Two middle-aged to older adult males playing musical instruments in a rustic cabin porch setting, surrounded by wooden furniture and antler decorations. 3:10
Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen channel icon Tim Farmer's Country KitchenOriginal creator 556K views Save

A bluegrass tale of Pa and the electric fence

Every farm has one animal that won't stay put. For the Moron Brothers it is a mule named Rodney, and their fix for him goes very badly for Pa. more

The song opens on twenty acres tucked between two hills, back in the sticks, with hogs, chickens, cows and that mule. "We had plenty to eat, raised it all ourselves," they sing. Rodney is the biggest problem they ever had. He gets into the garden and Ma's flower bed, and Pa patches the fence again and again.

So the brothers buy an electric fence, "battery and all," and put it up one night as a surprise. They just never tell Pa. That same night he heads for the outhouse in a hurry, loses his way in the dark and gets "hung in that electric fence."

Then comes the chorus, which turns the shock into a small miracle. Pa has been through "a spiritual change." He works hard every day, goes to church every Sunday, and there's no more loafing at the country store. He treats the whole family different ever since that night.

The next verse goes back to the scream. "Come quick, sons, Martians have got me," Pa yells. He's not hard to find, with sparks flying everywhere. "Stand back, boys, I ain't joking," he warns, his body jerking in his long johns, smoke coming off him and his hair standing straight up.

Two middle-aged to older adult males playing musical instruments in a rustic cabin porch setting, surrounded by wooden furniture and antler decorations. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Every farm has one animal that won't stay put.

Before the boys can explain, here comes Ma with her old shotgun. "Ain't no Martian gonna get my man," she says. Then Rodney runs out of the barn with a bucket on his head, and Ma, sure she has found her Martian, lets go both barrels.

When the battery finally dies, they get Pa loose and into bed, stiff as a board. The brothers get scared and sneak the fence back to the store, and the folks are still sure the Martians came. Nobody can do a thing with Pa's hair. And nobody can figure out why the mule won't eat out of a bucket anymore.

The pair get through every verse with straight faces, which one listener calls serious self-control. The performance comes from Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen, and plenty of the folks listening have fence stories of their own: kids who learned the hard way, a neighbor cat who yowled and ran for home, and someone whose hair still won't comb down fifty years later.

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