# Boola Boola

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 24, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370 "2014-08-24T13:46:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370/1 "2014-08-24T13:46:44Z")

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Anyone know of an online recording of Yale’s fight song _Boola Boola_? I found [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP5X5UAdWfM), but it’s not the complete song and what lyrics it has are different. (Plus it segues into _When The Saints Go Marching In_.) I’d like to hear a straight version with these lyrics:

\*Well, here we are, well, here we are!  
Just watch us rolling up a score.  
We’ll leave poor Harvard behind so far,  
They won’t want to play us anymore.  
We’ll roll the score so very high,  
That you will hear them sigh:  
Well-a Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boo,  
Boola, Boo, Boola, Boola, Boola, Boo!

Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,  
Boola, Boola, Boola, Boola,  
When we “rough-house” poor old Harvard,  
They will holler Boola Boo. (Rah! Rah! Rah!)  
Yale, Eli Yale!  
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!  
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!  
Oh! Yale, Eli Yale!\*

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370/2 "2014-08-24T15:01:32Z")

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May serve no purpose at all, but  
[http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/00\_10/boola.html](http://archives.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/00_10/boola.html)

I seem to recall another pile of syllables relating to Ivy League: Brek ek ek ek

And doesn’t [Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo Lyrics - Cinderella - Soundtrack Lyrics](http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/classicdisney/bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.htm) contain at least the “boola” reference? I always wondered about that connection.

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**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370/3 "2014-08-24T15:55:04Z")

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This won’t help, but when I was at Yale (1976–1980), the only lyrics I wever heard anyone sing were

Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boola  
Boola boo

The marching band played it when marching from the stadium back to campus, but it wasn’t sung very often.  
The syllables **Zeldar** mentions are part of a cheer, no longer in use when I was there and, I’m told, taken from Aristphanes’s _The Frogs_. The full line is

Brek e kek kek koax koax

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**Author:** ![turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turner)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370/4 "2014-08-24T19:16:16Z")

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I thought this was going to be about the missionaries who get a choice between death and boola boola.

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boola-boola/696370/5 "2014-08-24T19:18:51Z")

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Yeah, every time I hear an ebola story on the radio I think…

♫ _Ebol’ ebola! Ebol’ ebola!  
Ebol’ ebola! Ebol’ ebola!_ ♫