Hokey Cokey - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The BBC TV comedy series 'Allo 'Allo! showed one of its characters (Herr Otto Flick) demonstrating a variation of the hokey cokey in an episode from season 3. Being a Gestapo officer the lyrics are changed to reflect his sinister nature as follows:

You put your left boot in

You take your left boot out

You do a lot of shouting

And you shake your fist about

You light a little smokey

And you burn down the town

That's what it's all about

Heil!

Aah, Himmler Himmler Himmler—

Bill Bailey performed a version of the Hokey Kokey in German and in the style of Kraftwerk on his Part Troll tour in 2004.

The University of Iowa Hawkeye football team, under coach Hayden Fry, used to perform the hokey pokey after particularly impressive victories, such as over Michigan and Ohio State. On September 3, 2010, a crowd of 7,384 — with Fry present — performed the hokey pokey in Coralville, Iowa, establishing a new world record.

The Marching Virginians of Virginia Tech play this song (known as the "Hokie Pokie" at Virginia Tech because of their mascot) between the third and fourth quarters at all Virginia Tech football games. Much of the crowd participates in the dance, as do the tubas during much of the song and the rest of the band during the tuba feature. The song is also generally used as the Marching Virginians' dance number in the first half-time field show of the year, and an abbreviated version is played as a "Spirit Spot" (short song used between plays during the football game) after a big play.

Alternative band The Three O'Clock used the roller skating version of the hokey cokey in the video for their song "Her Head's Revolving." The video opens and ends with them doing the hokey cokey. It is available at YouTube.

Pinkie Pie performs a variation of the hokey cokey, titled "The Pony Pokey," in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode "The Best Night Ever".

The Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, Londo Mollari, refers to the song in perplexity (during part one of the episode "A Voice in the Wilderness") as further evidence of the incomprehensible nature of human culture.

In the episode Chinga (5x10) of the TV series The X-Files, the song is featured at multiple times during the episode.

The Washington Post has a weekly contest called the Style Invitational. One contest asked readers to submit "instructions" for something (anything), but written in the style of a famous person. The popular winning entry was "The Hokey Pokey (as written by William Shakespeare)" by Jeff Brechlin, Potomac Falls, and submitted by Katherine St. John.

Comedian Jim Breuer performs the hokey pokey as he imagines it would be interpreted by AC/DC, commenting on the band's ability to turn any song, no matter how mundane, into a rock anthem.