This is 4x rarer than most other iterations of the meme, reblog today or wait 4 years.

“How did you know I was a trans guy” bitch you look like this:

Pedro was giving such early '80s Kevin Kline last night.

a paradox! 🏴‍☠️

One thing you need to know about me is that I will for the 5000th time rewatch the 1980 Shakespeare in the Park filmed performance of The Pirates of Penzance, starring Kevin Kline, Patricia Rutledge, Linda Ronstadt, and Rex Smith and I will gif the heck out of it…

"For some ridiculous reason, to which however I have no desire to be disloyal, some person in authority-"

"Who?"

"... I don't know who, very likely the astronomer royal; has decreed that although for such a beastly month as February twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty, one year in every four it's days shall be numbered as NINE and twenty. By some singular coincidence, I wouldn't be surprised if it were owing to the agency of some ill natured fairy, YOU-"

"Me?"

"-are the victim of this... clumsy arrangement, having been born in leap year on the twenty-ninth of February. And so, by a simple arithmetical process, I am sure you will easily discover that although you have lived twenty-one years, if we go by birthdays, you're only five and a little bit over."

Whenever a fic wistfully references what Ed used to be like when he was younger, you should know that I'm picturing Kevin Kline in the Pirates of Penzance (1983).

That's obviously how he fucked his knee:

The problem with liking Pirates of Penzance is that it's as just as quotable as The Princess Bride, but has a tiny fraction of the same viewership so you can’t actually say that perfect line out loud most of the time.

HEY!

Hey

Listen, hear me out

This year is a leap year.

This year is a leap year.

We can celebrate Frederick’s birthday on the leap year!

Pirates of Penzance enjoyers. It’s going to be time to show your friends who are not pirates of Penzance enjoyers this media and watch their reaction!

I am leaving this here as my gift to the OFMD fandom.

You're welcome.

Happy Leap Day/Birthday to this poor lad.

Roommate and I got fixated on an old opera at the same time

The thing about the Captain singing “I Am The Very Model” is that it’s actually a satire about the British Army during the 19th century. The Major-General lists all the things he knows from Babylonic cuneiform to many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. But none of those very interesting little bits of information have anything to do with leading an army. Yes, he knows the kings of England and can quote various battles (categorically, no less) but that would make him a great historian, it wouldn’t help him on the battlefield.

When he does know things about the military is all rather basic. He can tell the difference between a Mauser rifle and a javelin (because y’know, a sharp stick and a fucking gun are very hard to tell apart) he knows the meaning of the word “Commissariat” (food and equipment department) and he knows more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery (and I know more of walking than a baby, big whoop)

Anyways, I find this interesting considering when it comes to being part of the army, the Captain isn’t exactly the type for it. Ben has said on multiple occasions that the Captain is very much unfit for the army. Describing him as “a sensitive man” and that “he’d be the first to run if the Germans came out of the woods”. And we very clearly see he is more cutout for theatre than the military. Now, is the Captain as incompetent as the Major-General? Well no of course not, but he’s just as unfit to be in a position of military leadership as the Major-General is. (Perhaps to a lesser degree, but you get what I’m saying) I just think him singing that song is very telling about his character.

I feel like anyone who knows the song or the opera has figured this out already and I’m not exactly saying anything new, but I haven’t seen anyone else make this connection before so I thought I’d say it.

Also I don’t doubt the Captain would hyperfixate on random topics and be able to spout trivia about it. He’s just like me fr

hey hey guys heyo

if you haven’t listened to g&s’ the Pirates of Penzance you NEED to it’s genuinely one of the funniest musicals in the world it’s just batshit insane. it reads like a crackfic and i desperately crave aus set in this world because g u y s

the pirates are so chivalrous that they never invade small ships, only ones bigger and better than them. they’re all orphans and when they manage to capture people everyone claims they’re also an orphan so the pirates let them go. the main character frederic works with the pirates because his nursemaid has bad hearing and was ordered to apprentice him to a pilot. frederic jumps out of his hiding place to tell these beautiful girls he was watching their conversation because they were about to take off their stockings how sCA nd aLoU s. frederic sings a whole dramatic betrayal ballad w his forty-year-old nursemaid because she told him she was beautiful so he’d marry her but he thinks she’s hella ugly. this kicks off her villain arc. he asks a whole, entirely unrelated group of ladies if they’re rly ugly and nobody wants to date them, they say no, so he goes ‘😬 u sure?’ twice in a row. THE very model of a modern major general sings his song upon entry, only afterwards asking what’s going on, implying that he sings it every time he sees people. the song is about how good he is at being a general but all he brags about are skills that are entirely irrelevant, eg, integral and differential calculus. frederic plans to exterminate the pirates because he’s turned 21 and left his indenture (they are very respectful about this) but realises he’s apprenticed to them until his 21st birthday and he was born on the 29th of february. there’s these policemen who are just absolute cowards and hide the moment the pirates arrive, then the pirates hear the general arriving and also hide - picture a pirate and a policeman standing obviously behind poles and completely failing to see each other. the policemen echo the ends of lyrics even if it makes no sense, eg “pied in crime” “culty smother”. the pirates sing a song about how stealthy they are, which could be interpreted as just how musicals are, but i’d like to think they’re belting the whole thing. the entire plot is resolved by the sergeant bidding the pirates to yield in Queen Victoria’s name, to which they immediately yield and become noblemen again. oh also it’s a full opera

Pros: I can now sing (badly) every word of a total of twenty two Gilbert and Sullivan songs.

Cons: no one cares.