Emily LakdawallaMay 24, 2013

Friday fun: Every moon in the solar system in an homage to Tom Lehrer

Well, this is simultaneously awesome and adorable. A girl named Hope Johnson performing an homage to Tom Lehrer's "The Elements" in song and ukelele, except instead of the elements, she's singing the names of all the named moons in the solar system. Check it out!

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Hope Johnson sings the names of the solar system's moons Lyrics by Hope Johnson: a song that names all of the named moons in our solar system, inspired by Tom Lehrer's "The Elements."Video: Hope Johnson

I tried to learn The Elements a few times and never managed it. Maybe I'll have to give this version a try. People think it's a cool parlor trick that I can rattle off the names of all the solar system's major round satellites (that would be the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Iapetus, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, maybe Proteus, and Triton), But Hope has me beat by a mile here.

Hope Johnson is half of a pair of Brooklyn teens who go by "WeSingHappySongs." You do, girls, you do! Nice work!

Here are the lyrics, copied from the WeSingHappySongs YouTube page:

There's amalthea n halimede adrastea prometheus
n eurydome enceladus n harpalyke puck proteus
ophelia cordelia titania n oberon
miranda nix n hydra n laomedia n rhea bebionn
sponde n kale larissa sycorax n desdemona moon
n thelxinoe dysnomia n ferdinand n themisto
n prospero albiorix n stepheno n callirrhoe
n ariel n cressida n skoll charon n callisto

There's polyduces praxidike n eukelade n ganymede
epimethus n kallichore himalia and farbauti
hyperion greip hyrrokkin n rosalind n belinda n autonoe n suttungr n methone arche n pandora

There's cyllene thebe herse setebos n chaldene kore ymir calypso
n iocaste n isonoe n erinome n telesto
n pasiphae n hegemone n jarnxasa erriapus
n daphnis aegir sinope neso mundilfari loge metis
there's megaclite n pasithee n thalassa n galatea
n umbriel n margaret and francisco n euporie
n siarnaq carme mab paaliaq iapetus n europa
n bergelmir n thyone anthe n elara n perdita

There's phobos deimos io carpo bestla sao n aoede
aitne kalyke hermippe leda tethys n skathi hati
n helike janus phoebe titan taygete mnene n orthosie
n mimas tarvos kiviuq tarqeq thrymr narvi euanthe

Theres ananke lysithea n dione helene nerid
n atlas fornjot fenrir pallene ijiraqq cupid naiad
n juliet portia aegaeon caliban namka triton hiaka sutur kari bianca trinculo psamathe pan

These are the only natural sattelites of which are in our solar system plus despina and weird numbered ones of which i could not all fit in!

Tip of the hat to Emily Rice for pointing this video out to me.

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