Patter Song

"This particularly rapid unintelligible patter
Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!"

—Gilbert and Sullivan, "My Eyes Are Fully Open," Ruddigore

A common feature of The Musical is the Patter Song, a light and rapid melody sung by a Motor Mouth character – less commonly, more than one. This will often take the form of a Long List, resulting in a List Song. Very commonly the song will involve tongue-twisters that test the singer’s ability to pronounce the lyrics clearly, and occasionally the ability is tested even further by raising the tempo of the song little by little until it goes at a frighteningly fast pace. A semi-patter song is a toned down version that has a patter song feel, but where the words are more important than the rapid delivery.

Gilbert and Sullivan are inextricably associated with this form, which they did not invent but are credited with perfecting.

The Major General Song, which parodies and/or homages a Gilbert and Sullivan song, is a common example. A more modern one is We Didn't Start the Fire.

If the lyrics aren't enunciated precisely, leaving only a few key phrases clearly audible, this will overlap with Something Something Leonard Bernstein.

Compare Melodic Rap, a style of singing in which hip-hop rhythms and vocabulary are sung, often to minimalistic melodies. Some artists like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Eminem have made patter songs that attempt to fuse rapping with the music-hall tradition.

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Self-Demonstrating Version

You will find that as a rule in ev'ry Broadway presentation
(Or perhaps the London West End, if that should be the location),
That at some point in the drama, all the action turns to stasis―
(Because, after all, how many shows make plotting their main basis?)
And a Motormouth or three will more or less expressly chatter
In a light and rapid melody—more technic'ly, a patter.
Since a Long List is a structure that no writer can resist long,
You will ofttimes find the Patter overlapping with the List Song.
Though it uses terms so recherchés, the singers' tongues are twisted,
Each author still will use the trope, as here on this page, this did—
But because to try explaining what the trope entails quite tramples
On our Tropers' little patience, let us on to the examples:

---

Examples:

Advertising

• The McDonald's "Menu Song" jingle, which featured patrons singing the restaurant's entire menu to the tune of the obscure 70s hit "Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)." This was eventually turned into a contest to see if any real-life customers could recite the entire list on the spot for a free drink.
  • There was a second contest involving the song, this time with free records given out both at McDonald's, and with local newspapers, one of which would be a winner. Another variation was to press the song on records of varying stability, and only the one that wouldn't warp at the end would be the winner.
  • It's a single verse, but it counts: "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun!"

Audio Adaptation

• In the Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventure "Doctor Who and the Pirates", the Sixth Doctor sings "I Am the Very Model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer". Listen to it here.

Film — Live Action

• "The Interrogation Song" by Sam the Eagle, Jean-Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) and The Muppets, from Muppets Most Wanted.
  Jean-Pierre: You know, I think they did it.
  Sam: No they didn’t!
  Jean-Pierre: Yes they did, and we can pin it.
  Sam: If they did, how did they do it?
  Jean-Pierre: If they didn’t, how did they didn’t?
  Sam: If they didn’t then it’s easy,
  ’Cause they simply didn’t do it!
  Jean-Pierre: If they did it, then I knew it,
  But we’ve nothing that can prove it!
• Henry Higgins' rants in My Fair Lady.

Literature

• Isaac Asimov:
  • "The Author's Ordeal": This song acts as an Homage to Sir William Schwenck Gilbert's "When You're Lying Awake" (also known as "the (Lord Chancellor's) Nightmare Song"), written for Iolanthe. The poem has a number of phrases that evoke a Tongue Twister sense by including rhymes within the lines, and the penultimate line is at least three times as long as any other line.
  • "The Foundation of S.F. Success": This song acts as an Homage to Sir William Schwenck Gilbert's "If you're anxious for to shine" from Patience. The poem has a number of phrases that evoke a Tongue Twister sense by including rhymes within the lines.

Live-Action TV

• The theme song to The Big Bang Theory is a patter song performed by Barenaked Ladies.
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend had one klezmer patter song sung by the main character's mother called "Where's the Bathroom?"
  • Also from season one, "Cold Showers Lead to Crack", a The Music Man homage in which Rebecca tries to convince a bunch of apartment residents to join a class action suit about cold showers by claiming the cold water will make them heroin addicts.
• Neo of Sporin had one in Galavant, called "Time Is Of The Essence," in which they try to revive Gal after he'd been stabbed by Sid's sword.
• In the Musical Episode of Scrubs, Dr. Cox's traditional long, funny rant becomes a song.

