HBO’s John Oliver and actor Will Ferrell hope they can dethrone Lee Greenwood’s soaring rendition of God Bless the USA at U.S. citizen naturalization ceremonies with a new song that ridicules America and contains lyrics that attack Republicans.
The U.S. government began playing the song at the end of its naturalization ceremonies without asking the singer and Greenwood felt that he was owed some payment for the many times the song was played each year. So, he and the federal government arrived at a fee of $700 annually for use of the song.
But, for his part, Oliver mocked Greenwood for asking for a licensing fee — as all musicians do for use of their work. Oliver was also disgusted that Greenwood created a song to energize Canadians, which is similar to the singer’s U.S.A. version.
“All of this is to say, for multiple reasons, I’d argue Lee Greenwood’s song should never again be played at citizenship ceremonies, because they deserve one genuinely unique to this country,” Oliver said during his Sunday night broadcast.
As part of his campaign to deep-six Greenwood’s patriotic song, he and comedic actor and former Saturday Night Live star Will Farrell crafted a replacement song that mocks the United States. And he thinks it is a funny idea to have newly minted Americans told that their new country is not something God might bless all that much.
With Ferrell providing the vocals, Oliver’s song blasts America as a land of “real big problems.”
“You studied hard,” Ferrell sings in the Oliver tune. “You did your best. Filled out the forms, and passed the test. Now you’re part of a land that’s so God blessed, and starting today, you’re American.”
Ferrell then croons about corn dogs and apple pie, but he also warns new Americans of the country’s “real big problems,” which includes an attack on a sitting U.S. Senator who happens to be a Republican.
Some of those problems he cites are televangelists, fossil fuels, Mountain Dew, private prisons, metal detectors in schools, “and Ted fuckin’ Cruz.”
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