Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts

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“Great Green Gobs of Graesy, Grimy Gopher Guts”

Song by Mika Seeger

Album

A Fish That's a Song

Published

1959

Released

1990

Recorded

1959

Genre

Children's songs, Folk

A Fish That's a Song track listing

Sally Ann
(1 (side 2))

“Great Green Gobs of Graesy, Grimy Gopher Guts”
(2)

How I Hunted the Little Fellows
(3)

http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/trackdetail.aspx?itemid=28560

"Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts" is an anonymous folk song popular among school children. It is usually sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare."

1 The song
2 Other references
3 Miscellany
4 See also
5 Notes

[edit] The song

There are many local and regional variants among the lyrics, although most of them feature the phrase "greasy grimy gopher guts" in the opening line. The song derives its power to amuse children through alliterative description of disgusting foodstuffs, usually parts of human or animal bodies not customarily eaten in the areas in which it is sung.

The song appears on the Smithsonian Folkways collection A Fish That's a Song, a collection of traditional children's songs from the United States, where it is performed by Mika Seeger.^[1] The Smithsonian recording came from an earlier recording called The Sounds of Camp, originally released in 1959. No author nor copyright in the song is credited on the Smithsonian recording. The lyrics performed by Mike Seeger are:

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat
Dirty little birdies' feet.
Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,
And me without my spoon!^[2]

Additional popular camp-fire lyrics include:

Great green gobs of grimy, greasy gopher guts,

Marinated monkey meat,

Baby birdies' bloody feet

All four quarts of all purpose porpoise pus,

And me without my spoon.

Does anybody have a straw?

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts

Mutilated monkey meat

Dirty little birdie feet

French fried eye balls rollin' up the dirty street

And I forgot my straw!

Dirty little pigeon's feet or Chopped-up parakeet (instead of birdies' feet)

All mixed up with a pile of poison possum pus.

Some alternate endings are also popular: "And me without my spoon, but I have a straw." "Don't forget to lick the spoon"

Also a great camp-fire set of lyrics:

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat,

Concentrated birdies' feet,

Four pure pints of all purpose porpoise pus,

Floatin' on my Ballantine Beer

____________________________________

great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts

mutilated monkey meat

tiny dirty birdie feet

pounds and pounds of prehistoric porpoise pus

and me without my spoon

but i got my straw..slurp slurp

great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts chopped up dirty birdy feet beetle's eyes and monkeys feet made a sandwich just for you

Another version that has been heard (albeit a bit ruder) follows:

You are made of eewey gooey gopher guts

Chopped up monkey nuts

Urdy birdy turdy feet

French fried eyeballs rolling around the toilet seat,

That's what you are made of!

Three Great Gobs Of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts Middle Aged Monkey Meat Little Ducky's Dirty Feet French Fried Eyeballs Rolling Down A Dirty Street And I Forgot my Fork...and spoon....and knife

Gobs and Gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts Salamander monkey meat Chopped up parakeet(OR Vomit running down the street) All wrapped up in itty bitty birdy feet Dont forget to lick the spoon

[edit] Other references

Josepha Sherman and T.K.F. Weisskopf, Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood (August House, 1995).
Pifer, Lynn."Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood." review of book by Sherman and Weisskopf). Journal of American Folklore. Washington: Winter 1997.Vol.110, Iss. 435; pg. 105
del Negro, Janice. "Professional reading -- Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood by Josepha Sherman and T. K. F. Weiskopt." book review in The Booklist. Chicago: Apr 15, 1996.Vol.92, Iss. 16; pg. 1448
Ian Turner, June Factor, Wendy Lowenstein, Cinderella Dressed in Yella, 2nd Edition (Heinemann, 1978).

[edit] Miscellany

This song was sung by Bloo in the animated television show Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends to calm down an imaginary friend named Cheese when he was screaming from a previous event. It calmed him down for a moment, but Bloo looked forward to the finish of the song by singing "and I don't got a spoon", Cheese took notice to this part by repeating "No spoon?" and resumed screaming as he did before, with Bloo taking great amusement.

It appeared in an early episode of Ren and Stimpy; Stimpy sings it in the kitchen while mixing some batter using the line "smothered in a pool of blood".

It also appeared in the film Caddyshack in which it was sung by Bill Murray's character Carl Spackler.

Artist Dr. Demento has made a cover of this song, though he replaces the last line with "I made it all for you" instead of "And me without my spoon."

Penn Jillette - [Great Green Gobs (MP3)] - An all-time favorite at dinner parties, performed by magician, skeptic, and record producer Penn Jillette, the talking half of Penn & Teller. Also shows up on [[GreatGreenGobs.com]http://www.GreatGreenGobs.com].