For anyone who watched cartoons in the early 1990s, Yakko’s World from Steven Spielberg Presents: Animaniacs will be familiar. A memory-challenging list song that’s up there with one of our favorites, Tom Lehrer’s The Elements, Yakko’s World inventories the nations of the world in a tongue-twisting, speed-increasing series of verses.
Though he doesn’t map them, singer songwriter Kylan deGhetaldi updated the song with new countries & territories in 2013, above. He writes:
The first 4 verses are original from the show in 1993, so it’s a little out of date. The next 3 verses are ones I’ve added, mostly taken from the “List of Sovereign States” article on Wikipedia. I’ve added asterisks after the places that aren’t considered “official” sovereign states, but still made it into the song. This is the third version of this song I’ve uploaded, because I keep forgetting countries, but this time I’m almost sure I’ve got em all.
In case you’d like to double check if the song needs another update, the lyrics are in his video notes, and for context, here’s the original cartoon:
Enjoy this next: Tom Lehrer’s The Elements. Plus: more song videos.
This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.
Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.