Keep Hello Dolly from displaying sexist text in the admin

[joemcgill]

The Hello Dolly plugin has been bundled in WordPress for many years, being a simple example of how to build a plugin for WordPress while also adding a bit of whimsy to admin. However, there are several passages of text from this song which are inappropriate to display without any context to people using WordPress—particularly as the WordPress project seeks to promote inclusivity for all.

For example, the following lines of text should never be shown in the admin unexpectedly:

Find her an empty lap, fellas
Find her a vacant knee, fellas

While much discussion has been had over whether 'Hello Dolly' should, in fact, still be bundled in WordPress by default (see #11538, #15769), I'm proposing that we simply ensure that these lines in particular are not shown.

[jeremyfelt]

several passages of text from this song which are inappropriate to display without any context to people using WordPress—particularly as the WordPress project seeks to promote inclusivity for all.

+1

[bamadesigner]

hear! hear!

As a fan of musical theatre, and one who grew up singing "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" non-stop, it pains me to point out that this movie, as a whole, is horribly sexist.

I know there's been a lot of debate about the plugin from a coding/learning standpoint, because people want something in core that shows how to build a plugin. If you must have an example plugin in core, can we replace with something that doesn't degrade women as "dainty" and "fragile"?

[gilzow]

+1 for at least removing the offensive passages.

Is there any reason it needs to still be bundled in core at all? I understand the concept of having a learning plugin, but then, why not just make a learning plugin and add to the repository outside of core?

[birgire]

Sounds like a good-first-bug, so I mark it as such.

Listening to the great Louis Armstrong singing Hello Dolly here:

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVHkOzVggtI

I don't hear him sing the last part exactly like this:

One of your old favourite songs from way back when
Golly, gee, fellas
Find her a vacant knee, fellas
Dolly'll never go away
Dolly'll never go away
Dolly'll never go away again

e.g. I don't hear the line: "Find her a vacant knee, fellas" in that part and he adds "Have a little faith in me, fellas" in there too. There's also like "So, golly, gee, fellas" and "favorite tunes"?

But I guess he used many variation on this?

[iandunn]

+1 to deleting the offensive lines. If there are unoffensive variations that could be used instead, that's even better.

I also think it's good to keep this ticket focused on that narrow scope. Removing/replacing the lines now won't prevent us from unbundling the entire plugin later, if we ever decide to reverse the decision from #11538, but trying to do both at the same time is more likely to bog things down and delay this.

[sebastien@…]

remove 2 lines in Hello Dolly

[sebastien@…]

Hello,
This is my very first contribution to the WP Project. Is my patch OK? DO not hesitate to give me some advises...

[audrasjb]

Hi,
Thanks for the patch, @sebastienthivinfocom
Passing the good-first-bug as claimed.
The patch looks good to me. Moving it to 5.0 milestone for the moment.

[joemcgill]

Thanks for the patch @sebastien@…, this definitely meets the criteria as I described it.

Another approach I was thinking about, in order to leave the lyrics intact for historical reasons, is to add a list of "black-listed" lines that would be removed from the array before the random selection happens.

[joemcgill]

I also, really like @birgire's suggestion that we update the latter line with a different version of the lyrics, which matches what Google says the lyrics are anyway.

e.g. I don't hear the line: "Find her a vacant knee, fellas" in that part and he adds "Have a little faith in me, fellas" in there too.

[sebastien@…]

We can surely add these "several lines" found on Google:

Have a little faith in me, fellas
Dolly, never go away
Promise, you'll never go away
Dolly, never go away again

[joemcgill]

@sebastienthivinfocom I think updating those lyrics makes sense, and better reflects the version of the lyrics found in the recording as well. I've added 43555.diff​ which takes those changes, plus a couple of other edits that seem to match the lyrics (and the recorded version). Additionally, I've implemented a little different approach, which filters out the lines we don't want to show, rather than deleting them from the lyrics. What do you think?

[birgire]

According to Wikipedia ​src:

Hello, Dolly!" is the title song of the popular 1964 musical of the same name. Louis Armstrong's version
was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.

The music and lyrics were written by Jerry Herman [...]

So it looks like ​Jerry Herman wrote the original lyrics.

I assume the plugin is using his exact lyrics (??), so I'm now hesitating to modify his original creation in any way. It would also be nice to have his name in the description of the plugin.

I think the solution proposed by @joemcgill is the way to go here, to filter the output instead.

[joemcgill]

Replying to birgire:

So it looks like ​Jerry Herman wrote the original lyrics.

I assume the plugin is using his exact lyrics (??), so I'm now hesitating to modify his original creation in any way. It would also be nice to have his name in the description of the plugin.

It looks to me like the original Jerry Herman lyrics from the musical are also different to what is in the current plugin. It looks like this rendition is from a version of Louis Armstrong, but I can't find an official source that matches the lyrics in this plugin. Even so, these updates seem more accurate based on searches of several lyrics sites and based on the recorded performance by Louis Armstrong, neither of which include the "Find her a vacant knee, fellas" line at all.

