Creator / The Capitol Steps

The Capitol Steps was a political comedy troupe that existed from 1981 to 2021. Formed by three Republican congressional staffers (Jim Aidala, Elaina Newport, and Bill Strauss), the group was best known for its song parodies about current events, interspersed with other political comedy routines. Named after a 1981 scandal in which Congressman John Jenrette had sex with his wife Rita on the steps of the Capitol Building, the group first performed on December 11 of that year and continued to perform until announcing its dissolution on January 13, 2021, as a result of lost revenue due to COVID.

Starting in 1984, the Capitol Steps albums containing their song parodies at a rate of approximately one album per year, continuing until the release of The Lyin’ Kings, the group’s most recent album, in 2019.

Discography

• The Capitol Steps - Live! At The Shoreham (1984)
• We Arm The World (1985)
• Thank God I’m A Contra Boy (1986)
• Workin’ 9 to 10 (1987)
• Shamlet (1988)
• Stand By Your Dan (1989)
• Danny’s First Noel (1989)
• Georgie On My Mind (1990)
• Sheik, Rattle, and Roll (1990)
• 76 Bad Loans (1991)
• Fools On The Hill (1992)
• All I Want For Christmas Is A Tax Increase (1993)
• The Joy Of Sax (1993)
• Lord Of The Fries (1994)
• A Whole Newt World (1995)
• Return To Center (1996)
• Sixteen Scandals (1997)
• Unzippin’ My Doo-Dah (1998)
• First Lady And The Tramp (1999)
• It’s Not Over ‘Till The First Lady Sings (2000)
• One Bush, Two Bush, Old Bush, New Bush (2001)
• When Bush Comes To Shove (2002)
• Between Iraq And A Hard Place (2003)
• Papa’s Got A Brand New Baghdad (2004)
• Four More Years In The Bush Leagues (2005)
• I’m So Indicted (2006)
• Springtime For Liberals (2007)
• Campaign And Suffering (2008)
• Obama Mia! (2009)
• Liberal Shop Of Horrors (2010)
• Desperate Housemembers (2011)
• Take The Money And Run For President (2012)
• Fiscal Shades Of Gray (2013)
• How To Succeed In Congress Without Really Lying (2014)
• Mock The Vote (2015)
• What To Expect When You’re Electing (2016)
• Orange Is The New Barack (2017)
• Make America Grin Again (2018)
• The Lyin’ Kings (2019)

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Provides examples of:

• Asian Store-Owner: One skit had a character proclaim "If you do not stop making fun of Pakistani people, we will be forced to do something drastic. We will close every 7-Eleven in your country!!"
• Exotic Entree: In the song "Loonies of the Right," Bob Dole sings:
  How we love the endangered spotted owl
  In a cream sauce, it's a tasty little fowl
• Flipping the Bird: In one routine there's an announcement that henceforth, "The New York State Bird will no longer be a hand gesture."
• How the Character Stole Christmas: The song "How the Ging-Grinch Stole Congress" from back when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House.
• Japan Takes Over the World: Some songs on their 80s albums dealt with this topic, such as "Sushi and the M.C.A." and "Mommy's Spoiled Child" (in which a mother buying Japanese-made toys for her son for Christmas puts herself deeper and deeper into debt).
• The Joy of X: One of their albums is called The Joy of Sax.
• Offer Void in Nebraska: Parodied in a fake commercial to treat "electile dysfunction": offer not good in Florida.
• Private Eye Monologue: Parodied by in the character of Hugh Jim Bissell.
• Punny Name: Every Private Eye Monologue they did starts out something like: "I'm a private detective. My father named me Hugh. My mother named me Jim. My last name is Bissell. So people call me... Huuuugh Jim Bissell".
• Sophisticated as Hell: Done with a single word in a faux-Shakespearean reenactment of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign: "Yo-eth!"
• Spoonerism: "Lirty Dies" has this as the point of the character. He simply delivers a long monologue with at least one spoonerism per sentence. In addition, proper nouns that were spoonerized (i.e. all of them) retain their new name throughout the sketch (For example, after referring to that Madman Saddam as that Sadman Maddam, he called him Maddam the whole routine). Made even more impressive by how most of the spoonerism make more sense than just being silly. He also sneaks in a fair amount of profanity by simply spoonerizing the dirty word. Or alternatively, he uses the technique to add a dirty word—for example, observing that if you're in the back seat of a police car, "there are no dandles on those whores!", or claiming that Monica Lewinsky's forthcoming memoirs would have the Literary Allusion Title A Sale of Two Titties ("that rook is gonna make her bitch").
  • Occasionally, the Lirty Dies dialogue will subvert this trope for fun, using alliteration (e.g. "those accountants and attorneys at Arthur Anderson"). And then provide a Hampshade Langing.
    Do you think I'm crazy enough to flip the words "Forty Bucks?"
  • Done again with the Anthony Weiner scandal.
    I didn't have to flip that name.
  • One notable instance had him unable to deliver on any when discussing "Shmenron".
    How about those crumbers nunchers who were pedding all the shrapers? Those audacious auditors and accountants at Arthur Andersen.
• Stealth Cigarette Commercial: Spoofed in one sketch where a "smokesman" from Philip Morris reports that his company, in the wake of the tobacco settlement, has decided to lead the effort to teach kids about the hazards of smoking by way of a fun new collectible card game called "Smokemon," in which a "three-pack-a-day hardcore nicotine freak such as Smoke-at-you" can be evolved from a mere casual smoker. He then adds, "I'll tell you, kids: don't smoke cigarettes, okay - unless you want to look really, really cool!"

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