Mighty Lak' a Rose

Music by	Ethelbert Nevin
Lyrics by	Frank Lebby Stanton
Date	1901

"Mighty Lak' a Rose" is a song about a parent deciding what to name his or her son. Written at the turn of the 20th century, its original title and lyrics were meant to evoke a stereotypical African-American dialect, but later versions, under the title "Mighty Like a Rose," have changed this.

Wayne and Wanda perform the song under this alternate title in the third issue of The Muppet Show Comic Book: Family Reunion. In the number, they act as parents to a large, green monster in a baby carriage. As Wayne is about to sing the line "makes you think that heaven is coming close to you," the monster socks him in the face, sending him skyward, beyond not only the realm of The Muppet Theatre, but also past Statler and Waldorf, who watch the proceedings from their box in the clouds.

Like their first such number in The Muppet Show Comic Book, "When the Lusitania Went Down," and unlike most of the "songs" in the title, "Mighty Like a Rose" is not an original poem by Roger Langridge meant to suggest a musical number on the show, but a standard from the public domain, very much in the vein of the numbers the pair sang on the first season of The Muppet Show.