The song's context differs from the original in that it is sung in reference to a male character. Though both songs are about unrequited desire for the title character, the humor of "The Boy From..." stems partly from the fact that the narrator is completely unaware of her crush's blatant homosexuality,[3] as, for example, illustrated in the song's second bridge: "Why are his trousers vermilion? / Why does he claim he's Castilian? / Why do his friends call him Lillian? / And I hear at the end of the week, / he's leaving to start a boutique."
The other humorous aspect of the song comes from the fact that every verse ends with a repetition of the extremely long name of the title character's hometown (hence the title), a fictional village called "Tacarembo la Tumba del Fuego Santa Malipas Zacatecas la Junta del Sol y Cruz" ("Cruz" pronounced as "cruth" with distinción): with the narrator becoming slightly more out-of-breath with each verse. This is only enhanced by the ending, where the narrator laments that her beloved is "moving to Wales / to live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch."
Sondheim wrote the song's lyrics under the pseudonym of "Esteban Ria Nido", which Sondheim described as "a part-translation and part-transliteration of my name."[4] In The Mad Show's playbill, the lyrics were credited to "Nom de Plume".[5]
