Name this Taunt Song...

Factual Questions
1

I’m working on a screenplay and I want one of the characters to beep a horn in a very recognizable fashion, but I don’t know the name of the tune.

Think of when someone knocks on your door in an attempt to be cute. Give it a try.

Knock knock-knock knock knock…pause…knock knock.

What is this called? I remember being on the playground sitting in a circle with other kids trying to determine who will be “it.” One of the rhymes to select the person had this same riff…but the rhyme was “Skunk in the barnyard…P.U., somebody did it, not you.” Or something along those lines.

I think Bugs Bunny made a habit of being highly annoying in the form of this little riff.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

2

Shave and a haircut…
…two bits.

3

Rent “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” for a great example of the song in action.

4

Q.E.D. is right.

Now, where did “Shave and a Haircut” come from?

5

A barber shop?

6

Wiki sez:

7

Slight hijack here but I’ve always been curiousabout where the derisory chant used by young kids in both Britain and the U.S. came from.

It has no actual words but the best way that I can render it is…

NA NI NANI NA NA!

8

Are you sure you don’t mean, “Ner, ner, ner, ner, ner!”? Bear* in mind regional accents!

  • There should be a different ‘bear’ for this purpose. When I’m told to ‘bear in mind’ something, my immediate thoughts go to Yogi!
9

Not saying it’s conclusive, but wikipedia says the first known occurrence of the tune is from an 1899 Charles Hale song, “At a Darktown Cakewalk”

Edit: Whoops I see Kimstu posted that already.

10

Awesome, thanks guys. I totally forgot about Shave and a Haircut. I think that’s what I’ll go with.

I always knew it as “Nanny nanny boo boo.”

11

Well, you could bare it in mind. But, that’s probably worse.

12

It sounds a lot like “a tisket a tasket”, the 19th-century nursery rhyme.

13

It goes: nee ner nee ner boo boo

Stick your head in doodoo

Case closed!

14

According to Leonard Bernstein, the nya-nya taunt arises spontaneously from the harmonic series. It uses overtones 4, 3, and 5. If you sing any note, the overtones are already present in it and are easily reached.

15

Right! The major pentatonic scale: the basis of all children’s music. At least all children’s music written by children.

16

Thank you. Too late for edit: I should have written that it’s made of the 6th, 5th, and 7th overtones (I’d counted wrong). With a fundamental of C that makes G, E, and A. The 7th overtone is between A and A-sharp, but in singing that’s fudgeable to A natural, more or less.

17

Back in my amateur radio days in the late ‘60’s, beginners started off with the novice license. They were only allowed to use morse code and there were some other restrictions. After a conversation, as a sort of sign off good bye, one of them would tap out the ‘shave and a haircut’ part. The other would respond with the ‘two bits’ part.

The more experienced hams considered it annoying.

18

A prisoner during the Vietnam war would do the “shave and a haircut” knock on the wall. If the prisoner in the adjacent cell knocked back with the “two bits” parts - both knew that they were on the same side (and probably both Americans).

19

Thank you. I used to have that Bernstein recording, years ago in the mists of my memory, I don’t even remember what medium it was on but I think it was a CD set. Anyway, that nugget of information stuck with me, but not in detail.