The song "Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts" is a children's

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playground song popular throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Dating back to at least the mid-20th century, the song is sung to the tune of "

The Old Gray Mare "The Old Gray Mare" is an American folk song, more recently regarded as a children's song. History Some authors have said that the song originated based upon the performance of the horse Lady Suffolk, the first horse recorded as trotting a mile i ...

". The song, especially popular in school lunchrooms and at

summer camps Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

, 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. 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 Alliteration is the conspicuous repetition of initial consonant sounds of nearby words in a phrase, often used as a literary device. A familiar example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Alliteration is used poetically in various ...

which helps to provide an amusing description of animal body parts and fluids not normally consumed by

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

. A recording of the song by Mika Seeger was included in a 1959 Folkways release entitled ''The Sounds of Camp'', as a short track titled "Jingle" in the digital version. This recording was subsequently rereleased on a 1990

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fo ...

compilation titled ''A Fish That's a Song'', a collection of traditional

children's songs from the

, with liner notes that include the lyrics:

Great green globs of greasy, grimy
gopher Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...
guts, Mutilated monkey meat. Dirty little birdie feet. French fried eyeballs rolling down a dirty street, And me without my spoon.

References

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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: April 15, 1996.Vol.92, Iss. 16; pg. 1448 *Ian Turner, June Factor, Wendy Lowenstein, ''Cinderella Dressed in Yella, 2nd Edition'' (Heinemann, 1978). Traditional children's songs Children's street culture American folk songs English children's songs

See also

References

Further reading