Think about it, people: “Hokey Pokey”… “Hocus Pocus”… coincidence?
Maybe it helps to see it performed by Bill Bailey, in german?
His Kraftwerk tribute 
Freddy The Pig, thank you very much for clearing up that Recursion issue laina f and I were running into. Poor laina f 
I still feel that although we are making progress here, there is still much to be discovered, many insights to be seen and prophetic meanings to be had by further examination of The Hokey Pokey.
I too wondered about the Hocus Pocus connection, and wikipedia mentioned it as well!
Everyone knows it’s about the bubonic plague, hence The Bells of St Clements. Also, Jack and Jill were gay men.
Indeed there are. But notice, that with the recursion issue cleared up, the veil lifts from some of the deeper existential mysteries of the song.
“You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around,
That’s what it’s all about.”
Consider an argument by analogy, paying careful attention to orthography:
“Snakes on a Plane is all about snakes on a plane, but To Kill a Mockingbird is not about killing a mockingbird.”
You would agree, yes? Now, the couplet in question makes an assertion, whose veracity we shall examine, that The Hokey Pokey (song/dance as a whole) is all about doing the hokey pokey (gyrating dance step) and turning yourself around.
In other words, the other moves, thrusting and shaking body parts, are preliminary. The crux of the dance, if you will, is doing the hokey pokey and turning yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.
Now, and this is important, the song need not be taken at face value. Oftentimes a work of art will assert that it is about something that it is not in fact about. I’m too lazy to look up the perfect quote, but there are occasions in Moby Dick when the narrator asserts that the book is about whaling. This is true only in a superficial sense. The book is really about human beings and obsession and revenge.
So we need not take the songwriter’s word that the Hokey Pokey is all about the hokey pokey. In the largest sense, I’m not sure what the Hokey Pokey is about. Perhaps it’s about people making fools of themselves at weddings and birthday parties. Maybe it’s a metaphor for life itself. As with all great art, meaning will lie in the eye of the beholder.
Jesus guys, IT’S SEX! IT’S SEX! IT’S SEX!
You put your dick in “the circle”. You pull your dick out. You put your dick in and you shake it all about. The Hokey Pokey is an orgasm. THAT’S WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT!
St Vitus Dance has nothing to do with rhumatic fever. It’s the common name for Huntington’s Chorea, a genetic disorder.
That’s what you took from my post? Just that?
It’s a ritual intended to train us on how to ascent to a higher state of being, like all those Star Trek energy beings, or the energy people in Stargate: SG-1. The idea is that you get your body used to ascending, one part at a time, until you’re ready to have your entire being ascend all at once.
The trick to it is the very self-referential aspect you mentioned in the OP, in that you are submitting yourself to an infinitely recursive ascension, like jamming yourself into a Klein bottle so that you are simultaneously IN the bottle and OUT of it.
And that’s what it’s all about.
Not to be all metaphysical about it, but when we got to the “do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself about” we’d put our hands above our heads and shake them while turning around a couple of times.
I’ve only ever done the Hokey Pokey on roller skates. For the part where “you turn yourself about,” you take your partners hands, arms crossed in front of you, and spin around, with your hands as the center of the circle.
Our local roller rink always followed the Hokey Pokey with the Mexican Hat Dance. Do people do the Hokey Pokey without skates?
FWIW I grew up in Western PA and was a teen in the 80’s. My family went skating every weekend, skate parties were THE thing to do and I even owned my own skates!
Common misconception, but actually “Hokey pokey” is actually much like “Hocus Pocus” in that they are mockeries of the Latin phrase “Hoc est Corpus Meum” (This is My Body)- that combined with the in-out-shaking stuff makes it very clear-
It’s training children for The Black Mass.
That’s an abomination. The Hokey Pokey should always be followed by the Chicken Dance.
Of course. And (to continue your suggestion), since that is arguably derived from the latin phrase Hoce Est Corpus Meum, the words spoken to indicate the Transubstantiation, the Hokey Pokey is really a Pop Culture reference to the Central Mystery of Christianity, which is What It’s All About.
Unless you’re Jewish. Or Muslim, or Hindu, or Atheist, or just about anything else.
If you’re any of those, I guess you shouldn’t do the song or the dance.
Which suiits me just fine.
umm…one of these things is not like the other.
Yet, fellow Dopers, I am too feeble of mind to solve this great mystery.
So…yea, verily, I beseech of thee:Assist me in my struggle to reach such a higher state of being:
For I will need help.
And, apparently, a condom..
But my wife objects when I attempt to put my head in.
Believe me, I’ve tried.
Regards,
Shodan
Hey, we all know what hokey activities go on in the pokey. What did you THINK you were repeatedly sticking your hand into?
Now that you’ve way over-thought the Hokey Pokey, how about the Boot Scootin Boogie? Especially this part:
Yeah, heel, toe, dosey doe come on baby let’s go boot scootin
Oh, Cadillac, blackjack, baby meet me out back we’re gonna boogie
Oh get down, turn around go to town boot scootin’ boogie
I have it on the highest authority that No, it doesn’t mean a thing!
I absolutely loathe this “song” and its infernal dance, and have since I was in a preschool gymnastics class. I steadfastly refused to even listen to the other, more gullible kids do it.
This thread is making me think my 4-year-old self was even smarter than I thought.