# ID this little songlette?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 13, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370 "2005-07-13T18:04:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/1 "2005-07-13T18:04:20Z")

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There’s a little 4 note tag that often comes at the ends of comic songs. In the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he goes to war with an opera singer, he ends the cartoon by playing this little tune on a banjo.

If the tune has words, I don’t know what they are, but my father used to sing it as “Without a shirt.” As kids, we found this hilarious for some reason.

I don’t know how else to describe it except in this way: If it was played in the key of C major the notes would be G A G Bflat, with a fermata on the last note.

Where does it come from? Does it have a name? Does it have lyrics?

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/2 "2005-07-13T18:17:48Z")

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Do you mean “Good eve-ning frieeeeeeends”?

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**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/3 "2005-07-13T18:20:01Z")

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Oops, I didn’t notice you wrote out the notes. Allow me to rephrase:

You mean “Good eve-ning frieeeeeeends!”

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**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/4 "2005-07-13T18:25:50Z")

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> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#):
>
> Oops, I didn’t notice you wrote out the notes. Allow me to rephrase:
> 
> You mean “Good eve-ning frieeeeeeends!”

Well, the words fit, so that could very well be right.

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**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/5 "2005-07-13T18:52:50Z")

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Largely irrelevant, but:

At the end of “Happy Birthday,” certain anonomous support group members sing “keep coming back” to this tune.

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/6 "2005-07-13T19:04:48Z")

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I’ve heard this snippet at the end of “Happy Birthday” with the words, “And many more . . .”

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/7 "2005-07-13T19:27:26Z")

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I’ve heard it in some BB cartoons as “…and that ain’t all…”

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**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/8 "2005-07-13T20:59:33Z")

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In the context of the cartoons, it was usually “and that ain’y hay.”

What that meant, I don’t know.

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**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-little-songlette/312370/9 "2005-07-13T21:01:13Z")

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> [@saoirse](#):
>
> In the context of the cartoons, it was usually “and that ain’y hay.”
> 
> What that meant, I don’t know.

_Ain’t_ hay. Rats.
