Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

About

"Anything You Can Do" is a song originally from the 1946 Broadway show Annie Get Your Gun^[1], and it is arguably one of the most famous Broadway show tunes. It was composed by famed songwriter Irving Berlin. It is a duet in which the main characters Annie Oakley and Frank Butler get into a argument about who is best at sharpshooting, and lists a variety of increasingly complex tasks . It was originally sung by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton, and has since been rendered many times, notably by Betty Hutton and Howard Keel in the 1950 film adaptation of the show^[2]. A clip showing their performance can be found here.

Spread

It wasn't until the 1999 Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun that the song started to pick up online popularity. It has since been a frequent subject of YouTube videos, where it is dubbed over clips of TV shows or video games. The new rendition, sung by Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat, remains the version being used in most parodies. The parodies often feature a male and a female character from a TV show or a video game competing in some way, while the song is dubbed over the audio. They have become quite popular since they were first made.

Notable Examples

John Barrowman and Ruthie Henshall rendition, from the 2006 BBC series The Sound of Musicals.^[3] This version has also been used in some parodies.

Lara Croft vs. the Prince of Persia

Harry Potter version (Ron vs. Hermione) – This video used the Barrowman/Henshall rendition.

Naruto version (Naruto vs. Sasuke)

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic version (Trixie vs. Everyone)

Search Interest

As shown, popularity peaked in 2007, following the Barrowman/Henshall rendition (see above). Since then, search intrest as remained quite high.

External References

^[1] Wikipedia – Anything You Can Do

^[2] Wikipedia – Annie Get Your Gun

^[3] Wikipedia – The Sound of Musicals