Music

• "Unbelievable" by Diamond Rio. Lampshaded in Cledus T. Judd's parody: "That Diamond Rio song had way too many syllables!"

• "A Wolf at the Door" by Radiohead is unusually dark in tone for a patter song, but no less rapid-fire (though it has longer-than-usual spaces between the pattery verses). However, the choruses are slightly slower.

• "Johnny Tulloch", by The Rankin Family, featuring rapid fire lists of people piled in a wagon for a dance in Glencoe, and a story about the dance. Towards the end of the song, there's even scat singing from the women in the group while the male singer lists the names of those in the wagon.

• "Chemo Limo" by Regina Spektor contains rapid-fire sections in which the narrator rails against her diagnosis and decides to spend the money she would've spent on treatments to take her kids on a limo ride.
• "Hardware Store" by "Weird Al" Yankovic, which is also partially a List Song when Al starts rattling off things the hardware store in question sells.
  • It's one song Al refuses to perform live because he doesn't think he can do it again.
  • "Your Horoscope for Today" isn't fast enough for the whole song to count, but the bridge does, when he says all this in about twenty seconds and in one breath:
    Now you may find it inconceivable or at the
    Very least a bit unlikely that the relative position
    Of the planets and the stars could have some special deep significance
    Or meaning that exclusively applies to only you
    But let me give you my assurance that these forecasts and predictions
    Are all based on solid scientific documented evidence
    So you would have to be some kind of moron not to realize
    That every single one of them is absolutely true
    Where was I?
  • He also does this in the theme song for his short-lived TV show. The first verse is even a run-on sentence!
• Steve Goodie's Harry Potter-themed parody "Dumbledore" is likewise an example.
• "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan.
• "Soho (Needless to Say)" by Al Stewart
• Pretty much everything Vio-Lence ever recorded.
• Virginia-based Carbon Leaf revived a traditional song from the U.K. (opinions vary as to whether it's Scottish or Irish) called "Mary Mac". Their official recorded version may be heard here. Be sure to check out a few of their live versions, as well. Note that any tropers who wish to upload their own versions should try to increase the tempo at every verse *and* every repetition of the chorus, to show off just wwhow good they are.
• Tim Minchin's "Pope Song" has shades of this:
• Matisyahu - King Without A Crown
• "Goin' Down" by The Monkees is a fast-paced, upbeat song... about a guy having second thoughts after trying to drown himself.
• Kirby Krackle's "Who Watches the Watcher," which is used as the theme song of Marvel's online news show "The Watcher," features a major section that rattles off a list of Marvel characters who watch the Watcher.
• Chameleon Circuit's Big Bang 2, which summarizes the Doctor Who episode named "The Big Bang."
• The song "I've Been Everywhere" was originally written by Geoff Mack and popularized by Lucky Starr (both Australian) and featured a rapid-fire list of Australian cities the author had visited. It was later famously rewritten by Hank Snow to feature cities from the USA and recorded in that form by many, many other artists including Lynn Anderson, Asleep At The Wheel, and Johnny Cash.
• Many of Jimmy Durante's songs were these, due to his idosyncratic singing style. Three prime examples are "Inka-dinka-doo", "Chibodee-chobodee-chibodee" and "Durante, The Patron of the Arts."
• Barbra Streisand's "Minute Waltz" and "Come to the Supermarket in Old Peking," which is also a List Song of said supermarket's more notable merchandise.
• Rolf Harris' "Court of King Caractacus."
• A Heavy Metal example: "Shenanigans" by S.O.D.
• Judas Priest's "Freewheel Burning" where Rob Halford sings these words in under 20 seconds, and still manages to end it with several long notes:
