Opening song (The Flintstones) |
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This is the opening song for the American animation series "The Flintstones" (1960-1966), a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and friends. The main character is Fred, and then we have his wife Wilma, his next door neighbour and best friend Barney and his wife Betty.
The Flintstones are the portrait of a normal American family of the time living in a normal American city (Bedrock). The trick is that the story is not happening in present America but in the Stone Age, so every modern device is recreated with stones and animals, which results in a surprising and funny parody.
Yabadabadoo!!
Flintstones. Meet the Flintstones.
They're the modern stone age family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They're a page right out of history.
Let's ride with the family down the street.
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet.
When you're with the Flintstones
Have a yabba dabba doo time.
A dabba doo time.
You'll have a gay old time.
YABADABADOO= A cry of joy similar to YAY! but more emphatic. It was made popular by this series.
FLINTSTONES= Flintstone is a very hard stone made of silica, used in the Stone Age to make tools, particularly stone axes and arrow points. (see picture)
THE FLINTSTONES= We use a surname in the plural to refer to the whole family, because father, mother and children have the same surname, so we say: The Smiths, The Johnsons, The Pitts, etc.
STONE AGE= A prehistoric period of humanity when tools were made using only stones and wood, before humans learned how to use metals.
A PAGE RIGHT OUT OF HISTORY= A good example of a past era.
RIDE= To travel in a car (or bike or horse).
DOWN THE STREET= When we move along a street we can always say that we are going "down the street", but it doesn't matter if we are going down the hill or up the hill or whatever.
THROUGH THE COURTESY OF FRED'S TWO FEET= Thanks to Fred, who helps us with his two feet (Fred is moving the car using his feet, because there was no petrol at that time).
GAY= Happy. This word is now used to mean "homosexual", so we rarely use it with the original meaning of "happy" anymore, though it is still possible.
OLD TIME= In this case the adjective OLD has the literal meaning (because this happened a long time ago) but also has an emotional meaning. We can use OLD in colloquial English with something that we like and love and think it's good and important for us (age is not important):
- I went to visit good old George for his birthday, he's 21 today.
- I remember my nice old farm in Tenessy.