The Smell of Rebellion

The Smell of Rebellion - Emma Thompson/The Cast of Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical

Lyrics by：Tim Minchin

Composed by：Tim Minchin

Produced by：Christopher Nightingale

This school of late has started reeking

Quiet maggots when I'm speaking

Reeking with a most disturbing scent

Only the finest nostrils smell it

But I know it oh-too-well

It is the odour of rebellion

It's the bouquet of dissent

And you may bet your britches

This headmistress

Finds this foul odiferousness

Wholly olfactorily insulting

And so to stop the stench's spread

I find a session of Phys Ed

Sorts the merely rank from the revolting

The smell of rebellion comes out in the sweat

And Phys Ed will get you sweating

And it won't be long before I smell the pong

Of aiding and abetting

Before a w**d becomes too big and greedy

You really need to nip it in the bud

Before the worm starts to turn

You must scrape off the dirt

And rip it from the mud

The whiff of insurgence

The stench of intent

The reek of pre-pubescent protest

The funk of defiance

The odour of coup

The waft of anarchy in progress

Once we've exercised these demons

They shall be too pooped for dreaming

Some double-time discipline

Should stop the rot from setting in

Discipline

Discipline

For children who aren't listening

For midgets who are fidgeting

And whispering in history

Their chattering and chittering

Their nattering and twittering

Is tempered with a smattering of

Discipline

We must begin insisting

On rigidity and discipline

Persistently resisting

This anarchistic mischieving

These minutes you are frittering

On pandering and pitying

While little ones like this

They just want discipline

The simpering and whimpering

The dribbling and the spittling

The miss I need a tissue

Is an issue we can fix

There is no mystery to mastering

The art of classroom mistressing

It's discipline discipline discipline

The smell of rebellion

The stench of revolt

The reek of pre-pubescent plotting

The whiff of resistance

The pong of dissent

The funk of moral fibre rotting

Imagine a world with no children

Close your eyes and just dream

Imagine you one try it

The peace and the quiet

A babbling stream

Now imagine a woods with a cottage

And inside that cottage we find

A pairet called Zeke a carnival freak

Who can fold paper hats with his mind

And he says

Don't let them steal your horses

Don't let them throw them away

If you find your way through

They'll be waiting for you

Singing 'neigh neigh' neigh'

She's mad

Aha and there just like I said

The stinking maggot rears his head

Have you ever seen anything more repellent

Have you ever smelled anything worse

Than that smell of rebellion

The stench of revolt

The reek of insubordination

The whiff of resistance

The pong of dissent

And I will not stop till you are squashed

Till this rebellion is quashed

Till glorious sweaty discipline has washed

This sickening scent

Away