Hakuna Matata

motivates him into the circle

of the Hakuna Matata phrases I was saying before.

But maybe it could have been a little bit more fun to see him have a little bit more chemistry.

So there's real pros and cons in both ways.

It didn't feel like its own thing, like what he did more of with The Jungle Book.

Yeah.

Yeah, even the musical numbers, Hakuna Matata.

Yeah, they invested more in that.

They put it into a, a song.

They just said Hakuna Matata.

And then that's it, right there.

Is that so strange? I don't know if you've ever thought about like how dark the story of The Lion King is, and that all these two individuals, all that Timon and Pumbaa, all these friends could say was, "Don't worry." You know, when it comes to worry, when it comes to anxiety in our, in our day and age, I would say this.

Matumba...

Hakuna Matata.

No, it doesn't say Hakuna Matata.

Of course, as soon as I said that,

it went right out of my head.

Whatever it is, just don't worry." Of course, they didn't say it like that.

They said it in Swahili, and so they just kept saying Hakuna Matata.

Um, this is the sto- [laughs] This is the story of The Lion King, right? So, but imagine, like, the trauma.

I, I think this is one of those things where you have to say it like this to realize, to appreciate the trauma that Simba had gone through.

Yeah, your mom is enslaved by your uncle, Scar, but don't worry about it.

Yes, everything is chaos.

Hakuna Matata." It makes, it makes absolutely no sense, just this idea, "Don't worry." And yet sometimes that's what it feels like we're being told.

You know, that we rec- we recognize, right? That anxiety, worry is at a, literally at an all-time high in our, in our culture right now.

Wait a minute.

Are you saying that the entire sequence of them living in the jungle, eating bugs, and singing Hakuna Matata is the narrative equivalent of Hamlet's existential delay?

Precisely, or rather, to put it in functional terms, Hakuna Matata is the philosophy of inaction.

It translates Hamlet's famous indecision into a catchy anthem for children.

It is the active avoidance of one's destiny

So here we are.

Hakuna Matata to that.

All right.

So let's go.

...

while simultaneously giving us Hakuna Matata, not only to sing, but also to live by.

The Lion King is currently the highest grossing Broadway production of all time, and you never went to university.

Well, I kind of went to university.

There are lots of things that, you know, I've never done, but you can put yourself in that position.

I've never ...

Actually, I'd like to say I've never had wind problems like, um, in, you know, in Hakuna Matata, but I've, I've-

[laughs]

I recently watched that Disney movie with a big cat in the title.

You know, the one that features a song with the phrase Hakuna Matata.

So obviously you're talking about Lion King here, right?

The what? No, I'm sorry.

It's got all the ingredients for a huge pop song.

It's catchy, it's easy to sing along to, and the lyrics are these upbeat messages about how Kenya is a beautiful country with no worries.

Oh, no worries like Hakuna Matata.

Exactly.

You would know it.

You would know Hakuna Matata, which means what? Did you see that? Now do you think in 30 years, I'm gonna be like, Bluey taught you this, and a crowd of 1,500 people are gonna be letting us know what Bluey taught.

Again, no smoke against Bluey.

I heard he's a sweet dog.

He's guilt-ridden.

He's crushed in spirit.

And they're like, what are you doing, bro? Hakuna Matata.

No worries.