# Mony Mony: What are the origins of the Audience Participation? (Warning: Cuss Words!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 16, 2004, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072 "2004-08-16T11:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/21 "2004-08-16T23:26:25Z")
BTW I had heard Billy Idol’s version of the song played many, many times at parties and happy hours before spring of 1986 and no sing along, at least not in Buffalo, which even then was not exactly the center of all that was happening… ---
**Author:** ![LeRoi\_Lezard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@LeRoi\_Lezard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeRoi_Lezard)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/22 "2004-08-17T17:23:37Z")
We always said _“Hey! Hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”_. I have no idea what the origin of it was, though… ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/23 "2004-08-17T22:24:20Z")
The version I knew was: Hey hey slut, get laid, get fucked! While we’re on the subject of audience participation, does anyone do this with “Margaritaville:” _Wastin’ away again in margaritaville Searching for my lost shaker of salt_ Salt! Where’s the fucking salt! ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/24 "2004-08-17T22:58:36Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > _Here she comes now singing Mony Mony_ > “Hey! Get laid get fucked!” > _Shoot em down turn around come on Mony_ > Hey! Get laid get fucked!" > etc, etc. This is the version I’ve heard too. Interestingly, I didn’t begin hearing people do this until the mid-1980s. I went to high school in the late 1960s when it first became a hit song. All through college it got played of course, but never with the alternate audience participation. It wasn’t until I had been in the work force for about a decade that I first heard people do this at company parties. ---
**Author:** ![Stainz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Stainz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stainz)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/25 "2004-08-17T23:13:02Z")
Hee hee, I remember the first time I heard people yell along to this song (the mf’er version) in a bar in Calgary in the summer of 1987 (yes I’m that damn old). My friend and I were visiting from a small town in BC and we were AMAZED that people were yelling like that. Then of course we joined right in! 😛 The LAST time I heard someone yell along with this song was at a Corporate Christmas party in 1994. Someone’s date, a girl around my age, just HOLLERED the m-f’er line at the TOP OF HER LUNGS … all by herself. She was mortified. The rest of us were highly amused. Hee hee … just thinking about it makes me smile at how incredibly inappropriate it was. Poor girl. S. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/26 "2004-08-17T23:20:56Z")
I didn’t hear the audience participation until college, where the prevailing version was “Hey everybody, get laid; get fucked!” ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/27 "2004-08-17T23:35:40Z")
**Dewey Finn** Seems your question got lost in the shuffle - here is a link to the Mony Mony Mutual of New York connection - [http://www.classicbands.com/tommyjames.html](http://www.classicbands.com/tommyjames.html) Basically, you’re right. This is the first I’ve heard of the audience participation to Mony Mony. Then again, I’m old enough to remember this song as a hit the _first_ time around. If nothing else, maybe the audience participation started because of all the commotion going on in the background of that song. Eventually the participation became “standardized”? ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/28 "2004-08-18T00:03:26Z")
> [@LeRoi Lezard](#): > > We always said _“Hey! Hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”_. I have no idea what the origin of it was, though… This is what we said at my highschool too – in Canada. Interestingly, on field trips to the U.S. we did _not_ hear this, but other people picked it up pretty fast with our rowdies chanting it. I don’t think it started here, I think it was just random chance that they happened to be visiting areas where it was less common at the time. It would have been mid- to late-80s. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/29 "2004-08-18T00:39:03Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > … > If nothing else, maybe the audience participation started because of all the commotion going on in the background of that song. Eventually the participation became “standardized”? I doubt it. The commotion in the background is in the Tommy James and the Shondells version of the song from the 1960s, but people traditionally do the yelling thingy during the Billy Idol version, which became a club hit (in the US anyways) in the early to mid 80s. I haven’t seen anyone in this thread mention hearing the shout response BEFORE the Billy Idol version. ---
**Author:** ![Astacey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f05b48/32.png) [@Astacey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astacey)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/30 "2004-08-18T00:44:18Z")
> [@monster](#): > > We always yelled, “Hey get drunk, get laid, get fucked!” > . One time I was politely sitting at a bar in the early 90’s and a nice polite man sat next to me and was flirting. We were enjoying the drinks and the music…you know, just having a nice time. Then _Mony Mony_ comes on and I was horrified when this nice man next to me started screaming this as loud as he could while sitting about two feet away from me. I left. I had never heard that before then, but I have heard it a few times since. But, I’ll never forget my disgust that night. I’m not a prude. In fact I swear way too much but this was/is just tacky. ---
