Line #2 Main/HailToTheThief


1	->''"All hail to the thief, all hail to the thief..."''
2	-->-- '''Music/{{Radiohead}},''' "2+2=5"
3
4	In musical theater, especially period pieces, it is common to emphasize the setting by having characters raise their voices in a song of sarcastic praise offered to the most hated political leader or leading figures of their day.
5
6	[[TropeNamer Named after]] the Music/{{Radiohead}} [[Music/HailToTheThief album]] of the same name.
7
8	This can overlap with TheVillainSucksSong and IHateSong. Compare ProtestSong. A close relative of MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting.
9	----
10	!!Examples:
11
12	* In an example from Website/TVTropes itself, GodSaveUsFromTheQueen is a play on the British national anthem.
13	* "We'd Like to Thank You, UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover" from ''Theatre/{{Annie}}''.
14	* "Merry Christmas [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Maggie Thatcher]]" from ''Theatre/BillyElliot''.
15	* During the opening song "Tradition" from ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', a villager asks the rabbi if there is a blessing for the czar. "Of course! 'May God bless and keep the czar... far away from us!'"
16	* Music/JohnDenver's "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew" pays an 18-second tribute to the Vice President's accomplishments by starting out with "[[VicePresidentWho I'll sing you a song about Spiro Agnew and all the things he's done...]]" followed by silence, conveying the message that Agnew has accomplished very little.
17	* "Hosianna Rockefeller" from ''Happy End''.
18	* "Sing Hubbard" from ''Regina''.
19	* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'' has "The Phony King of England," about [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland Prince John]].
20	* TV example: "Shame, Shame, Shame (on you now [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Dubya]])" from ''Series/{{Treme}}''.
21	* Crossed with TheVillainSucksSong but "[[Anime/DragonBallZ Frieza]], [[AwesomeMusic/DragonBall Frieza]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42B-kOtn-D8 Frieza]]" ...
22	* "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace," as popularised by Music/SpikeJones and WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck, pays mocking respect to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ThoseWackyNazis.
23	--> Not to love Der Fuehrer is a great disgrace,
24	--> So ve heil! (''[[BlowingARaspberry raspberry]]'') heil! (''[[BlowingARaspberry raspberry]]'')
25	--> Right in Der Fuehrer's face.
26	* Speaking of Creator/{{Disney}}, there's a UsefulNotes/JosefStalin-related [[https://youtu.be/qvX8WLJ-fHo parody]] of Gaston's VillainSong from ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. It's clear that the singers are only singing Stalin's praises because he'll kill them if they don't, and they still get a jab or two in. The song also appears to be mocking Stalin's far-left fanboys on {{imageboards}} like Website/FourChan and 8chan, as evidenced by the proliferation of chan memes in the video. The same Website/{{YouTube}}r also released a song titled "[[https://youtu.be/UBwCbBrsrWs Albanian Nights]]" (based, of course, on ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'''s opening song "{{Arabian Nights\|Days}}") mocking [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha Enver Hoxha]]'s harsh Stalinist regime in UsefulNotes/{{Albania}}. (Note that the memes in this video revolve around one of Hoxha's less brutal but still bizarrely paranoid policies, namely [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunkers_in_Albania constructing hundreds of thousands of bunkers all over Albania]] to prepare for potential military attacks.)
27	* Music/SelfInsert mockingly rejoices the oppression of the criminal justice system by seducing a female judge with their extensive criminal history in their 2021 single Necrophilia.
28	* During the lead-up to the 2016 [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem presidential election]] in UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates, Website/CollegeHumor made a Creator/DonaldTrump-related [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9-5DJhBh6M parody]] of "[[TheVillainSucksSong You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch]]" from ''WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas''
29	* "Haldeman, Erlichman, Mitchell and Dean" was a Vaudeville-style novelty song by a group called The CREEP (acronym for The Committe to Re-Elect the President) which came out in 1973, soon after the Watergate scandal broke.
30	-->''We're Haldeman, Erlichman, Mitchell and Dean,''\
31	''The way we were treated was really obscene''.\
32	''Who'd think that a bug worth hardly a shrug''\
33	''Would end up in getting us tossed in the jug?''\
34	''There's no power shortage where we were concerned''\
35	''And what little profit resulted we earned'',\
36	''Four lovelier fellow you never have seen''\
37	''Than Haldeman, Erlichman, Mitchell and Dean.''
38	* Though the "ColonelBogeyMarch" was instrumental when it was originally composed during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, it found new life during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII as a distinctly crude TheVillainSucksSong about UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler and ThoseWackyNazis. For propriety's sake, at the behest of the original composer's widow, the tune had to be whistled instead of sung during its iconic appearance in ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'', making this song an example of both WithLyrics and ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics at once!
39	-->Hitler has only got one ball\
40	Göring has two but very small\
41	Himmler is rather sim'lar\
42	But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all

Context Main / HailToTheThief