For many of us, the sound of Disney songs brings in an instant air of nostalgia for our childhoods. And when you look back at the best Disney animated movies (along with some live-action and Pixar) from the House of Mouse’s one-hundred-year history, there are a ton of genuinely hilarious song lyrics. Check out which funny bars from Disney movies we chuckle to whilst singing along.
“Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious. Don’t believe me? Ask the dishes.“
One of the most charismatic Disney characters has to be Beauty and the Beast’s Lumiere, and he definitely shines the brightest (pun intended) during his solo song “Be Our Guest.” Lyricist Howard Ashman was clearly having a blast imagining what a talking candlestick would say. The lyric that gets us every time is when he asks Belle to try the “grey stuff” before pointing to the dishes as references. It’s so clever and fun.
“I’m in the mood to help you, dude.”
Aladdin is one of Robin Williams’ best movies, especially for what the actor brought to the character of Genie. In his show-stopping song, “Friend Like Me,” it’s a blast to see Williams’ ancient character blend together elements from Middle Eastern culture of the time with more modern phrases. A funny instance of that is when he literally calls Aladdin “dude.”
“Go ahead, get trampled by a rhino…”
In Disney’s Rapunzel adaptation, her captor is super evil, but one cannot help but love how hilarious Mother Gothel is, either. In her song “Mother Knows Best,” where she reiterates to Rapunzel why she should not leave her tower, it’s rather comical for the audience to hear the random ways she incites fear into the lost princess – especially with this rhino line.
“And, it hurt that my friends never stood downwind!”
Disney songs love wordplay, and “Hakuna Matata” has a hilarious one from Pumbaa. During the song, Pumbaa’s backstory is basically that he is super gassy and felt super embarrassed about it. However, with the phrase of the song, he’s able to embrace himself, smells and all. With that, this line uses “downwind” to have two meanings.
“Don’t know if I’m elated or gassy, but I’m somewhere in that zone.”
When it comes to all the Disney Princess movies, Frozen is definitely high on the list, and much of that has to do with how grounded and real Anna and Elsa feel. While other princesses are so dainty and graceful, Anna sings basically everything that comes into her brain, and in this line in “First Time In Forever,” she’s able to convey her stress about the Coronation in a relatable way.
“There’s children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads. They’re busy building toys, and absolutely no one’s dead.”
In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton’s concept allows Jack Skellington to experience Christmas for the first time after living his life as the King of Halloween Town. While the lyrics are absolutely true to Jack’s experience when he is singing them in “What’s This?” it is very funny to hear a character announce that no one’s dead or being thrown – and it’s a revelation to him.
“So, you wanna be a hero, kid? Well, whoop-de-do.”
Danny DeVito is so great as an old satyr named Philoctetes in Hercules, that it’s no wonder Disney fans really want to see him in the live-action Disney remake! One rather comical moment of his comes from his song “One Last Hope” when he injects some sarcasm into the opening line. It’s a solid way for Phil to comment about his past experiences training heroes, and it’s fun to recite with him.
“Cleaning crud up in the kitchen as we sing along!”
Enchanted was an excellent addition to Disney movies because of how candidly it satirized the studio’s clichés over the years. This is especially put on display when Giselle sings “Happy Working Song” by going into detail about all the tidying up she is doing in her new live-action setting. It’s not quite as magical as in her animated land, that’s for sure!
“Don’t underestimate the importance of body language, ha!”
During The Little Mermaid’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” the deliciously evil villain of Ursula successfully convinces young and naive Ariel to give the sea witch her voice in exchange for a spell that will give her legs. One funny line, especially for the delivery, is when Ursula suggests she uses “body language” while dancing rather playfully.
“I’d rather be called deadly for my killer show-tune medley. Thank you!”
After Rapunzel leaves her tower for the first time in Tangled, it’s fun to see her end up at a pub called “The Snuggly Duckling” full of ruffians. Her presence inspires the criminals to break into song for “I Have A Dream” to share their innermost desires. One great line is when one shady character shares that he’s secretly a pianist who wishes he was recognized for his talents. It’s sweet, too.