[birgire]

@joemcgill yes there seems to be different versions of the lyrics on the internet and not clear who modified it.

Additionally there seems to be lyrics difference (??) in the two Louis Armstrong videos I found on YouTube.

But it looks like all the lyrics versions, contain at least one of the offending lines, so we would end up with our own (new) version of the lyrics, if both were removed. So with that in mind I felt like your filter approach would be better ;-)

ps: On ​this lyrics site there this: Hello, Dolly lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

[pento]

I think 43555.diff​ is the best direction for now.

One minor change, let's not add the $unshown array, we can just just remove the lines from $lyrics, instead.

[sebastien@…]

I removed the $unshown
Is it OK?

[hometowntrailers]

Keep it simple by removing "Hello Dolly" entirely.

The WordPress community is large; anyone can find coding examples elsewhere.

[soulseekah]

And add a filter in there, so people can insert their own lyrics as needed.

[audrasjb]

Refreshes last patch in order to prepare core integration

[audrasjb]

@hometowntrailers & @soulseekah thanks for your suggestions but I guess this should be adressed in a specific ticket.
I refreshed @sebastienthivinfocom 's patch because something probably went wrong with his diff/patch file.

@pento @joemcgill: does 43555.3.diff patch looks good enough to you?

Cheers,
Jb

[joemcgill]

Thanks @sebastienthivinfo.com and @audrasjb for the refresh. I think the only thing still missing is that the "Find her an empty lap, fellas" line needs to be deleted, as it was in Remove_2_offensives_lines_in_hello_Dolly.patch​, then I think it's good to go.

[audrasjb]

Refreshes the previous patch to delete another not wanted line in lyrics

[joemcgill]

Thanks @audrasjb. 43555.4.diff​ looks right to me.

[audrasjb]

Great, thanks!

[joemcgill]

Some small changes before finalizing this. 43555.2.diff​ bumps the version number and leaves line 18 as it was previously.

@pento if this looks good to you, I'll commit and backport.

[pento]

43555.2.diff​ looks good for commit to trunk, and back porting to the 4.9 branch.

[joemcgill]

In 42839:

Update Hello Dolly lyrics.

This updates the Hello Dolly plugin to remove lines which could be objectionable when shown in the admin out of context, and brings the lyrics more in line with Louis Armstrong's recording.

Props sebastienthivinfocom, birgire, audrasjb, joemcgill.
Fixes #43555.

[joemcgill]

In 42840:

Update Hello Dolly lyrics.

This updates the Hello Dolly plugin to remove lines which could be objectionable when shown in the admin out of context, and brings the lyrics more in line with Louis Armstrong's recording.

Props sebastienthivinfocom, birgire, audrasjb, joemcgill.
Fixes #43555.

Merges [42839] to the 4.9 branch.

[joemcgill]

In 42841:

Update unit test following r42839.

This updates the expected version number for Hello Dolly in Tests_Ajax_Update_Plugin::test_update_plugin following [42839].

See #43555.

[joemcgill]

In 42842:

Update unit test following r42839.

This updates the expected version number for Hello Dolly in Tests_Ajax_Update_Plugin::test_update_plugin following [42839].

See #43555.

Merges [42841] to the 4.9 branch.

[TJNowell]

Would it make sense to add a musical note symbol to clarify that it is indeed lyrics? Perhaps turn it into a link to the full Hello Dolly lyrics so it has some context?

[SergeyBiryukov]

Replying to TJNowell:

Would it make sense to add a musical note symbol to clarify that it is indeed lyrics? Perhaps turn it into a link to the full Hello Dolly lyrics so it has some context?

Sounds like a great idea to me. Even without a link, a note symbol seems like an easy improvement. Could you create a new ticket for that? Thanks!

[SergeyBiryukov]

Follow-up: #43632

[sami.keijonen]

Sorry to interrupt but now would be perfect timing to remove Hello Dolly from the Core.

[Takahashi_Fumiki]

I'm very disappointed to modify lyrics. Its completeness is on a side of the original author and it's somehow insulting to cut it up without any permission.
+1 for simply removing all the plugin from Core.

[kalich5]

I would delete all Hello Dolly content! It is a relic!

[dawesi]

I'm putting this ER on my wall for the most PC fix ever.

Seriously, let's change the lyrics of a copyrighted song? Is that even legal? Is the complaint even in line with the original meaning of the words?

Just because you say it should be changed, doesn't mean it should. Sick of people with low self esteem putting cotton wool everywhere, how about fixing your issues, and self pity, instead of breaking the law by changing words to someone elses song to suit your disorder?

This is the start of the end of Wordpress, bring on the lawyers. (this is going to make tech news for sure)

[iandunn]

Hi @dawesi, we welcome all opinions and any constructive criticism, but we also require that everybody act respectfully and professionally. We're a community, and we work hard to make sure that all of our spaces are friendly and welcoming environments. In the future, please express your opinions without resorting to insults and ad hominem attacks.