The song was written by then-show runner Al Jean and Conan O'Brien,[1] and was performed by Phil Hartman as Lyle Lanley, along with other Simpsons characters.
The song sees a traveling salesman razzle dazzle the local town into spending their windfall of money on a monorail, with all criticism being washed aside through the charismatic performance.
The song begins with a repeated whispered chant of "monorail," as Miss Hoover, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Barney Gumble, Abraham Simpson, and Chief Wiggum each question his plan in turn, to which Lanley rebukes each with a rhyming phrase.
[2] Like the musical on which it is based, Bustle argues the song teaches a "small lesson in infrastructure and the real reason cons work".
[5] Bustle felt the song " highlight[s] the wonderful recipe of old fashioned small-town whimsy and modern cynicism and aggressive ignorance" that makes up Springfield.