"Gee, Officer Krupke" is a comedy number from the 1957 musical ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...

''. The

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

was composed by Stephen Sondheim (

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

) and Leonard Bernstein (

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

), and was featured in the Broadway musical and subsequent

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (K ...

and

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

films.

Music

The song is sung by members of the street gang the Jets, who poke fun at the gruff Police Sergeant Krupke by singing about the societal forces that led them to join a gang. Following a theme used throughout the musical, the song begins with a

tritone In music theory, the tritone is defined as a musical interval composed of three adjacent whole tones (six semitones). For instance, the interval from F up to the B above it (in short, F–B) is a tritone as it can be decomposed into the three adj ...

on the word ''Dear'', held longer to signify its importance. Lyrically, the song features four seven-line verses, each filled with

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

s and wordplay. Each verse culminates with an interjection (e.g., "Golly Moses", "Leapin' lizards"), followed by the final line. The tune was originally composed for an unused song for the Venice scene in '' Candide'', where the lyrics, by John Latouche, ended with the line, "Where does it get you in the end?"

Censorship

The last line of the song (performed as a "

Shave and a Haircut "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" is a seven-note musical call-and-response couplet, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comedic effect. It is used melodically or rhythmic ...

" fanfare) is "Gee, Officer Krupke – Krup you!" Lyricist Stephen Sondheim originally wanted to break a then-existing Broadway taboo by ending the song with "Gee, Officer Krupke – fuck you!", but Columbia Records, which owned the rights to the

cast album A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

, told Sondheim that the album could then not be shipped to other states without violating the

obscenity laws An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...

of the era. Accordingly, Sondheim changed the ending of the song to "''Krup'' you", and later told an interviewer that the new line was the best lyric in the whole musical.

Other versions

Stage play vs. 1961 film

In the original Broadway version, the song appears in the second act, but in the 1961 film version the song was moved to Act One, performed by the Jets (with Riff singing lead) prior to their imminent rumble with the Sharks. For the film's release, "Krupke" was switched with " Cool" (which was originally performed in the play's first act) on a request from Sondheim, who disliked the sequence of the songs in the play, feeling it was unfitting to watch a street gang perform a comedy number right after having seen both gang leaders get killed in the rumble. Additionally, two stanzas in the film version had their lyrics censored:

Stage play vs. 2021 film

In the 2021 film version, the song (using the lyrics from the 1957 Broadway version, with the exception of a section using the 1961 film's lyrics) is again moved to the first half, performed prior to the rumble, with "Cool" moved to after "

One Hand, One Heart "One Hand, One Heart" is a song from the musical ''West Side Story'' by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. It is a duet sung between Maria and Tony while they have a make-believe wedding, as seen in the stage version and 1961 film, while in ...

". Additionally, instead of in the streets, the song takes place in the 21st Precinct of the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

In popular culture

The eighth episode of season seven of '' Curb Your Enthusiasm'' is entitled "Officer Krupke". The episode features a police officer whose name is Krupke, and has

Larry David Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...

describe the controversy over the name. At one point, David is singing the finale of the song and is overheard by others, who think he has said "Fuck you". "Gee, Officer Krupke" was also used as the end credits song in that episode. In the second episode of season 4 of

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' is an American period comedy-drama television series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, that premiered on March 17, 2017, on Amazon Prime Video. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it stars Rachel Brosnahan as ...

, Midge (

Rachel Brosnahan Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan (born July 12, 1990) is an American actress. She stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Miriam "Midge" Maisel in the Amazon Prime Video period comedy series ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' (2017–present), for which she w ...

) describes a police officer who arrested her based on a misunderstanding as "Officer fucking Krupke".

References

{{authority control Songs about crime Songs about police officers Songs about fictional male characters Songs about teenagers Songs about parenthood Songs from West Side Story Songs with music by Leonard Bernstein 1957 songs Songs written by Stephen Sondheim