# Left leg in... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839 "2003-07-07T19:43:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HotRox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f14d63/32.png) [@HotRox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HotRox)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839/1 "2003-07-07T19:43:26Z")
Being a British citizen recently emigrated to the USA, I am fascinated by some of the similarities and differences between our two cultures. One thing in particular has been bugging me - most people in the USA are aware of the song “The Hokey Pokey”, but us loveable limeys know this song as “The Hokey Cokey”. It would seem logical to assume these two songs share a common origin, but when did these fundamental titles diverge? Did something sinister happen on the Mayflower that necessitated this change, and if so, why choose poking over coking? ---
**Author:** ![Padmaraga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839/2 "2003-07-07T19:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HotRox \* > \*\* why choose poking over coking? \*\* Umm, just curious - what do “poking” and “coking” mean in the UK? Cause to me, the question translates to “why choose sex over drugs”, which is of course a matter of personal preference and all, but one’s legal and the other’s not, in the US. Not that I think that’s what the **song** is all about. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839/3 "2003-07-07T19:59:26Z")
Some b.g. info: [http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/hokey.htm](http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/hokey.htm) > [@](#): > > Written By: Roland Lawrence LaPrise, concocted the song along with two fellow musicians in the late 1940s for the ski crowd in Sun Valley, Idaho. The group, the Ram Trio, recorded the song in 1949. In 1953, bandleader Ray Anthony bought the rights and recorded The Hokey Pokey on the B-side of another novelty record, The Bunny Hop. After the Ram Trio disbanded in the 1960s, country star Roy Acuff’s publishing company bought the rights to The Hokey Pokey. Copyright 1950, Acuff-Rose Music Inc. … info. courtesy of the National Institiutes of Health … ? ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839/4 "2003-07-07T20:02:53Z")
FWIW: > [@](#): > > Why do we sing the Hokey-Cokey?\_ > > Hmm… well …back in 17th century Puritan England anything ‘popish’ or Roman Catholic was viewed with great suspicion and open to, at best, ridicule. The Hokey-Cokey, with its song and actions, is a mimicry of the Roman Catholic Mass.\_ > > In those days the priest faced the altar (not the people) and performed several actions as he consecrated the bread and wine at Holy Communion. The words of the service were in Latin. You put your left arm in …etc was ridiculing the priest as he lifted his arms heavenward during the rite. You do the Hokey- Cokey and you turn around… was when the priest turned to face the congregation with the host (consecrated bread) to offer it to them.\_ > > Ooooh, the Hokey-Cokey… hokey-cokey is a corruption of the Latin words of consecration - Hoc est corpus: ‘This is my body’ (Note: many of the strange words and phrases of our language are corruptions of other languages introduced to our country over the years and few were educated enough to speak or understand Latin). Knees bend, arm stretch, ra-ra-ra… knees bend is a ridicule of the genuflection (a kind of religious curtsey to the altar) of the priest, arm stretch is when he holds up his hands at the point of consecration in the service, and ra-ra-ra is just a mimicry of the Latin words and prayers they didn’t understand.\_ > > Today, many people do not know the origin of the song/dance and just do it for fun, especially to teach children co-ordination (and their right from their left). Today, in England, the Roman Catholic Mass is said in English and is so similar to the Holy Communion of the Church of England that, sometimes, if you didn’t know what church you were in… [http://www.peterborough.net/lifestyle/articles/whydowesay.asp](http://www.peterborough.net/lifestyle/articles/whydowesay.asp) ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-leg-in/186839/5 "2003-07-07T20:07:14Z")
Oh–and warning re: incessant music on the first link…