''It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!'' is a song from the 1943 musical ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tell ...

''. It was first performed on Broadway by

Joseph Buloff Joseph Buloff (December 6, 1899 – February 27, 1985) was a Jewish actor and director known for his work in Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He received the Itzik Manger Prize for contributions to Yiddish letters in 1974. Life and care ...

. Traveling salesman Ali Hakim has just been pushed into marrying Ado Annie Carnes by her father, Andrew Carnes. Hakim's character is described as

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, but is based on a Syrian peddler character in

Lynn Riggs Rollie Lynn Riggs (August 31, 1899 – June 30, 1954) was an American author, poet, playwright and screenwriter. His 1931 play ''Green Grow The Lilacs'' was adapted into the landmark 1943 musical ''Oklahoma!''. Early life Riggs was born on a ...

's 1930 play ''

Green Grow the Lilacs Green Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid-19th century. The song title is the source of a folk etymology for the word '' gringo'' that states that the Mexicans misheard U.S. troops ...

,'' and was commonly perceived by audiences as an Ashkenazi Jewish character due to the stereotypes he embodies. In the musical, Hakim is the type of character who would flirt with forty women, but would prefer marriage only over being shot. Feeling trapped, he sings with the men of Oklahoma of how tricky and dirty girls are in getting husbands, using their fathers (with their guns) as backups. The song ends with the men declaring a revolution and then having their plans thwarted by women, who come in and drag them away. During the song, he compares humans to chickens ("A rooster in a chicken coop is better off'n men, he ain't the special property of just one hen!") and tells of the dangers of being caught flirting ("If you make one mistake when the moon is bright, then they tie you to a contract so you make it every night!"). Hakim only sings two lines of the song; the rest is spoken. The name of the song contains a grammatical error ("a Outrage," instead of "an Outrage") deliberately as

Hammerstein Hammerstein is a municipality on the river Rhine in the district of Neuwied in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous co ...

wrote his scripts

phonetically Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

to indicate dialect. This song from the original stage musical was not included in the 1955

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

, but is used briefly as underscoring for Ali's appearance.

References

Songs from Oklahoma! Songs with music by Richard Rodgers Songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II 1943 songs {{Show-tune-stub