I'm Just a Bill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"I'm Just A Bill" is a classic Schoolhouse Rock segment which first aired in 1975. It is sung by Jack Sheldon (the voice of the bill) and his son (the boy learning the process). It is about how a bill becomes a law, how it must go through Congress, and how it can be vetoed, etc. The bill is for the law that school buses must stop at train crossings. In the end, the bill becomes a law.

[edit] Parodies

I'm Just a Bill was parodied several times:

• In the Simpsons episode "The Day the Violence Died," there is a Constitutional amendment that tries to ban flag burning.
• In the Drawn Together episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education," the character called the Board of Education was a parody of the SHR bill itself.
• In the Family Guy episode "Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington," there was a brief appearance by the bill sitting on capitol hill singing the lines to his song, until a janitor kills him with a pointed paper pole and puts him in a garbage basket.
• In Homestarrunner.com's Strong Bad Email #161, "4 branches", released six days after the United States general elections for 2006, Homestar Runner sings, "That's how I become a law", parodying this song.
• In the Johnny Bravo short "Red Faced in the White House," the character can be briefly seen reciting the eponymous song; the bill is voted down, and abruptly torched by a flamethrower-wielding caricature of then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. "Tough luck, kid."
• I'm Just a Bill is even parodied with Schoolhouse Rock itself. At the end of Tyranosaurus Debt, a bill is shown running away from the dinosaur.