Is the hokey-pokey based on a slur against the Mass?

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I remember learning that song and dance in elementary school as a kid. I loved it as a catchy tune with silly lyrics, and that’s all it meant to me. Never considered it a slur against Catholics, or even thought about it in that context. Nobody even brought that up back then. It was just a silly song and dance that I liked to laugh at.

BTW, does anyone know the origin of the nonsense song, POP GOES THE WEASEL?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
It was played and danced at every Catholic wedding in my mother’s huge Catholic family all through the 60s and 70s
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Oh goodness, yes. I’m even setting it pop up again as twenty somethings think it’s nostalgic.
 
It was fun because all the old people and little kids could sing and dance along. Everybody got in a huge circle and had a good time.
 
JanR said:
I remember learning that song and dance in elementary school as a kid. I loved it as a catchy tune with silly lyrics, and that’s all it meant to me. Never considered it a slur against Catholics, or even thought about it in that context. Nobody even brought that up back then. It was just a silly song and dance that I liked to laugh at.

BTW, does anyone know the origin of the nonsense song, POP GOES THE WEASEL?
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No, please tell us if you know the origin.

I know the origin of Ring Around the Rosie had something to do with the plague or some epidemic.
 
Quite the opposite. It’s all about “turn yourself around” — repentance. That’s what it’s all about. Very Catholic.
 
Well you learn something new every day. I didn’t know this was a thing.
 
DeniseNY said:
Oh goodness, yes. I’m even setting it pop up again as twenty somethings think it’s nostalgic.
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One of the more amusing things about my time at Iowa State as graduate student was watching the Hokey Pokey spontaneously break out in the stands at football games . . . (although as a kid, there wasn’t a verse about your right, err, cheek . . . 😝)

The author of the song died recently. Unfortunately, they dropped the casket, he fell halfway out, and it got worse from there–they put the right leg in, and the left arm out . . .

😱 🤣 :crazy_face:
7_Sorrows said:
I know the origin of Ring Around the Rosie had something to do with the plague or some epidemic.
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Commonly attributed to the plague, but apparently not true.

An academic traced it, and it’s apparent origin is in the wrong century. I forget the details, but it and its variants actually left a track in the historical record.
 
The actual name of the song is “Hokey Cokey.” It is from a peddler cry about little bags of sugar candy.

Honeycomb candy.

Ho-ky co-ky.

But because a bag is a poke, it is now hokey pokey for both the candy and the dance song.

The dance is a typical play party dance, and is nearly identical to “Here We Go Looby-Loo” and “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.” It was created by a known composer/writer.
 
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