Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts - The Song

The Song

There are many local and regional variants among the lyrics, although most of them feature the phrase "Great green g(l)obs of greasy grimy gopher guts" in the opening line. The song derives its power to amuse children through alliterative description of disgusting foodstuffs, usually parts of human or animal bodies not customarily eaten in the areas in which it is sung.

The song appears on the Smithsonian Folkways collection A Fish That's a Song, a collection of traditional children's songs from the United States, where it is performed by Mika Seeger. The Smithsonian recording came from an earlier recording called The Sounds of Camp, originally released in 1959. No author or copyright is credited on the Smithsonian recording. The lyrics performed by Mika Seeger are:

Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat.

Dirty little birdie feet.

Great green globs of greasy, grimy gopher guts,

And me without my spoon.

Another version is

Great big gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,

Mutilated monkey meat.

Chopped up baby parakeet.

All wrapped up in iddy biddy birdies feet,

And I forgot my spoon.

A more extensive version was found in New York in the 1990s:

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 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!

Countless variations have sprung up over the decades, incorporating various disgusting combinations of descriptive words and animal organs.