Lukshen Kugel Eater
Just as a quick follow-up to my post the other day, of Bilaam as a one-eyed, one-horned, flying, purple, people eater.
First, growing up, my exposure was actually to the Jewish version of this, the flying lukshen kugel eater:
Anyway, some have objected to my dvar Torah, because I took “purple” as one attribute, and people-eater as another attribute, showing how Bilaam had both. However, if you consider the song lyrics, you will see that it is otherwise:
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, what's your line?
And he said, "Eatin' purple people and it sure is fine"
But that's not the reason that I came to land
"I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band"
The Purple People Eater eats purple people!
Also, later on in the lyrics, the chorus echoes purple people:
Well bless my soul, rock and roll, flyin' purple people eater
Pigeon-toed, undergrowed, flyin' purple people eater
"I like short shorts"
Flyin' little people eater
What a sight to see! (Purple People?)
The appropriate response to this is that that line in the song is a joke. Until this point, we naturally and correctly assumed that the purple people-eater was purple and ate people. Because who’s ever heard of purple people?
I’ve seen the backstory to the song, which supports this reading. For instance:
In 1958 a schoolboy told the film actor and songwriter Sheb Wooley a joke: "What has one eye, one horn, is purple, flies and eats people?" The answer was "A purple people eater" and, even though the riddle was as unfunny then as it is now, Wooley wrote a song about it.
Which supports that it is the alien that is purple, not the people. Though you will see this backstory shift based on people’s perception of the purpleness question, switching it to “and eats purple people”, which seems like a less likely premise for an unfunny joke.
On the other hand, according to Time Life from 1958, the same year, the joke didn’t involve the word purple, which leaves the ambiguity in place.
Of course, when Country Yossi sings of a lukshen kigel eater eating lukshen kigel, we parses it as an eater of purple people…