Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts

The song "Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts" (also known as "Great Green Globs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts") is a children's public domain playground song popular throughout the United States. Dating back to at least the mid-20th century, the song is sung to the tune of "The Old Gray Mare".^[1] The song, especially popular in school lunchrooms and at summer camps, presents macabre horrors through cheerful comedy while allowing children to explore taboo images and words especially as they relate to standards of cleanliness and dining.^[2]^[3] Many local and regional variations of the lyrics exist, but whatever variant, they always entail extensive use of the literary phonetic device known as an alliteration which helps to provide an amusing description of animal body parts and fluids not normally consumed by Americans.

Song versions

Smithsonian Folkways version

The song appears on the Smithsonian Folkways compilation release entitled A Fish That's A Song, a collection of traditional public domain children's songs from the United States performed by Mika Seeger.^[4] The Smithsonian release appears to be derived from an earlier 1959 release entitled The Sounds Of Camp.

The lyrics performed by Mika Seeger are as follows:

Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat.

Dirty little birdie feet.

French fried eyeballs swimming in a pool of blood

And me without my spoon.^[5]

New York version

Lyrics of a more extensive version from New York was in use during the 1990s as follows:

Yankee Doodle went to town a-ridin’ on a gopher

Bumped into a garbage can and this is what fell over:

Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat, chopped up baby parakeet.

French-fried eyeballs rolling down the street.

Oops, I forgot my spoon!

So they gave me a split-splat, pus-on-top,

Monkey vomit and camel snot,

All wrapped up in birdie poo,

So eat it, (name), it’s good for you!

With vitamin C, and protein too

And don’t forget the doggie doo!^[6]

Pittsburgh version

The following version was sung in the mid-1950s in the Shadyside and East Liberty neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Great big globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat,

Little dirty birdies' feet,

Great big globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,

And me without my spoon.

Bizarre Foods America rap version

Bizarre Foods America, a cooking show which began airing in 2012 on cable television's Travel Channel, uses a hip-hop version for its theme song. The rapped lyrics are backed by keyboards and electronically produced drum beats.

In popular culture

In the popular early 1980s movie Caddyshack, Bill Murray's character sings the first line of the song, albeit incorrectly.

In the Stephen King book The Body (the basis for the movie Stand by Me), young Davy "LardAss" Hogan pretends that he's eating them instead of blueberry pies.

The song was also sung in the 1991 movie adaptation of the book Runaway Ralph.

The 2012 Aesop Rock album Skelethon features a track titled "Gopher Guts", which uses the first line of the poem to great metaphorical effect.

In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "The Big Cheese" (2006), Bloo sang a variation of this song to try and soothe Cheese.

In Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Adam Szalinski is singing this song and holding a trophy.

References

↑ Lansky, Bruce and Stephen Carpenter, I've Been Burping in the Classroom, p 10. Meadowbrook, 2007.
↑ Westfahl, Gary, et al, Foods of the Gods: Eating and the Eaten in Fantasy and Science Fiction, p 79. University of Georgia Press, 1996.
↑ Bronner, Simon J., American Children's Folklore, pp 81-82. August House, 2006.
↑ A Fish That's A Song, Smithsonian Folkways recording no. SFW45037.
↑ Booklet notes to the Smithsonian Folkways recording at the Wayback Machine (archived February 21, 2014)
↑ Tucker, Elizabeth. Children's Folklore: A Handbook, p 66. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008.