  Look before you leap has never been the way we keep
  Our road is free
  Charging to the top and never give in never stops the
  Way to be
  Hold on to the lead with all your will and concede
  You'll find there's life with victory on high
• Todd Rundgren has his own examples with "Song of the Viking" and "An Elpee's Worth of Toons", both of them Gilbert and Sullivan pastiches. And he also covered Gilbert and Sullivan's "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song", which is itself an example.
• "Stuart" by The Dead Milkmen
• "Popular" by Nada Surf, the verses for which a spoken-word readings from a cheesy teen dating advice book.
• Tom Waits has "Pasties and a G-String", a very tipsy sounding patter song about strippers from Small Change.
• Tom Lehrer, a huge fan of both Gilbert and Sullivan and Danny Kaye, not to mention a certified scientific and mathematical genius, wrote several songs like this.
  • In "The Elements", he rhymed all the chemical element names from the Periodic Table (at least, all the ones that were known at the time; several more have been discovered since ^note  Lehrer knew this was going to happen — the last words of the song are "These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard, and there may be many others but they haven't been discahvered".) and set them to the tune of the Major General Song.
  • "New Math".
  • His rendition of "Clementine" on An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer includes a final verse In the Style of Gilbert and Sullivan. While he calls it a "rousing finale", the song is actually a patter song.
• Against Me!'s "You Look Like I Need a Drink" is a punk example. It starts off as a mid-tempo song before delving into extremely fast patter for the remainder.
• "Rosetta Stoned" by tool.
• The 1974 novelty song "Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)," where each verse lists various musical personalities, pop songs and record labels from the 1950s to the then-present in rapid succession. The tune and concept was later lifted for a McDonalds jingle, where patrons would sing the restaurant's entire menu.
• "Salty Dog" from Flogging Molly's first album, Swagger
• Pretty much any dancehall reggae song is this, especially to those who are unfamiliar with, or otherwise don't regularly follow reggae music.
• Much of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's music consists of these.
• George Jones and his 1973 hit "Nothing Ever Hurt Me Half As Bad As Losing You," which had such rapid-fire lyrics he reportedly had to read them off a sheet of notebook paper when recording the song. Even though the song was a top 10 hit on the country chart, he rarely if ever performed the song in concert.
• Jakurai's specialty in Hypnosis Mic is a semi-patter style which is more "spoken" than "sung". When he has a solo, it normally involves some manner of poetic lyrics.
• Eminem did a few of these, as the result of his Subverted Kids' Show vibe combining with his ultra-technical lyrics.
  • "Bully", his Diss Track to his jealous magazine editor nemesis Benzino and 50 Cent's Arch-Enemy Ja Rule (who Eminem had been swept up into beefing with via signing 50 to his label). He humorously describes the ways in which his enemies are emotional wrecks to the tune of a folk song.
  • Eminem's hook for "Patiently Waiting" has him singing intricate words to a rapid melody.
  • "Gatman and Robbin'" is Gangsta Rap lyrics sung rapidly to a Suspiciously Similar Song to the famous Epic Riff from Batman (1966).
  • "I'll Hurt You", likewise, has Eminem singing gangsta death threats over a tense, cinematic cello riff.
  • A rare-ish example from his later career is P!nk's "Revenge", in which Slim rapidly describes the humiliations of his dysfunctional relationship over a humorous, bouncy melody (that shares more than a few similarities to "My Name Is").

