Found a Peanut

'"Found a Peanut"' is a traditional song, often considered a children's song, in the United States, Australia and Canada. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. It is sung to the tune of "Oh My Darling, Clementine". It may often be sung around a camp fire.^[1]

Contents 1 Basic lyrics 2 Many variations 3 Origins 4 Appearance in popular culture 5 References

Basic lyrics

A basic version of the variable lyrics is:

Found a peanut
Found a peanut,
Found a peanut just now.
just now I found a peanut,
Found a peanut just now.

Cracked it open, cracked it open, cracked it open right now
right now i cracked it open, cracked it open right now.

It was rotten, it was rotten, it was rotten just now,
just now it was rotten, it was rotten just now.

and it continues with the same rhythm Ate it anyway
got ill
called the doctor
operation had an operation just now
he couldn't find it
died anyway
went to heaven
got a job there
selling peanuts
but I dropped one
then I found it
and it restarts from "Cracked it open"

Many variations

The simple repetitive structure of the song lends itself to near infinite variations. Sometimes "Just now" is substituted for "last night". Sometimes the verse will not reference the preceding verse as in the first example above.

Another common variation on "last night" is "yesterday". This is used by "This Morning With Richard Not Judy" (TMWRNJ) by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

Other substitutions include:

• Other foods can also be used, such as an apple, for which the second line can be "it was wormy"
• "green and mouldy" by "found it rotten" or "it was rotten".
• "Wouldn't take me" by "Kicked an angel" or "Punched St. Peter".
• "Penicillin" by "Didn't Work"
• "Operation" by "Cut Me Open" / "Took the Peanut Out" / "Sewed Me Up Again" / "Left The Scissors In" / "Cut Me Open Again".
• "Didn't want me," by "Woke up," and
• "It was a dream" by "Shovelling coal."

Origins

Some attribute the song to Jack Schafer of Detroit, MI in 1958, although the song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives. Those lyrics end at "Ate it anyway."

Appearance in popular culture

The 1949 film, A Letter to Three Wives

The song appears memorably in a morbidly funny moment during the film Tromeo and Juliet, where a family in a car are singing the song before they get into an accident. In the following scene, the character Detective Scalus says, "They found a peanut alright, a peanut of death!"

The song also appears at the opening of the opera, The Abduction of Figaro, by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach).

This Morning With Richard Not Judy (TMWRNJ) by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

In Serial Mom, the 1994 American satirical comedy, Beverly Sutphin (played by Kathleen Turner) sings this song with her fellow prisoners as they ride on a bus en route to court.

A version appears on the 2009 Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds album, "Dracula Boots".

References