitable for the kind of film the producers had in mind and were replaced by Leslie Bricusse and Tony Newley. What is out of place for FTB is that late in life Donald Swann’s devout Christianity also began to feature in his public appearances.
‘Tis Himself, OM.
Possibly Flanders & Swann’s most famous song was “Have Some Medeira M’Dear”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW_zi8n4HDQ&feature=related
Paul Durrant
Flanders & Swann’s most famous song is undoubtedly “The Hippopotamus”, often known just as “Mud, mud, glorious mud!”
Stewart
Must side with Paul on the “most famous” question, though the one that made me laugh hardest when I first heard it was the one entitled “Happy Song.”
peterh
Flanders & Swann – today’s (well, pretty recent anyway) Gilbert & Sullivan and much more broadly appropriate. Great stuff!
Stewart
And, strange as it may seem to have a parody of something intentionally and successfully hilarious, there’s also “Brabbins and Fyffe” an extremely bawdy and atmospherically precise recreation of the Flanders and Swann performance style by comedians Armstrong & Miller. Not for everyone.
Ichthyic
Your Thoughts?
you watched way too much sesame street as a kid?
http://www.facebook.com/wonderist Thaumas Themelios
Thanks for finding this, Dan! I added a link to it to the Gnu Atheism group.
By the way, is there some way I can change my avatar here? It didn’t seem possible from the WP profile settings page. I kind of expected it to pick up my avatar from FB, but I guess not.