A reference to the 1933 song “It’s Only A Paper Moon”.
Say it’s only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meYes, it’s only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meWithout your love
It’s a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It’s a melody played in a penny arcadeIt’s a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meSay, it’s only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meYes, it’s only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meWithout your love
It’s a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It’s a melody played in a penny arcadeIt’s a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn’t be make-believe
If you believed in meIt’s phony, it’s plain to see
How happy I would be
If you believed in me
I think the country music artist Gillian Welch in 1996, some sixty years later, wrote a very good reply to the above song, with her song, Paper Wings:
Paper wings, all torn and bent
You made me feel that
They were heaven sentPaper wings, not real at all
But they took me high
Enough to really fallYour paper kisses faded too soon
Just like a paper rose
Beneath a paper moonPaper wings, paper wings
Oh how could I expect
To fly with only paper wings?Angels were singing, didn’t you hear
If only I’d listened close
When they whispered in my earPaper wings, paper wings
Oh how could I expect
To fly with only paper wings?
I tried to fly but found
That I had only paper wingsFantastic film of the same name, as well.
Also a pretty decent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode.
Reintroduced to millennials by Zero Punctuation, back when Youtube’s copyright policy was an image of a man smoking a joint and flipping the bird.
They’re wearing those Dragon suits
Someone should update this. Put a gun in the hand of the standing astronaut and add a line of dialogue “always has been”
*hhaha oof I’ll show myself out.