Boy He Had an Auger, A

DESCRIPTION: "A boy, he had an auger, It bored two holes at once; A boy, he had an auger, It bored two holes at once. And some were eating popcorn, And some were eating pickles (Spoken:) And the 'G' is silent as in 'fish.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: nonsense nonballad technology wordplay
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 343, "A Boy He Had an Auger" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Louisiana Lowlands" (another parody of "The Golden Vanity" verse beginning "Some were playing cards and some were playing dice")
NOTES [58 words]: The only part of this I'll try to explain is the line about "the 'G' is silent as in 'fish.'" This may go back to Shaw, who proposed to spell the word fish "ghoti." Other verses and other conclusions (e.g. "The Q is silent as in electricity") make even less sense.
This may, I suppose, have been *very* loosely inspired by "The Golden Vanity." - RBW
File: San343

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