You can study Shakespeare and be quite elite
And you can charm the critics and have nothing to eat
Just slip on a banana peel, the world's at your feet
Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!

Don't you know everyone wants to laugh?
My dad said: Be an actor, my son,
But be a comical one!
They'll be standing in lines
For those old honky-tonk monkey-shines
Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!

You can be a Buster Keaton,
Or Eddie Cantor, or Danny Kaye!
You can be a Jimmy Durante,
Or Joe E. Brown, or Charlie Chaplin!

You just leave 'em howling with your ho-ho-ho
You can make a Frankenstein monster dance and sing
You can make all the birds in the sky lose their wings
But you gotta make 'em laugh!

Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!
(Donald O'Connor proceeds with chaotic physical comedy—flips, pratfalls, and all!)