Sticking a feather in your cap and calling it maccaroni: classic or dud?

Well, for you information, I just did a search and discovered there is meaning to it afterall:

Why Did Yankee Doodle Stick a Feather In His Hat and 

Call it Macaroni?

Back in Pre-Revolutionary America when the song "Yankee Doodle" was first 

popular, the singer was not referring to the pasta "macaroni" in the line that 

reads "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni". "Macaroni" was a 

fancy ("dandy") style of Italian dress widely imitated in England at the time. 

So by just sticking a feather in his cap and calling himself a "Macaroni" (a 

"dandy"), Yankee Doodle was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country 

bumpkin, because that was how the English regarded most colonials at that 

time. But times have long since changed, and it is important to reflect on the 

fact that despite the turbulant early relationship between England and the 

American colonists, our two countries are strongly united. 



(by Richard Shuckburgh)



Yankee Doodle went to town

A-riding on a pony

Stuck a feather in his hat

And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp

Along with Captain Gooding

And there we saw the men and boys

As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls be handy

There was Captain Washington

Upon a slapping stallion

A-giving orders to his men

I guess there was a million.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up

Yankee Doodle dandy

Mind the music and the step

And with the girls be handy.

in brysons book on american langague he said it might have origins in a slave song

I always thought that the words were orig. from British soldiers to make fun of us, and American soldiers "reclaimed" it, i.e. proud of their simplicity, carousing, etc.

there's that dave q without the wit i was talking about.

My favourite rendition of that song is in the film version of 'The Producers', when the German character who wrote Springtime for Hitler suspects that Wilder and Mostel might be immigration officers. So in order to prove his American credentials he starts singing 'I'm a Yenkee Doodle Dendy' with the most exaggerated German accent in the history of film. Never have those lyrics seemed quite as absurd.

Fuck off Padgett. Is that witty enough for you?

I think you need to add a few Hail Marys in his direction first, then cast some holy water on the screen.

Whatever works...

The Producers was so damn funny. Springtime For Hitler! Hey, I've always wondered if that had anything at all to do with Cabaret. Probably not, I'm guessing. I wish I could afford to see what the broadway play is like.

Heheheh, he told Ethan to fuck off.

Oh, btw, Nude Spock has come up with a question that sounds like something my mom would ask. Well done, kid.

:-(

It seems that song is basically about serving up a mean can o' whoop- ass on you pommies...

"And with the girls be handy."

That line always made me think. Isn't it...shady? It was okay then, to get "handy" with young girls in colonial america, aside from that puritanism thing