I was especially excited for this week's Batman and Robin posting after a night of looking through yearbooks from the early '70s. My mom's best friend and sister came into town for the holiday and were reminiscing with the dusty volumes, which turned into a laugh-until-you-cry episode for everyone when my mom started reading aloud what her friend and their former classmates wrote in her yearbook all those years ago.
Among all the queer comments (everything was referred to as "queer" back then, apparently) were that generation's very own Batman and Robin jokes:
Don’t ever catch a cold at the football games because of all the fans.
Why are there so many fans at basketball games?
Because they are so cool and air-conditioned.
Because they are so cool and air-conditioned.
Did you ever hear about the pencil that talked?
But they don’t so shut up.
Awesome. Simply awesome.
But now getting back to this generation's Batman and Robin joke... today's question is, "Why did Yankee Doodle call a feather in his hat macaroni?"
My partner in crime weighs in:
Yankee doodle went to town
riding on a pony
stuck a feather in his cap
and called it macaroni
This is a popular childhood song. It's catchy, innocent and easy to remember. It reminds me of another song with all the same qualities.
Ring around the rosies
pocket full of posies
ashes, ashes
we all fall down.
We all know, or at least I know, that the legend following this song revolves around the Black Plague that took place during the middle ages. The original lyrics were "Achoo, Achoo we all fall down." A victim of the plague would enter a sneezing fit before collapsing to the ground and dying.
Though Yankee Doodle did not die with the song about death, it too has its own message. The original verse goes "stuck a feather down his throat and threw up macaroni." You see dear reader, Yankee Doodle suffered from what is now labeled as "Mannorexia." He was very image conscious and would make himself vomit after a meal, which was usually macaroni salad.
Simply, the song describes the tale of a young Yankee Doodle and his struggle with body image. He would binge eat on his favorite foods, stick a feather down his throat and throw up macaroni salad. It is indeed a sad, sad story. However, since the diddy was so catchy, future song writers decided to change the lyrics. Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months and 300-some-odd years later, we have a song whose origins very few people now remember. A song which recorded the very first case of Mannorexia.
My response: The reason Yankee Doodle was image conscious was because he was constantly being scrutinized by his audiences, many of whom weren't used to the big city folk coming into their towns. You see, Yankee Doodle was a traveling magician. He took his magic show on the road by riding his horse, Macaroni, from town to town (yes, the horse's name was "Macaroni").
Macaroni was involved in one of the tricks in which the magician Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in a hat, and called it Macaroni because he then pulled out the horse from the hat. It was amazing.
Yes, Yankee Doodle was the original Houdini, but is not as well known because he just did his show for small audiences in small towns with no phone lines to pass the word along. And he and his horse ate hardily with all the dough they were rolling in, but Yankee occasionally felt bloated and didn't like to perform on his "fat" days, but sometimes had no choice, so he found his own solution.
So why did Yankee Doodle call a feather in his hat macaroni? Because he was a mannorexic, macaroni-salad-loving magician with a horse named Macaroni.
But they don’t so shut up.
Awesome. Simply awesome.
But now getting back to this generation's Batman and Robin joke... today's question is, "Why did Yankee Doodle call a feather in his hat macaroni?"
My partner in crime weighs in:
Yankee doodle went to town
riding on a pony
stuck a feather in his cap
and called it macaroni
This is a popular childhood song. It's catchy, innocent and easy to remember. It reminds me of another song with all the same qualities.
Ring around the rosies
pocket full of posies
ashes, ashes
we all fall down.
We all know, or at least I know, that the legend following this song revolves around the Black Plague that took place during the middle ages. The original lyrics were "Achoo, Achoo we all fall down." A victim of the plague would enter a sneezing fit before collapsing to the ground and dying.
Though Yankee Doodle did not die with the song about death, it too has its own message. The original verse goes "stuck a feather down his throat and threw up macaroni." You see dear reader, Yankee Doodle suffered from what is now labeled as "Mannorexia." He was very image conscious and would make himself vomit after a meal, which was usually macaroni salad.
Simply, the song describes the tale of a young Yankee Doodle and his struggle with body image. He would binge eat on his favorite foods, stick a feather down his throat and throw up macaroni salad. It is indeed a sad, sad story. However, since the diddy was so catchy, future song writers decided to change the lyrics. Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months and 300-some-odd years later, we have a song whose origins very few people now remember. A song which recorded the very first case of Mannorexia.
My response: The reason Yankee Doodle was image conscious was because he was constantly being scrutinized by his audiences, many of whom weren't used to the big city folk coming into their towns. You see, Yankee Doodle was a traveling magician. He took his magic show on the road by riding his horse, Macaroni, from town to town (yes, the horse's name was "Macaroni").
Macaroni was involved in one of the tricks in which the magician Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in a hat, and called it Macaroni because he then pulled out the horse from the hat. It was amazing.
Yes, Yankee Doodle was the original Houdini, but is not as well known because he just did his show for small audiences in small towns with no phone lines to pass the word along. And he and his horse ate hardily with all the dough they were rolling in, but Yankee occasionally felt bloated and didn't like to perform on his "fat" days, but sometimes had no choice, so he found his own solution.
So why did Yankee Doodle call a feather in his hat macaroni? Because he was a mannorexic, macaroni-salad-loving magician with a horse named Macaroni.
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