Nicholson Reads Kipling

January 11, 2013 7:47 PM

Jack Nicholson reads Kipling's Just So Stories with music by Bobby McFerrin Part 2
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants (14 comments total)

Jack was always good with the children that way... reading stories and acting them out. But sometimes I worried about his parenting skills. One time when he came home - I don't know if he was drunk - but he kept saying "Wendy, I'm home" and he had an axe and I made our child crawl out the bathroom window to get away from him.

So it's been kind of difficult for the two of us, but I love him, and I think we can make it work if he doesn't have an axe.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:02 PM on January 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

$9.29 ©2006 Rabbit Ears. Other short books by Rabbit Ears as read by celebrities.
posted by stbalbach at 8:07 PM on January 11, 2013

Bobby McFerrin vs. Michael Winslow
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 8:10 PM on January 11, 2013

Do you like Kipling?

I don't know, I've never kippled.

That joke won first place during the Late Night Comedy Show at the Crystal Palace Exposition on September 19, 1851.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:16 PM on January 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

It's strangely erotic, since most of the first part is Nicholson talking about spanking.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:29 PM on January 11, 2013

With his hard... hard... hoof.
posted by RollingGreens at 8:30 PM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

This whole series is great, but to my mind the best one is Jack narrating "How The Camel Got His Hump". You haven't lived until you've heard Jack as the camel emitting a haughty, dismissive "...humph". O Best Beloved.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:48 PM on January 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

How The Rhino Got His Skin is great, too.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:52 PM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I originally had this as a video when I was teaching elementary grades. It wasn't quite animated like a cartoon, but lovely stills that moved; they complemented Bobby McFerrin really well.
Oh cool, here it is.
posted by NoraCharles at 8:59 PM on January 11, 2013

I was doing freelance editing for Windham Hill when the Rabbit Ears CDs started appearing, so I ended up with some copies. Jack is fantastic when he goes ‘Kipling’; my other favorites were Jonathan Winters/Leo Kottke performing Paul Bunyan, and Robin Williams/Ry Cooder in Pecos Bill.

Looks like 70 stories in all have been produced, with a remarkable variety of talented narrators and musicians.
posted by LeLiLo at 9:04 PM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Twoleftfeet That is my favourite joke. so nice to see it being used properly.
posted by quarsan at 11:40 PM on January 11, 2013

Hmm! I wonder when this recorded. I know that I listened to a tape of this story when I was a kid (say 20 years ago); it had singing/lingual performance in the background that was either the same or mighty similar to this one, and the narrator's performance was very similar to Jack's.
posted by Drexen at 4:10 AM on January 12, 2013

(It is great, anyway!)
posted by Drexen at 5:21 AM on January 12, 2013

I used to listen to this while playing with blocks, before I had any idea who Jack Nicholson was.
posted by bubukaba at 11:41 AM on January 12, 2013