craig ferguson's "lonely goatherd"

A little background information: My mother went into labor while watching The Sound of Music and refused to go to the hospital because "the Nazi part" hadn't come yet. So my mother waited. Until this three-hour movie was over. Before allowing me into the world. Well, lucky for us (so as to not become a site for bitterness), The Sound of Music became one of my favorite films (Captain von Trapp is amazing) and ABC shows the film every year on my birthday. I can't even think of a time when this film didn't show on my birthday. But there is one part -- one song -- that my mother cannot stand, and it happens to be the song that is the most fun to sing: "The Lonely Goatherd." Its playfulness is contagious, but my mother absolutely hates it. She walks out of the room. So mum, this video is for you.

In the video above, late night comedian Craig Ferguson's puppets do a rendition of "The Lonely Goatherd." Watch, listen, enjoy, and repeat. You'll need to repeat it because you will have missed it the first time from laughing so hard.

(Actually, this video is really for me. I think Craig Ferguson is one of the funniest improvisational comedians I've seen -- certainly on any late night program -- and I can never tell when his jokes are scripted, which is a sign that he does his job well. He's been starting off each episode with a puppet show, rather than a monologue, and the set-up should absolutely fail, but somehow it doesn't. What's impressive about the video above is that Ferguson knows the lyrics to the song -- really well -- to the point that, when the unicorn's mouth doesn't match the lyrics, he knows and the unicorn looks around confused. So what's better than Craig Ferguson, puppets, and The Sound of Music? Not much, not much.)