How Bad Can I Be is a song featured in The Lorax. It is sung by Ed Helms, voice of the Once-ler.

The song is about the Once-ler's business getting more bigger, so he builds a Thneed factory to help him speed up the process of making Thneeds. The factory pollutes the skies, making it hard for the Swomee swans to fly. It dumps schlopp (slop) into the water, making the Humming Fish dirty and hard to swim. He also cuts down all of the trees, making the Bar-ba-loots hungry. His acts cause harm to all of the Truffula Valley, and the creatures living there.

LyricsEdit

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just doing what comes naturally,

The Lorax "How Bad Can I Be?"(02:53)
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How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just following my destiny,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just doing what comes naturally,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

How bad can I possibly be?

Well there's a principle of nature (principle of nature),

That almost every creature knows,

Called survival of the fittest (survival of the fittest),

And check it; this is how it goes,

The animal that wins gotta scratch and fight and claw and bite and punch,

And the animal that doesn't well the animal that doesn't winds up someone else's la-la-la-la-lunch (munch, munch, munch, munch, munch),

I'm just saying,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just doing what comes naturally,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just following my destiny,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just doing what comes naturally,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

How bad can I possibly be?

There's a principle of business (principle of business),

That everybody knows is sound,

It says the people with the money (people with the money),

Make this ever loving world go 'round,

So I'm biggering my Company,

I'm biggering my Factory,

I'm biggering my corporate sign,

Everybody out there take care of yours, and me?

I'll take care of mine mine mine mine mine (shake that bottom line),

Let me hear you say 'smogulous smoke' (smogulous smoke),

'Schloppity-Schlopp' (schloppity slopp),

Complain all you want it's never ever ever ever gonna stop, (STOP!!!)

Come on, how bad can I possibly be?

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

I'm just building the economy,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

Just look at me petting this puppy,

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

(a portion of proceeds goes to charity),

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?

How bad can I possibly be? Let's see,

All the customers are buying,

And the money is multiplying,

And the PR people are lying,

And the lawyers are denying,

Who cares if a few trees are dying?

This is all so gratifying,

How bad,

How bad can this possibly be?!

TriviaEdit

• The Once-ler starts out the song happily, which means he's still good. Almost at the end of the song, his voice becomes louder, implying that he's becoming bad.
• During the song number in the film, a poster is seen carrying the message "Too Big to Fail." This was the title of a book by Andrew Ross Sorkin and passed into popular culture in reference to corporations whose size was so huge that their failure would supposedly disastrous to the economy and thus must be supported by the government.