“We finish each other’s…” “Sandwiches.”
During the first act of Frozen, Anna falls quickly for Prince Hans and they sing a duet called “Love Is An Open Door.” In one moment of the song, Hans says it’s crazy that they “finish each other’s” before Anna interrupts with “sandwiches.” Usually, that line would be “sentences,” but Anna’s quirky way changes things – made even better by him following up that with “that’s what I was going to say!”
“Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle, but put me in summer and I’ll be a… happy snowman”
Frozen was very clever to invent a snowman character who dreams of the summertime and actually devotes an entire song to his dreams around being in the season. It’s kind of a fun dark song because Olaf would technically melt if he was around in those weather conditions. This is played to directly when he says a line that rhymes with “puddle” and looks at one before going into a completely different direction lyrically.
“It just occurred to me that I’m illiterate and I’ve never actually had to spell it out loud before…”
While the live-action Beauty and the Beast is rather similar to the original animated version overall, Josh Gad’s LeFou brought some additional comedy to the song “Gaston.” He points out he’s illiterate while attempting to spell out Gaston’s name during the tune and it deserves the extra chuckle not found in the ’90s original.
“These guys don’t appreciate I’m broke.”
In Aladdin, “One Jump Ahead” helps introduce Aladdin as a young man on the streets of Agrabah who steals in order to survive. The action-packed song is full of visual gags, but one line delivery that’s funny and relatable to some of us is how he casually says the law enforcement after him just doesn’t appreciate that he’s “broke.” What a mindset!
“Oh I wouldn’t climb this tree, if a Pooh flew like a bee. But I wouldn’t be a bear then, so I guess I wouldn’t care then.”
Winnie The Pooh is such a funny guy as is, so it’s no surprise he has his own song to match that energy. In the Sherman Brothers song “Rumbly In My Tummy,” Pooh laments on being all sorts of hungry which he hopes to grab from a honey tree. In a sweet line, Pooh thinks about if he was a bee he could fly up the tree he’s climbing, but then he would no longer be a bear, wouldn’t he?
“Hey! What has two thumbs and pulled up the sky when you were waddling yay high? This guy!”
Maui is a charismatic demigod who tells his story to Moana in “You’re Welcome.” One particularly funny line that Lin-Manuel Miranda cooked up for the lyrics was this one above that has Dwayne Johnson basically rapping in the best way.
“You say put them on your head. Ay, mi amor! Ay, mi amor!”
In Coco, Miguel sings the very catchy tune “Un Poco Loco” while trying to win a contest to go to Ernesto de la Cruz’s concert. Unlike many Disney songs, this one translates to “a little crazy” and is rather random to the narrative itself. The song speaks to how love can make one crazy, by basically saying one’s love tells him the sky is red and he should put his shoes on his head.
“You telling this story, or am I?”
Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became the biggest hit of the 2021 movie, even though Lin-Manuel Miranda called the big hit the “least likely candidate for breakout success possible.” The whole song is a fun time, but especially when Mirábel’s uncle and aunt are trying to tell her Bruno’s backstory and fight over who is telling the story!
“‘Cause when you’re older, absolutely everything makes sense!”
After Olaf went viral for being the sweetest talking snowman in Arendelle, he gets another solo in Frozen 2. In the song “When I Am Older,” Olaf talks about his excitement for understanding more things when he grows up more and experiences life further. However, with lines such as this one, adults will especially chuckle because being older doesn’t necessarily amount to things in the world finally making any “sense.”
“What do they got, a lot of sand? We got a hot crustacean band.”
Sebastian the Crab is such a lively character in The Little Mermaid, even if it takes him some time to come around to Ariel’s dreams of being human. This is most apparent in his song “Under The Sea” when Sebastian brings together tons of talented sea creatures to show her that there’s a lot to love as one of them. Sure, it doesn’t work on Ariel, but they make a good case for it.
“Honey, you mean Hunk-ules!”
