"Yakko's World" is a song from the second episode of Animaniacs, sung by Yakko Warner. It was the first Animaniacs song of many that had educational value. The song was written by Randy Rogel, directed by Rusty Mills (Storyboarded by Brian Mitchell), and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.[1] The melody of the song is set to a slightly varied tune of the Mexican Hat Dance. Yakko's World is featured on the musical album of the same name that Animaniacs released with the Rhino Records label.
The song starts with a map of the world and an announcer saying "And now, the nations of the world, brought to you by Yakko Warner!" Yakko then pops onto the screen and then starts a fast song, naming the nations of the world, save some irregularities (see below). As Yakko sings the name of a nation, he points to it so it glows.
At several conventions long after the end of Animaniacs' original run, actor Rob Paulsen, who provides Yakko's voice, could sing the entire song word-for-word without reading the lyrics and without accompanying music.[2]
Missing countries
Yakko's World does not actually name all the countries of the world.[3] Naturally, some did not exist at the time, such as East Timor and Palau, or gained independence too recently, such as Eritrea; while some of the listed states broke up into smaller countries, such as Czechoslovakia, which was to split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia shortly before the release of the song; and Yugoslavia, which subsequently broke up into Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not only did countries split apart, but some joined together; Yakko refers to "both Yemens", but North and South Yemen have joined into The Republic of Yemen.
The United Kingdom is not listed as such, but instead two of its constituent countries, England and Scotland, are listed, and two are not − Wales and Northern Ireland.
In addition, some countries have changed their names, such as Zaire becoming Democratic Republic of the Congo. Russia was shown as the Soviet Union which contains Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. However, the Soviet Union fell two years before the premiere of this song, and each republic became its own independent nation, including Russia.
Virtually all of the countries excluded, except the Central African Republic, Singapore, Côte d'Ivoire and South Africa, have very small areas and populations. Many are isolated island nations whose legal status is ambiguous, and are surrounded by (or were once themselves) islands that are territories of other nations. The song excludes:
Nations and/or countries mentioned that are not universally recognized as independent states
Several regions, territories, islands or cities are mentioned which are not actual countries:
- Puerto Rico is an island in the Caribbean; although it is not formally recognized as a totally self-governing state, it is currently a Commonwealth, which the United Nations (U.N.) Decolonization Committee describes as a colony of the United States.
- Tibet claims to be, but is not widely officially recognized as, independent from People's Republic of China. They later noted this in the episode "Please Please Pleese [sic] Get A Life Foundation."[4] Also, in the video, Tibet is only visible on its own when highlighted, at all other times, it was drawn as part of the People's Republic of China.
- Bermuda and Cayman are British colonies, as was Hong Kong at the time of broadcast, prior to its handover to People's Republic of China in 1997.
- Greenland is a self governed territory of Denmark.
- Guam is an island in the Pacific under U.S. sovereignty (American territory).
- Sumatra is an island of Indonesia
- Borneo is an island that includes Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Brunei and Indonesian provinces of East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan.
- French Guiana is a "département" (administrative unit a bit bigger than a county) of France and Mahoré is a French oversea territory (T.O.M).
- Mahore is another name for Mayotte, which is an island in the Comoros. This is most likely why they weren't mentioned.
- Abu Dhabi is mentioned, but the United Arab Emirates as a whole is not.
- Algier is mentioned; this is an incorrect way of saying Algiers, the capital city of Algeria, which is also (correctly) mentioned.
- Palestine is not recognized by the UN as an independent state.
- Tobago is mentioned by itself, but the country is actually Trinidad and Tobago.
- Taiwan is not recognized by the UN as an independent state, but claimed by People's Republic of China and the Republic of China as part of China.
- United States, Denmark, Greece, Indonesia, China, Algeria, France and Romania are listed by both the country's name and by a region, city or overseas territory. The UK is not listed, but referenced in England and Scotland.
Continents, Islands, seas, regions, etc.
Other irregularities
- North and South Korea are mentioned together simply as Korea.
- United Arab Emirates is not mentioned, although Abu Dhabi, one of the seven constituent Emirates, and not an independent state, is.
- As mentioned above, Yakko refers to "both Yemens"; the country was reunited in 1990, three years prior to the episode's release.
- Burma is mentioned, but the country had changed its name to Myanmar several years earlier.
- Kampuchea was renamed, most recently to Kingdom of Cambodia in 1994.
- Dahomey is also mentioned by its modern name, Benin, with its territory highlighted both times.
- The map has many mistakes, e.g., in addition to showing Russia with all of the CIS states, Nepal and Bhutan were not shown on the map but flashed when it was mentioned. The Chinese province of Tibet was shown as Nepal on the map. Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, was not shown.