Puppet Shows

• Convincing John's self-titled song on Fraggle Rock is a patter song, as he fast-talks his fellow Fraggles into believing his Insane Troll Logic.
• Spitting Image used the Gilbert and Sullivan song "My Eyes Are Fully Open" to parody Neil Kinnock's reputation for talking really fast, without talking much about anything at all.

Radio

• The summer 2015 finale of The Now Show had "It's a Long-Term Economic Plan (But Not For You)", in which Jake Yapp and Harry the Piano cast George Osborne as Harold Hill ("Friends, we got trouble, right here in Blighty...")

Theatre

• The Trope Codifier are the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, every one of which has at least one patter-song (most often these were originally written for the actor George Grossmith). Specific examples:
  • Perhaps the most prominent example is "I am the very model of a modern major-general" from The Pirates of Penzance. Many patter songs since then are inspired by this.
  • "How Beautifully Blue the Sky", also from The Pirates of Penzance, has the entire women's chorus singing patter in 2/4 time while the romantic leads sing a duet in 3/4 time—at the same time.
  • "When You're Lying Awake" (often called "The Nightmare Song") from Iolanthe
  • "My Name is John Wellington Wells" from The Sorcerer.
  • Most of "Rising Early In The Morning," the last two lines of the verses of "In Enterprise Of Martial Kind," and the chorus of "From The Sunny Spanish Shore", all are patter moments from The Gondoliers.
  • In the trio, "My Eyes Are Fully Open" from Ruddigore, ^note  Later used in the revival version of The Pirates of Penzance, and then as "The Speed Test" in Thoroughly Modern Millie which is the fastest of the G&S patter songs, Gilbert and Sullivan lampshaded their own notoriety for patter songs (and the difficulty in understanding them when sung). As the song says,
  "This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter / Isn't generally heard, and if it is it doesn't matter!"
  • "As Someday It May Happen" from The Mikado lists people who would not be missed if they were to be executed. Modern productions of The Mikado invariably rewrite this one to incorporate topical and local events, especially as the original lyrics explicitly invite the performer (or producer) to add their own lines:
  "And Tsk-tsk-tsk and What's-his-name and also You-know-who, the task of filling up the blanks I rather leave to you, but it really doesn't matter whom you put upon the list, 'cause they'd none of them be missed, they'd none of them be missed."
  • The final verse of "I Am So Proud" from The Mikado. The trio begins with each character singing their part in sequence, then in counterpoint, and totally skips that format at the end with the trio singing a brief patter.
  • Patience has a true patter song in "If You Want a Receipt"^note notable for being perhaps the only patter solo in the series that is not sung by the comic lead and a semi-patter song in "If You're Anxious for to Shine".
  • H.M.S. Pinafore has "When I Was a Lad," which has the last two lines in each verse and chorus sung at patter-like paces.
• Offenbach is the example of the light operetta in France's Second Empire, and, just like Gilbert and Sullivan, left numerous patter songs in his work:
  • One of the most well-known is probably the aria of the Brazilian Je suis Brésilien, j'ai de l'or in La Vie Parisienne, where a Brazilian arriving to Paris explains in great detail and length why and how he came to France by stealing money in his country and more than eager to be stolen from here.
  • Les bavards (The Chatterboxes) featured a large number of patter songs - as we can expect from such chattering people. It includes a wife claiming (in a verbious manner) how she can stop talking whenever she wants and how she hates chatterboxes (while illustrating every flaw she criticizes); a young man listing to an old merchant the various reasons someone might need money; the same young man, complimenting at top speed the meal he has been invited to; and four merchants explaining their grievances to a judge. They just never stop chattering.
  • Orpheus in the Underworld has several patter songs.
    • The god Mercury introduces himself in a joyous and hopping patter song Et hop! Et hop! Place à Mercury!.
    • There is a patter chorus, Aux armes, déesses et demi-dieux!, where the gods are calling for a revolution against the "tyrannic" rule of Jupiter (and it happened during the Second Empire, the heir of various Revolutions in those troubled French times).
    • The gods are mocking Jupiter in a list song of his metamorphoses to seduce mortals, implying that he finds himself too ugly to appear as such.
  "Que prouvent ces métamorphoses?"
  "C'est que tu te trouves si laid"
  "Que pour te faire aimer, tu n'oses"
  "Te montrer tel que l'on t'a fait..."
  • In La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein, the new general of the possible Ur-Example Ruritania in western literature, singing his last victory by making the enemy army drink until they pass out.
  • In La Belle Hélène, parodying the rapture of Helen (and the beginning of the Trojan War), the kings of Greece introduce themselves in a patter-style song with light tongue-twisters. The same melody is used twice, even quicker, to expulse the king Menelas from Greece and then, after, to encourage Helen to flee with an oracle (in fact Paris in disguise).
  • Helen also has a patter song that manages to be touching, Là, vrai, je ne suis pas coupable, where Helen is demonstrating that, indeed, all of this is absolutely not her fault.
  • In Le Voyage Dans La Lune, the three main characters (the prince Caprice, the king Vlan and the scientist Microscope) sing how travelling by ejecting yourself with a cannon is a much more effective way of travelling than by train.
  • Les deux aveugles, where two false blind beggars try to attract charity by singing their own song. While Giraffier sings a languid serenade in minor key, Patachon sings a very joyous song on a much quicker tempo, until the two melodies blend together and they start yelling at each other.
  • In Barbe-Bleue, Blue-Beard sing how sad and tragic it is to loose all his wives... while following quickly on how he will find a new one that will not last long as he presumes, ending each strophes by reciting Je suis Barbe-Barbe-Barbe-Barbe-Barbe-Barbe-Bleue at top speed.
  • Le Château à Toto has Catherine and Pitou fighting themselves in a song that degenerates to a tongue-twisting, repeating patter song.
• "Clarice Cara Mia Sposa" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
  • Don Giovanni has "Fin ch'han dal vino calda la testa", sung by Don Giovanni organizing a party.
• The Other Wiki has its own list...
• "Pulled" from The Addams Family has a bridge which is a brief, fast-paced List Song.
• In Albert Herring, the Mayor delivers his speech chanting out words at a very fast clip, slowing down only for coloratura cadences, after each of which he takes a big breath.
• Barnum gives us the "Museum Song".
  Quite a lotta
  Roman terra cotta
  Livin' lava from the flanks of Etna
  Statuary
  Ride a dromedary
  See the Temple tumble and the Red Sea part.

