# "One goat, two horses" memory test. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850 "2002-07-14T00:21:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/1 "2002-07-14T00:21:07Z")
Several years ago, a friend gave me a memory test, on which I performed quite well. Sadly, I’ve forgotten many of the details, and I’m hoping folks here have heard the same test and can help me out. Basically, it’s a cumulative test. The “tester” repeats all lines of the test so far, and then adds a new line to the test. The testee can ask the tester to repeat the latest iteration of the test as many times as she wants; when she’s ready, she tries to recite the test back to the tester verbatim. It starts easy and gets very hard. Here’s what I remember: One goat. Two sheep. Three horses. Four bellicose elephants. Five pugnacious penguins. Six dozen spotted albanian monocles. Seven hundred \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ dervishes, whirling in full regalia. I don’t remember line eight, although it involves the temple of the feathered serpent. Line nine involves peripatetic druids, and line ten involves garrilous, perilous, querilous maidens, dancing at night when the moon is full and something else is happening. Has anyone else ever heard of this memory test? Google is coming up empty. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/2 "2002-07-14T01:09:55Z")
The one I remember was a drinking game. If you messed up, you drank. If you cursed, you drank double… One brown bear A couple of ducks Three running hare Four frisky felines Five ferocious females fearlessly fighting for food Six simbadiant (sp?) sailors sailing the seven seas on a sloop Seven saintly sisters serenly saying stations on Sunday Eight egotistical elephants leaning on each other’s elongated elbows Nine nibbling nibblions (?) not nibbling on nibblions, but nibbling on noodles I am not the pleasant pheasant plucker, I am the pleasant pheasant pluckers son. I will not pluck the pleasant pheasant until the pleasant pheasant plucker has gone. That last was hell after a few beers. "I am not the pleasant pheasant fsucker…aw, $hit! Aw MAN!! heh heh ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/3 "2002-07-14T04:55:25Z")
Nice! This is very similar to what I’m trying to remember. Has anyone heard the exact one I was describing? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/4 "2002-07-14T14:56:42Z")
[http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/bigfathen.html](http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/bigfathen.html) That’s the only one I could find with a quick google search. Check on Cafe Society, I think this was discussed before. ---
**Author:** ![robwrigley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@robwrigley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robwrigley)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/5 "2002-07-14T15:23:22Z")
Daniel: A freind of mine ued to say that alot. Its from a Jerry Lewis movie, I beleive. But I don’t know the whole. Or the film. As for Pheasent Pluckers, from “Chuck and Buck”: "I’m the mother pheasent plucker, I pluck mother pheasents. I’m the most pleasent fearther plucker who ever plucked a mother pheasent. I’m not the pheasent plucker, I’m the pheasent plucker’s mate. I’m only plucking pheasents cause the pheasent plucker’s late. I’m not the pheasent plucker, I’m the pheasent pluckers wife. I’ve beed plucking mother pheasents my whole pheasent-plucking life." Rob ---
**Author:** ![Mirage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Mirage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirage)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/6 "2002-07-14T15:41:39Z")
Here’s the one that I remember, they call it the Announcer’s Test: One hen Two ducks Three squawking geese Four limerick oysters Five corpulent porpoises Six pair of Don Alversos tweezers Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt Nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic, old men on roller skates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth Ten lyrical, spherical diabolical denizens of the deep who hall stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![robwrigley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@robwrigley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robwrigley)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-goat-two-horses-memory-test/118850/7 "2002-07-14T15:45:58Z")
Mirage: Yup, that’s the one I know.