The surprising viral hit on t’internet of The Sea Shanty encourages the inevitable parodies during lockdown.
Sometimes you get a surprising and delightful Passover parody that you totally should have seen coming. After the explosive popularity of sea shanties on TikTok this year, it only makes sense that a Jewish a cappella group would pick up on the trend for a parody medley.
Sea shanties were absolutely made for a cappella music. Jews have a long history of piracy! And no, I’m not talking about the online type (though, yes, that too). There are mentions of Jewish pirates as far back as the Hasmonean dynasty (that’s 140 BCE to 37 BCE for those in need of some historic navigation).
In more modern times, a lot of Jewish pirates were actually Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain. Some of them, including one pirate known as The Great Jew, actually attacked and looted ships of the Catholic Empire.
Anyway, back to this absolute joy of a Jew-y sea shanty. There are so many gems in this medley. “What should we do with the middle matzah?” to the tune of “Drunken Sailor,” closely followed by Gilligan’s isle from “The Gilligan Island Theme” being turned into the Egyptian Nile. Not to mention that shouts of “ahoy!” just translate so easily into exasperated “oys.” (Eye-patched) chef’s kisses all around for the adapted lyrics on this one.
What a bounty of Passover excellence Six13 has given us! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Manischewitz, mateys!