  McNamara's band
  The fattest lady in the land
  A pickled prehistoric hand
  A strand of Pocahontas' hair
  Crow and Sioux
  Who're going to
  Be showing you
  Some rowing through
  A model of the rapids on the Delaware.
• A song that Jim Steinman wrote for the unproduced Batman musical was a patter song. Written for The Joker, it was entitled "Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?" (Steinman likes long titles) and it goes a little something like this...
• "The Plan" from The Brain From Planet X counts as this.
• "Strike That, Reverse It" in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has fun with this trope: A Running Gag within it has Willy Wonka singing so quickly that he keeps accidentally switching words around at the end of verses (Internal Homage to the 1971 film adaptation of this story), and in the final stretch he promises "The next time I'll rehearse it". As he presses the guardians of the Golden Ticket finders to sign a contract before proceeding with the tour, his summary of its contents is so fast — and filled with both Gratuitous Latin and Gratuitous French — that Mr. Salt complains "This tempo is preposterous!"
  Wonka: Our schedule has no room for intros, languid and rubato./ Accelerate right to the verse, and play it molto presto and staccato!
• The Quartet from Chess has some of this.
• "Both Sides of the Coin" from Drood.
• Thomas Aquinas's part in Godspell's "Tower of Babble". "God is apprehended by imagination, intuition...."
  • Also from Godspell, Judas/David's verse in "All for the Best".
• "Guns and Ships" of Hamilton holds the distinction of being the fastest song in one of the fastest shows in Broadway history, courtesy of Lafayette. There's a section where nineteen words are sung in roughly three seconds. And all in an over-the-top French accent. Angelica's main song ("Satisfied") also counts—Lin himself can't pull off her rap sections, and she's got fewer opportunities to sneak a breath in than Lafayette does.
• "Tschaikowsky (and Other Russians)" lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Kurt Weill, first performed by Danny Kaye in Lady in the Dark.
• "Now (It's Just the Gas)" from Little Shop of Horrors.
• "Rock Island" from The Music Man is a rare example involving many people. It's more of a proto-rap than a conventional song, and it lost its musical accompaniment when the pianist was unavailable. The authors performed it a cappella, and it worked so well that they kept it that way. And of course, "Ya Got Trouble" from the same score is one of the most well-known American patter songs.
• Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 has the beginning of "Preparations", which instead of typical comedy, uses the format to sound vaguely ominous.
• "Contini Submits" and Necrophorus' part in "Folies Bergeres" from Nine.
• The Phantom of the Opera has "Notes" in the first act, which consists of an increasing number of people all singing angrily at each other until the Phantom shuts them up.
• The verses of "War Is a Science" from Pippin.
  • Made more evident in the revival, in which the verses get EVEN FASTER.
• The ending of "The King of Broadway" in The Producers certainly qualifies.
  • So does Leo's part in "We Can Do It".
• "Tonight at Eight" from She Loves Me.
• "The Red Phone Rag" in Strangelove: The Musical.
• Professor Abronsius' "Wahrheit" in Tanz Der Vampire.
• "Es que estoy tan ocupada" ("I'm just so busy") from the Cibrian-Mahler musical 30 Days, where Juana's self-centered mother answers her pre-suicide call by listing all the inane stuff she does.
• Mr. Graydon's dictation test/interview of Mille in Thoroughly Modern Millie ("The Speed Test") gradually becomes this as they move through the verses. The tune uses "My Eyes Are Fully Open" from Ruddigore.^note And opens with those words. In this case, the music starts off as PAINSTAKINGLY SLOW, and then little by little turns RIDICULOUSLY FAST.
• Most of "The Brain" from Young Frankenstein ("His Medulla Oblongata / tells his brain stem that it’s gotta / send an impulse full of data / which creates a lot of pain"… etc).
• Stephen Sondheim loves this:
  • "Everybody Says Don't" from Anyone Can Whistle doesn't keep a consistently fast pace, but has more than enough sixteenth notes to challenge singers.
  • "Another Hundred People" and Amy's part of "Getting Married Today" from Company. The latter is such a fast patter that the printed notes are never sung.
  • "Buddy's Blues" from Follies.
  • "Now" from A Little Night Music.
  • The British Ambassador's part in "Please Hello" from Pacific Overtures. Sondhiem wrote each Ambassador's part (American, British, Dutch, Russian, and French) in a musical style that reflects their nationality. The British Ambassador's bit is an homage to Gilbert and Sullivan
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has some of this in "The Contest," and more in "The Worst Pies In London."
  • "Franklin Shepard, Inc." from Merrily We Roll Along has elements of this.
  • Into the Woods has an ensemble version of this in "Your Fault", but other bits in the score are similar, such as the Witch and Stepsister's bit in "Ever After".
  • Arguably "The Ballad of Czolgosz" from Assassins.
  • Sondheim's demo recordings of "Pretty Little Picture" and "Everybody Ought to Have a Maid" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum are decidedly faster than the original cast performed them, though they're still List Songs with a lot of bits that are tricky to enunciate in tempo. "Free" is another mouthful.
• The song "Ready, Set, Not Yet" from Beetlejuice has both Adam and Barbara launching into their own little spoken patter bits when discussing others' disdain for their boring hobbies and unwillingness to start a family:
  Adam: Folks say, "Adam,
  Why do you polish a crib when you don't have a kid
  And even if you did have a kid
  This crib is too precious for placing a baby inside it
  So it simply exists to remind you
  Your sense of perfection is just a reflection
  That you are not mentally prepared to make room for a KID, Adam!"
  Barbara: Folks say, "Barbara,
  Why can't you see that ceramics
  Is simply a manifestation of motherly panic
  By making a baby that's breakable
  Aren't you creating a way of translating the terror
  Of making maternal mistakes into clay,
  Hiding away so you don't have to face being a bad MOM, Barbara!"

