Music by | Burton Lane |
Lyrics by | E. Y. Harburg |
Date | 1947 |
Source | Finian's Rainbow (musical) |
Publisher | Chappell & Co. Inc.; Glocca Morra Music Corp. |
"When I'm Not Near the Girl I Love," from Burton Lane and Yip Harburg's musical Finian's Rainbow, was parodied on The Muppet Show as "When I'm Not Near the Fish I Love."
This variation was performed by an eel as the UK Spot on episode 124, with altered lyrics from an unknown source. The revised lyrics include a series of fish puns, replacing, for example, "For Sharon I'm carin'/But Susan I'm choosin'" with "For herring I'm caring/For tuna, I swoon-a."
The eel appears to sing and swim underwater around real fish.