- Israel is misspelled as 'Isreal' in the sing-along version.
- Sinai Peninsula is highlighted when Jordan is indicated though it's part of Egypt.
- Switzerland is shown larger than it really is on a map.
- Malawi is mispronounced as /ˈmæləweɪ/.
- The Dominican Republic is listed as "Republic Dominican" in order to fit the rhyme scheme.
- Yakko mentions the Spanish Sahara as being gone, but doesn't mention nor point to its modern day name of Western Sahara.
- When Yakko says "New Guinea" he's really marking the Papua New Guinean half of the island. New Guinea is highlighted before, when he says "Indonesia", because that half of the island also belongs to this republic. New Guinea is not a nation, and Papua New Guinea includes other islands in addition to the eastern half of New Guinea.
- The name used for the Philippines is Philippine Islands which is formerly used during the Spanish-American war.
- At one point in the second verse, the Central African Republic is red. Surrounding countries, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire) are also red, making the 3 look like 1 nation.
- During the third verse, Egypt and Madagascar are pink, but the rest of Africa is green. Then, when Yakko turns from the Asia shot to the Africa shot, all the countries are shown again.
- When Yakko points out China, the northeastern part is not highlighted.
- In the Portuguese version of the song, Canada isn't on it. Although Yakko points at it.
- In the Portuguese version of the song, Taiwan is covered by the Philippines.
- In the Hungarian version of the song, most of the European countries are mentioned by nationality.
- In the Russian version of the song, many countries switch place, causing Yakko to sing Norway instead of Sweden.
Geographical Irregularities
- Iceland is round with a small head, rather than looking like a dragon.
- German borders take over Luxembourg, and the Danish take over north Germany.
- Austria should have a tail, but instead it looks round.
- When Yakko begins the song, Australia and New Guinea are farther South than they should be.
- In the beginning, Iceland and Greenland are too far away from each other, and it looks like there are two Icelands.
- The Saudi Arabian border takes over half of Oman.
- The western tip of Romania in the second verse sticks out too far, taking over the Yugoslavian border.
- When the song begins, there is a non-existent red island shown under South America (this might be the tip of Antarctica, though the rest of the continent is missing).
Countries sung
References Outside the Short
- In another episode, Yakko does the same thing with the same music and costume to say All The Words in the English Language, presented as buffers between shorts throughout the episode. These skits were intended as meta-humor, parodying Yakko's World and even showing Yakko growing tired as his song progressed and getting angry when he made a mistake. It had the same background music as Yakko's world, and even a similar rhyme sceme. At the end of this, announcer Dick Button asks the viewers to "join [them] next week when Yakko sings all the numbers above 0," which causes Yakko to faint.
- In the Season 4 episode "Cutie and the Beast", when Yakko manages to say Dot's full name ("Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fana Bo Besca the Third") without error, Dot comments, "Oh, thank you, Mr. United States-Canada-Mexico-Panama!" These are the first four countries in the song. Also, the background score plays the tune of Yakko's World for a few seconds during this exchange.
- In the Pinky and the Brain episode "The Third Mouse", Pinky was asked, "What do you know?" He responds, "The lyrics to 'Yakko's World'." Yakko and Pinky are both voiced by Rob Paulsen. Also yet again, the background score plays the tune of Yakko's World for a few seconds during this exchange.
- In the Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain episode "Squeeze Play", when the Brain mentions the United States and Canada, Pinky starts singing "Yakko's World".
- In the episode "The Sound of Warners," as the Warners are sleeping in their bed, Yakko has a nightmare, stressing over missing a country, Panama (though he does not notice singing two other countries out of order): "United States... Canada... Mexico... Jamaica... Haiti... Peru... no, you left one ou! Left--one--out!!"
- A classic bumper for Kids WB featured Tweety who welcomes the watchers back and tuning into Animaniacs, at the very end, he's briefly heard singing "Yakko's World".
- In the Kids WB promo, Animaniacs Week, Yakko sings the about days of the week and the cast of the Animaniacs to the same tune used for Yakko's World.
In popular culture
- In a Norwegian radio and tv advert for the Norwegian scratchcard Flax the beginning of Yakko's World is sung as a response to a man saying "Hey, long time since last I saw you. Where have you been?".
- On the popular Dutch television show: "Ik wed dat ik het kan" (I bet I can), a woman sang the entire song from memory and won a thousand euros. [1]
- Like some cartoon characters from World War 2, Yakko has been "drafted" as a mascot for the US Navy's intelligence officer school in Dam Neck, Virginia, which has a mandatory course in geography. The "Yakko's World" song is sometimes shown as a joke as to the needed knowledge to ace that course.
References
See also
Yakko's World on YouTube
