Composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman is unquestionably talented. Over his long career, he helped create John Waters’ long-running musical Hairspray, scored films like Sleepless in Seattle and Mary Poppins Returns, and has won a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony for his work (meaning he only needs an Oscar to complete his EGOT, and he’s been nominated for one seven times). Unfortunately, this gave Shaiman and his co-composer/lyricist Scott Wittman the unique challenge of creating the intentionally bad Rogers: The Musical song “I Could Do This All Day,” as seen in Hawkeye’s post-credits scene.
In a highly informative interview with Inverse, Shaiman explained why Ant-Man is erroneously part of the Battle of New York, as seen in the first Avengers movie (series showrunner Rhys Thomas purposely included him to make Clint even more annoyed with the musical), how many ideas Kevin Feige shot down (almost none!), and more. But to me, the most interesting part is when Shaiman talks about his reaction to the fans’ reaction to the song:
“The hard part was writing a song that had to be something that Hawkeye or people who don’t like musicals would roll their eyes at. It’s been tough because we did our job well, and that means there are a lot of people who were like, ‘What is this?’
“I understand that there are a lot of people who would’ve expected and wanted the post-credits scene to be some new kernel of what’s gonna happen next in the MCU. I completely get it. But it has been tough to know that by doing our job well, we made something that not everyone likes. It’s been bittersweet almost, but to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is crazy.”
When you make something intentionally corny, some people don’t get the joke. If Shaiman and Wittman were able to use all those talents to make the song and scene awesome, there’d be far fewer griping fans. Unfortunately, when you make something intentionally corny, there’s always going to be some people don’t get the joke.
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