# "Laugh, kookaburra ..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 16, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250 "2023-11-16T16:17:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/1 "2023-11-16T16:17:27Z")
So do Aussies really sing about kookaburras or was that just a song our 2nd grade teachers thought up? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/2 "2023-11-16T16:26:37Z")
Both. > **[Kookaburra (song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra_(song))** > > "Kookaburra" (also known by its first line: "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree") is an Australian nursery rhyme and round about the laughing kookaburra. It was written by Marion Sinclair (9 October 1896 – 15 February 1988) in 1932. > Marion Sinclair was a music teacher at Toorak College, a girls' school in Melbourne she had attended as a boarder. In 1920, she began working with the school's Girl Guides company. > One Sunday morning in 1932, Sinclair had an inspiration in church and dashed home ... ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/3 "2023-11-16T16:50:40Z")
Why not? Their national anthem is about a suicidal guy dancing with a sleeping bag or something like that. Living upside down makes people very strange. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/4 "2023-11-16T17:18:21Z")
It’s also a song that gets Colin Hay sued, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/5 "2023-11-16T17:25:35Z")
I loved that song in school. I was first grade when we sang it. I made my sister look the bird up in an encyclopedia for me. Took awhile because I kept calling it “bookakurra” ! ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/6 "2023-11-16T19:04:21Z")
Can’t mention kookaburras without a kookaburra video [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/UiMxZIVJjb0/maxresdefault.jpg "Kookaburra Laughing") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiMxZIVJjb0) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/7 "2023-11-16T19:14:20Z")
I sang it with my Girl Scout troop. I always like it. Along with the Girl Scout song about their Swiss building – “High UP High on a mountain we founded our chalet.” On edit: hilarous video! Even with the lame Harry Potter joke. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/8 "2023-11-16T19:39:04Z")
Not so hilarious when two of them start belting out calls at 5 am just outside your window. I remember the song from my school days last century and, as the wikipedia extract says, we learned to sing it in rounds. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/9 "2023-11-16T19:47:29Z")
Up-to-date urban version: _Kookaburra sits on the electric wire_ _Jumping up and down with his pants on fire_ … and so on. (Unfortunately most of my memory brain cells from primary school have long since waved goodbye). ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/10 "2023-11-16T19:49:40Z")
It must have been in a Canadian music primer because most Canadian’s of a certain age know it well. And when “Down Under” came out we understood the reference. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/11 "2023-11-16T19:56:01Z")
I remember the kookaburra song from the [Singing Together](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Together_(radio)) program at primary school in the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/12 "2023-11-16T22:23:18Z")
Okay, do you really sing about tying kangaroos down? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/13 "2023-11-16T22:25:39Z")
Not just Canadian. We Yanks learned in in elementary school also. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/14 "2023-11-16T22:35:49Z")
I certainly did! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/15 "2023-11-17T04:44:22Z")
I remember singing it in a round, as well (_a la Frere Jacques_). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/16 "2023-11-17T04:54:22Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, do you really sing about tying kangaroos down? It was a hit song for a certain popular Australian entertainer. He ain’t quite so popular now, though. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/17 "2023-11-17T05:41:09Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Okay, do you really sing about tying kangaroos down? Often referred to (esp by New Zealanders sick of sheep jokes) as a traditional Australian love song. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2023, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laugh-kookaburra/993250/18 "2023-11-17T10:20:52Z")
Yeah. Songs about three leggèd men, two little boys, and the Ladies of the Harem of the Court of King Caractacus are all off the playlist as well.