John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
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John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt is a traditional children's song of obscure origin. Its lyrics are:
- John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,
- His name is my name too.
- Whenever we go out
- The people always shout,
- "There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt."
- La, la, la, la, la, la
- John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt,
- His name... [repeat ad infinitum]
Variations include:
- "Pickle-" in place of "Jingle-"
- "That's my" for "His name is my"
- "I go" or "he goes" for "we go"
- "His name smells like poo" instead of His name is my name too".
- "Nah" or "Yah" or "Dah" (perhaps spelled "Ja" in German manner) for "La"
- "Jinglemeier" or "Jinglemeyer"
- "The people always shout" for "We hear the people shout"
- "Smith" for "Schmidt"
- Lack of "There goes", often replaced with "Hey!"
- "John Jacob Joseph Jingleheimer Schmidt."
- Adding a cymbal sound on the last "dah". More like a "psssshhhhhh"
- The middle three lines are: "We can hear the people shout / Singing 'John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt / You cut that out!' La la la / John..."
- Each repetition is sung more quietly than the previous, except for the final line which is sung at full volume. The "last" repetition is sung in pantomime; typically the final line is then shouted as loud as possible.
The song is frequently sung by pre-teen children at communal outings such as long bus rides and Boy Scout or Girl Scout outings. It's also a classic informal parade song in Pennsylvania. The mock German name celebrated in the song suggests that some English speakers still find longer northern-European names to be inherently funny words; compare the Blinkenlights faxlore in which English words are deformed to form a pseudo-German warning text.
Part of the appeal of the song seems to be its infinite loop, presenting the opportunity to turn a potentially intolerably long wait into an informal psychological experiment with the idea of infinitude and the infinite-loop motif. Compare The Song That Never Ends and My Name is Jan Jansen.
The song is referenced in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. The character played by Robin Williams is named John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt; when asked if they remember him, another character replies, "Of course! His name is my name, too!" to which John quips "Do people always shout? I hate that!"
It is also sung in the Pauly Shore film In the Army Now when Shore and his friends sing it repeatedly in Chad to the dismay of the soldiers around them.
Harland Williams sings it in Disney's RocketMan while locked in an isolation chamber, testing to become an astronaut.
The surname Schmidt and the surname suffix -heimer are of Germanic origin.
