Make 'Em Laugh

"Make 'Em Laugh" is a song first featured in the 1952 MGM musical film Singin' in the Rain, energetically performed by Donald O'Connor. Written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the screen writers of the movie, the song is closely based on Cole Porter's "Be a Clown" from the 1948 MGM musical film The Pirate, in which it was sung by Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.[1]

O'Connor's performance for "Make 'Em Laugh" is noted for its extreme physical difficulty, featuring dozens of jumps, pratfalls, and two backflips. Hollywood legend states that O'Connor, though only 27 years old at the time but a chain-smoker, was bedridden for several days after filming the sequence. This high degree of difficulty has made the original routine a tour de force in physical comedy.

"Make 'Em' Laugh" is listed at #49 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Song structure

Songwriter and MGM "Freed unit" producer Arthur Freed used his own library of songs written with Nacio Herb Brown as the basis for the musical film Singin' in the Rain. Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green recall that before shooting had started, they had "painfully wedged into the script as a cheering-up song" for Donald O'Connor the Freed/Brown song "The Wedding of the Painted Dolls",[2] but during filming, Freed realized that O'Connor needed a better number, but could not find anything suitable for his character within his collection.

Co-director Stanley Donen referenced the Cole Porter song "Be a Clown" from the film The Pirate, and further suggested that Freed and Brown compose a song using this as their inspiration, but in the end the screenwriters, Comden and Green, wrote the song. Donen recalls, "It was 100% plagiarism."[1] Both music and lyrics of "Make 'Em Laugh" bear almost exact similarities in form and style to "Be a Clown".[3] Although Cole Porter could have, he never sued for copyright infringement.[4][5]

See also

References
  1. Adams, Cecil (June 4, 1976) "The Straight Dope: Aren't the show tunes "Be a Clown" and "Make 'Em Laugh" suspiciously similar?" Chicago Reader
  2. Comden, Betty and Green, Adolf (1972) "Introduction" to Singin' in the Rain (screenplay), pp.8-9. Reprinted in 2002 as The story Behind Singin' in the Rain: Now It Can be Told, included in the liner notes of the Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition) Singin' in the Rain double CD by Rhino Entertainment and Turner Classic Movies.
  3. Funcage. "Top 5 Examples of Plagiarism". 5. Singin' in the Rain.
  4. Song Facts. Donald O'Connor. "Make 'Em Laugh". 1952.
  5. "Be A Clown" and "Make 'Em Laugh:" Comic Timing, Rhythm, and Donald O'Connor's Face. Westover, Jonas. "Sounding Funny: Music, Sound, and Comedy Cinema" Ed. Mark Evans, Ed. London: Equinox, 2016. Pg 122-47
  6. "Make 'Em Laugh". PBS. 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-11.
  7. "Glee - "The Substitute"". Cultural Learnings. 2010-11-16.
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