Video Games

• The credits theme from The Jackbox Party Pack 6's game Dictionarium is a hilarious Monty Python-esque number performed by the game's host, The Keeper.
  The game that you are playing, well, it causes much hilarium
  You make up silly words and phrases, ending in hysterium
  You have to answer quickly, no, you really mustn't tarry-um!
  And anybody can compete, a Tom, a Dick, a Harry-um!
  So gather in the living room, pull up a stool or chair-ium
  With lots of foods or beverages, like milk or juice or barium,
  Then start to make your crazy words and don't forget to vary 'em,
  And that is how you win at Dictionarium!
• In Mass Effect 2, Mordin Solus once states that he used to sing Gilbert & Sullivan, and always did the Patter Songs. It should come as no surprise, seeing as Mordin talks about five times as fast as everyone else anyway.

  I am the very model of a scientist salarian
  I've studied species turian, asari, and batarian
  I'm quite good at genetics (as a subset of biology)
  because I am an expert (which I know is a tautology)
  My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian
  I am the very model of a scientist salarian!

  • He also did The Pirates of Penzance in Mass Effect 3 with a Krogan theme. And if that wasn't enough, he did a song about molecular biology to the tune of John Brown's Body as well.

Webcomics

• Brawl in the Family's 400th strip special song, "The History of Nintendo", has this in the verses.

Web Original

• While the theme from Camp Camp certainly counts, the final part of the second verse is very notable.
  David: We've got:
  archery
  hiking
  search and rescue
  biking
  horseback
  training that'll save you from a heart attack
  scuba diving
  miming
  keeping up with rhyming
  football
  limbo
  science
  stunting
  pre-calc
  spaceships
  treasure hunting
  bomb defusal
  no refusal
  fantasies
  circus trapeze
  and fights
  and ghosts
  and paints
  and snakes
  and knives
  and chess
  and dance
  and weights
  it's Camp Camp!
• "Brand New Day" in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has the titular villain quietly sing the verses in a very speedy manner. The whole cast and crew were amazed that Neil Patrick Harris actually managed to sing it.
• The bridge from "On Your Knees" on the Red vs. Blue season 9 soundtrack can count as this.
  Oklahoma beat down
  Pennsylvania dead and drown
  Minnesota castigate
  Massachusetts flagellate
  Bitch slap Tennesee
  DC dead see?
  Utah is a fucking mess
  Oregon in great duress
  Maryland is on her knees
  Louisiana? Bitch….please.
  Mississippi worst day ever
  North Dakota not much better
  Missouri in a stranglehold
  Montana's corpse is getting cold
  Bleeding time for old Kentucky
  Indiana not so lucky
  Vermont could use a four leaf clover
  New Jersey it is almost over
  Pick up Delaware and slam her
  Call the meds for Alabama
  Michigan has been destroyed
  Ditto that for Illinois
  New Hampshire should have brought a friend
  West Virginia's at her end

