Joy to the World, Our Teacher's Dead

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A humorous children's song popular in the United States. It is a parody of the Christmas carol Joy to the World and is thus sung to the tune of that song. Sociologist Nancy McCabe cites this song for its role, along with similar songs, in reflecting and perpetuating societal contempt for women in positions of authority, even though it's often sung about male teachers and the word "teacher" is often replaced with "principal" (in reference to male principals). Although this song, like many in its genre (see, e.g., The Burning of the School) features frequently variable lyrics, a commonly heard version contains the following lyrics:

Joy to the world, the teacher's dead
We barbecued the head
Don't worry about the body
We flushed it down the potty
And round and round it goes
And round and round it goes
And rou-ound and rou-ou-ound and round it goes

Popular variations replace "barbecued" with "amputated", "teacher" with "principal", "Don't worry about the body" with "What happened to his body?" (her body in the Nelson Muntz rendition) or "They tried to find his body," etc.

Joy to the world, the school burned down
And all the teachers died
The principal is dead
We shot him in the head
The janitor is gone
We flushed him down the john
And heeeeaven, the school burned down.

A midwestern variation popular in the 1980s went as follows:

Joy to the world, the school burned down
And all the teachers died
Where is the principal?
He's on the flag pole,
Swinging by his underwear,
Swinging by his underwear,
Swi-ing-ing by-y-y his un-der-wear.

An Australian variation popular in the 1990s:

Joy to the world, the school burned down
And all the teachers too
The principal is dead
we shot him in the he-e-ead
The secretary too
We flushed her down the loo
and all of the chi-hilldren are safe at home.

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