**Author:** ![MinniePurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/31 "2004-08-18T01:05:48Z")
I remember hearing this at a high school dance in 1987 or 88, in Colorado Springs. I had never heard it before and couldn’t distinuish exactly what they were saying, but if I had to guess I’d say it was the “Hey, hey what” version. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/32 "2004-08-18T05:08:08Z")
> [@LeRoi Lezard](#): > > We always said _“Hey! Hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”_. This is also the version I learned (college, Ohio, mid-80s). And later in the song, where the backup singers repeat “Mony mony, mony mony,” everyone sang “Fuck your balls off, fuck your balls off”… ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/33 "2004-08-18T14:55:26Z")
> [@LeRoi Lezard](#): > > We always said _“Hey! Hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”_. I have no idea what the origin of it was, though… Yep, this was ours too. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/34 "2004-08-18T15:41:55Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > BTW I had heard Billy Idol’s version of the song played many, many times at parties and happy hours before spring of 1986 and no sing along, at least not in Buffalo, which even then was not exactly the center of all that was happening… The funny thing is that I came into this thread to post that the audience participation chant was definitely in Buffalo in 1986. Or, at the very least, in Cheektowaga (Buffalo suburb, the joke being that it is an old Indian name that means “near the airport”) where a “teen night” was held every Sunday at a bar called The Inferno, which was so … oh my gosh, _of the 80s_ in terms of decor and music that it makes my head hurt merely to think about it. We shouted the same version you mentioned: Hey! Get laid! Get fucked! For those of you noticing that this is shorter than some of the other versions mentioned, it was more like: Hey! (pause) Get laid! Get fucked! ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/35 "2004-08-18T16:06:49Z")
“Hey! Get drunk. Get laid. Get fucked!” Could be heard in Maine between the years of 1986-1990. But, I also seem to recall hearing “hey. hey what. get laid. get fucked.” If you’ve heard this one, I’ll be surprised because I think my friends invented it. It hasn’t quite caught on as well. It doesn’t fit in perfectly, but that’s what makes it a little funny. Life in the fast lane You bitch! Surely make you lose your mind Life in the fast lane, You bitch! everything all the time Life in the fast lane, You bitch! Blowin’ and burnin’, blinded by thirst They didn’t see the stop sign, took a turn for the worse ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/36 "2004-08-18T17:48:41Z")
I was just wondering about this the other day. In high school (late eighties), I think the version went “Get fucked… … Get laid” but late in college it became “Get laid get fucked…get laid get fucked”. Basically, it’s just one of those college things. If you want drunk girls at your parties, you have to endure them screaming along to Mony Mony or yelling “WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” whenever an Abba song or I Will Survive is played. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/37 "2004-08-18T21:31:38Z")
That’s so funny I happened upon this thread. I heard this very song standing in line at a local restaurant just yesterday. I was getting take out. Now, I grew up in Ohio and when the Billy Idol version came out, I remember not hearing this song without also hearing some variation of the aforementioned audience participation. The girls waiting on me in the restaurant couldn’t have been more than 20, and if they were, not by much. I’m 35 so we’re almost a full generation apart in age. This song comes on the radio and I could see they were thinking the same thing I was, " Hey! Get Laid! Get Fucked!" So I looked at them and said, “What words are you guys thinking about?” And they laughed and we all admittted to it. I also recall some sort of stupid reach-for-the-sky “dance” move that went along with the chanting. How and why that part got worked into it is probably a whole other thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/38 "2004-08-19T05:28:33Z")
> [@look!ninjas](#): > > I didn’t hear the audience participation until college, where the prevailing version was “Hey everybody, get laid; get fucked!” That was the version at my high school too. I don’t recall ever hearing Mony Mony at a school dance after grade 8 ('91-'92), so either the administration put the song on a DNP list due to the audience participation or the DJs thought the song was passé and quit playing it. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/39 "2004-08-19T18:12:23Z")
38 Posters who know about it, yet _nobody_ knos where it came from. I think someone has to direct **Cecil** ’s attention to this Thread. ---
**Author:** ![Aguecheek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Aguecheek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aguecheek)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072/40 "2004-08-19T23:02:07Z")
I first heard it at 13 when my friend Aric sang it out in my backyard while it was on the radio in…1986? I remember thinking “Hey neat…they must edit that part out for the radio. Is that the album version?” I’ve since heard it everytime it’s played in bars/dances/driving down the road. FTR, the version I’ve always heard was: “_Hey motherfucker, get laid, get fucked!_” And for **Mycroft Holmes** , I have also yelled out “Alice? Who the fuck is Alice?” in university in Canada. I’ve no idea where I heard that one… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mony-mony-what-are-the-origins-of-the-audience-participation-warning-cuss-words/260072.md?page=3)