Gee, Officer Krupke

"Officer Krupke" redirects here. For the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode, see List of Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes § Season 7 (2009).

"Gee, Officer Krupke" is a comedy number from the 1957 musical West Side Story. The song was composed by Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Leonard Bernstein (music), and was featured in the Broadway musical and subsequent 1961 and 2021 films.^[1]

Music

The song is sung by members of the street gang the Jets, who poke fun at the gruff Police Sergeant Krupke by singing about the societal forces that led them to join a gang. Following a theme used throughout the musical, the song begins with a tritone on the word Dear, held longer to signify its importance.^[2][3] Lyrically, the song features four seven-line verses, each filled with puns and wordplay. Each verse culminates with an interjection (e.g., "Golly Moses", "Leapin' lizards"), followed by the final line.

The tune was originally composed for an unused song for the Venice scene in Candide, where the lyrics, by John Latouche, ended with the line, "Where does it get you in the end?"^[4][5]

Censorship

The last line of the song (performed as a "Shave and a Haircut" fanfare) is "Gee, Officer Krupke – Krup you!" Lyricist Stephen Sondheim originally wanted to break a then-existing Broadway taboo by ending the song with "Gee, Officer Krupke – fuck you!", but Columbia Records, which owned the rights to the cast album, told Sondheim that the album could then not be shipped to other states without violating the obscenity laws of the era. Accordingly, Sondheim changed the ending of the song to "Krup you", and later told an interviewer that the new line was the best lyric in the whole musical.^[6][7]

Other versions

Stage play vs. 1961 film

In the original Broadway version, the song appears in the second act, but in the 1961 film version the song was moved to Act One, performed by the Jets (with Riff singing lead) prior to their imminent rumble with the Sharks. For the film's release, "Krupke" was switched with "Cool" (which was originally performed in the play's first act) on a request from Sondheim, who disliked the sequence of the songs in the play, feeling it was unfitting to watch a street gang perform a comedy number right after having seen both gang leaders get killed in the rumble.

Additionally, two stanzas in the film version had their lyrics censored:

1957 Broadway	1961 film
My father is a bastard, My ma's an S.O.B. My grandpa's always plastered,— My grandma pushes tea. Dear kindly social worker, They say go earn a buck. Like be a soda jerker, Which means I'd be a shmuck.	My Daddy beats my Mommy, My Mommy clobbers me, My Grandpa is a Commie, My Grandma pushes tea. Dear kindly social worker, They tell me get a job, Like be a soda jerker, Which means I'd be a slob.

Stage play vs. 2021 film

In the 2021 film version, the song (using the lyrics from the 1957 Broadway version, with the exception of a section using the 1961 film's lyrics) is again moved to the first half, performed prior to the rumble, with "Cool" moved to after "One Hand, One Heart". Additionally, instead of in the streets, the song takes place in the 21st Precinct of the New York City Police Department.^[8]

In popular culture

The eighth episode of season seven of Curb Your Enthusiasm is entitled "Officer Krupke". The episode features a police officer whose name is Krupke, and has Larry David describe the controversy over the name. At one point, David is singing the finale of the song and is overheard by others, who think he has said "Fuck you". "Gee, Officer Krupke" was also used as the end credits song in that episode.^{[citation needed]}

In the second episode of season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) describes a police officer who arrested her based on a misunderstanding as "Officer fucking Krupke".^[9]

References

1. "Track by Track – OCR: Track 13: 'Gee, Officer Krupke!' " by S. Woody White, sondheim.com
2. Kerry Auer Fergus (May 17, 2017). . Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
3. Jaffee Nagel, Julie (2010). "Psychoanalytic and Musical Ambiguity: The Tritone in Gee, Officer Krupke". Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 58 (1): 9–25. doi:10.1177/0003065109360555. PMID 20234007.
4. Stephen Sondheim (2012). West Side Story (1961 film) (commentary track). MGM Home Video.
5. "Candide" by Michael H. Hutchins, sondheimguide.com
6. Chirico, Rob (July 5, 2016). ""Krup You!" No More: How Broadway Learned to Swear". Slate. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
7. "Look, He Made A Hat: Sondheim Talks Sondheim", NPR, October 28, 2010
8. Bouzereau, Laurent (2021). West Side Story the Making of the Steven Spielberg Film. ISBN 9781419750632.
9. "S04e02 – Billy Jones and the Orgy Lamps – the Marvelous MRS. Maisel Transcripts – TVT".