The Muses in Hercules help tell the story of the Greek hero with a lot of soul and sass. In “The Gospel Truth,” the muses kind of break the fourth wall to showcase how they find the hero attractive by calling him “Hunk-ules” rather than “Hercules,” and it’s an unforgettable part of the song.
“There’s only she who is beautiful as me. So, I’m making plans to woo and marry Belle.”
At the beginning of Beauty and the Beast, the setting and its characters are established with the ensemble song “Belle.” During the song, Gaston is introduced in a straightforward way by sharing his goals with these lines. There’s also something quite hilarious about Gaston referring to himself as “beautiful.”
“You’re not a voice, you’re just a ringing in my ear. And, if I heard you, which I don’t.”
At the beginning of Frozen 2, Elsa starts to hear a voice calling to her. While she’s singing about it in “Into The Unknown,” the songwriters found a witty way to communicate how she’s denying the voice calling to her with this line, which is also just well executed lyrically.
“It’s genetics! Yeah, I got these genes from outer space. Peep the name, I’m magnificent!”
When Chris Pine was cast as Disney’s latest villain in Wish, he was “geeking out” about the process of getting to sing songs in an animated movie from the House of Mouse. In his big villain song, “This Is The Thanks I Get?!” Pine’s character of King Magnifico shows off his charm and sense of humor by commenting on his good looks.
I’m just a punky little eyeball, and a funky optic nerve.”
Not every Pixar movie has original songs, but Monsters Inc. does in the form of a duet between John Goodman’s Sully and Billy Crystal’s Mike Waskowski. The song “If I Didn’t Have You” is funny from beginning to end as the friends quip with each other about their friendship, but this line from Mike is especially a great line.
”I love to laugh, it’s getting worse every year.”
Laughing isn’t a “condition” typically, but in the case of 1964’s Mary Poppins, it is for Ed Wynn’s Uncle Albert, who starts floating in the air when he starts laughing uncontrollably. In the song “I Love To Laugh,” it’s simply comical to see this concept come to life as Albert sings (through his laughter) how it’s getting “worse every year.”
“This child is getting wildly out of wing.”
In The Lion King’s “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King,” Simba shares his excitement about being the ruler of Pride Rock someday. However, his majordomo, Zazu, is not impressed with the song. In a great pun moment from the ‘90s hit, he says Simba is getting wildly “out of wing” rather than “out of hand” – because he’s a bird.
”I’m the king of the swingers. Oh, the jungle VIP.”
In 1967’s The Jungle Book, “I Wan’na Be Like You” an orangutan named King Louie attempts to entice Mowgli to teach him about the ways of being human with him. The character voiced by jazz and swing singer Louis Prima makes a great joke about playing a monkey and the genre of the song by calling himself the “king of the swingers.”
“His assets frozen, the venue chosen is the ends of the earth, whoopee! So long, ex-Prince Ali!”
Aladdin’s Jafar is a rather comical villain, even though he’s terrifying as well. In the reprise for “Prince Ali,” which comes at a time when his evil plans are coming together, he uses his cleverness to roast Aladdin as he grabs the Genie lamp for himself and asks to become a sorcerer himself.
“Now when you pick a pawpaw, or a prickly pear…”
This is one of those lyrics that is just funny to say and leaves the tongue tingly. In The Bare Necessities, Baloo the Bear teaches Mowgli his motto for life, which includes how he picks his fruit in a long line full of alliteration.
“Are ya achin’ (yup, yup, yup), for some bacon? (Yup, yup, yup.)”
Near the end of The Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa assist Simba in foiling Scar by the art of distraction. They do so by crafting up a hilarious Luau song where they use Pumbaa as bait. It will never not be a funny sequence in The Lion King.
“Who can make up these endless refrains like Gaston?”
Beauty and the Beast’s “Gaston” sequence is loads of fun as LeFou sings about his muscled-up mate in a pub full of people who worship him. One funny bit is when LeFou kind of comments on how they are singing a lot about Gaston by saying he makes up “endless refrains.”