I Love Lucy (TV Series)

Lucy Hires an English Tutor (1952)

Desi Arnaz: Ricky Ricardo

Photos 

Quotes 

• Percy Livermore : When I tippy tippy toe through my garden, Where all the pretty flowers dwell, There's a rare perfume in my garden And I just love to stand there and smell. And as I tippy tippy toe along, All the pretty flowers seem to sing this song.

  Ricky Ricardo : Derry down pip pip

  Lucy Ricardo : Dilly dilly day

  Ethel Mertz : Hey nonny nonny

  Fred Mertz : Rippity pippity yay

  Fred Mertz : Derry down ding dong

  Ethel Mertz : Dilly dilly do

  Lucy Ricardo : Hey nonny nonny

  Ricky Ricardo : Rippity pippity poo

• Ricky Ricardo : [Ricky and Lucy are discussing their baby's need to learn correct language. Lucy hands Ricky a children's book so he can pretend to be reading a bedtime story to their child. NOTE: Ricky's words are spelled phonetically]  Once upon a time in the woods lived a peasant. He was a good man with a noble heart. He spent his time in the forest cutting down boo-juss from the trees. Cutting wood all

  [Lucy interrupts] 

  Lucy Ricardo : Wait, wait, wait... just a minute--what is this boo-juss?

  Ricky Ricardo : Boo-juss, right in there.

  [pointing to the word] 

  Lucy Ricardo : That's boughs.

  [rhymes with cows] 

  Ricky Ricardo : B-O-U-G-H is bow?

  Lucy Ricardo : Right.

  Ricky Ricardo : Bow. He spent his time in the forest cutting down bows from the trees. Cutting wood all day made his hands strong and row.

  [rhymes with wow] 

  Ricky Ricardo : One day

  [Lucy interrupts] 

  Lucy Ricardo : That's ROUGH.

  Ricky Ricardo : It's spelled the same way as the other, O-U-G-H.

  Lucy Ricardo : That's right. That shows how little you know about the English language.

  Ricky Ricardo : So I made a little mistake. Made his hands strong and ruff. One day he cut wood so fast, that by three o'clock in the afternoon his day's work was thruff. When the

  [Lucy interrupts] 

  Lucy Ricardo : Hold it, Shakespeare.

  Ricky Ricardo : Throwh?

  [rhymes with wow] 

  Lucy Ricardo : T-H-R-O-U-G-H is pronounced through.

  Ricky Ricardo : Threw. That's what I always say! Now stop picking on me, will you, you're getting me all confused. His day's work was threw. It started to rain on the way home, and he got so wet that his nose became red and he developed a hacking...

  [looks quizzically at Lucy] 

  Ricky Ricardo : ... coo?

  [Lucy looks disgusted; Ricky stares at the word, puzzled] 

  Ricky Ricardo : Well I know it can't be COW!

• Lucy Ricardo : [Lucy wants their new baby to learn to speak perfect English]  Ricky, promise me something.

  Ricky Ricardo : What?

  Lucy Ricardo : Promise me that until our child is at least nineteen or twenty years old, you won't talk to it.

  Ricky Ricardo : Whaaaat? What's the matter with the way I talk?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, I haven't told you this before, dear, but you speak with a slight accent.

  Ricky Ricardo : You can understand me, can't you?

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, now, yes. I've learned to listen with an accent. But when we first started going together, it was just... Well, do you remember when you proposed?

  Ricky Ricardo : Yeah.

  Lucy Ricardo : Well, it was just a stab in the dark when... when I said yes. I wasn't sure that you had asked me to get married, or go to a movie.

  Ricky Ricardo : Do you mean to tell me that I could have gotten out of this whole deal by just takin' you to a movie?