Western Animation

• In Animaniacs, the famous segment "Yakko's World" is a Big List of every country in the world (roughly), sung very quickly to a slightly modified version of "The Mexican Hat Dance". This is then spoofed with "All the Words in the English Language", set to the same tune, where Yakko rattles off a whole bunch of words beginning with "A" before cutting to the next cartoon. They cut back later with him partway through "L", starting to slow down, and finally again with him at the tail end of the "Z"s, even slower still and ready to pass out.

• The Expository Theme Tune for CatDog also qualifies as a patter song, with rapid-fire verses that explain the premise of the show.
  Out on the road or back in town
  All kinds a' critters putting CatDog down
  Gotta rise above it, gotta try to get along
  Gotta walk together, gotta sing this song
• "The Fundamental Principle of the Thing" in Donald and the Wheel is an explanation of how gears work worded in a convoluted, formal, and rapid manner. It assumes Viewers Are Geniuses, though in a tongue-in-cheek way. Donald is noticeably confused the whole time.
  Spirit of Invention: Count the teeth along these two gears
  You would know this if you knew gears
  How the larger has exactly twice the teeth.
  Twice the number, incidentally,
  If you spin it even gently,
  You'll observe the smaller turning twice the speed.
• Referenced in the Family Guy episode "Killer Queen" when Peter is playing characters in West Side Story and The Pirates of Penzance, who both have patter songs and he mumbles through the lyrics.

• "Biskit Family Business" in the Littlest Pet Shop (2012) episode "A Night at the Pawza" is about the corporate head Fisher Biskit teaching his daughters (through song) how he runs his business. That he explains it in such a complicated way suggests he has a thorough, intimate knowledge on the subject.

• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000", the Flim-Flam Brothers get a patter song that's heavily based on the previously mentioned "Trouble" from The Music Man.
  • Discord gets one in "Three's a Crowd" titled "Glass of Water", where he asks for a glass of water. Along with many, many, many other zany things.
  • Pinkie Pie's "Smile Song", as originally written by Amy Keating-Rogers, was going to have a patter section, but it was deleted from Daniel Ingram's final version.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • "I Really Don't Hate Christmas" from Phineas and Ferb's Christmas Vacation is a song in which Dr. Doofenshmirtz sings about how much it bugs him that he can't work up more than "an intense, burning indifference" towards a holiday he, as an evil genius, feels obliged to hate, while rattling off a number of holidays and other things that he unambiguously hates.
  You see, Valentine's is torture, and my birthday is a mess
  New Year's is a lot of noise, and Arbor Day's a pest
  Halloween's a horror, but I guess I must confess
  That I really don't hate Christmas!
  • In "Where's Pinky?", a motor-mouthed tour guide at the city hall sings about "The History of the Tri-State Area" to a tour group.
  A lot of people know that the Tri-State Area used to be a Bi-State Area with an adjacent area over there
  What people don't know is that originally it was three distinct single-state areas, but people don't care!
  The founders of the area were independent thinkers, completely unaffected by bureaucratic hurdles
  And that's why the Capitol Building was moved here from Sri Lanka on the backs of seven giant sea turtles!
• The Simpsons has a few, including "See My Vest" (in which Mr. Burns shows off all the garments he's made from real animal skins and fur), and "We Do", in which the Stonecutters list the many conspiracies in which they are involved, including covering up life on Mars, robbing cavefish of their sight, and maintaining Steve Guttenberg's career.
• South Park: "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch", a fast-paced song Cartman initially sings in "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", largely consists of calling Kyle's uptight mother Sheila a bitch over and over. In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the song gets even faster and dubbed in various different languages.

• "That's How We'll Get Her" from the Wander over Yonder-episode "My Fair Hatey" is a song by Sylvia and Commander Peepers in which they plot a way to defeat Lord Dominator.
  Peepers: I've done extensive research on our good friend Dominator
  You see, her whole fleet's powered by volcanic excavator
  So I'll apply frostonium to this pyroregulator
  and completely discombobulate her army's power center!

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