Silly Song

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve searched with Google and I know it’s a scout song.

But what does it mean? :o

A Ram Sam Sam

A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam
Gooli gooli gooli gooli gooli ram sam sam
A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam
Gooli gooli gooli gooli gooli ram sam sam

A rafi a rafi
Gooli gooli gooli gooli gooli ram sam sam
A rafi a rafi
gooli gooli gooli gooli gooli ram sam sam

Actions:

Ram sam sam: prop yourself up and bounce your backside on the floor three times
Gooli gooli…: drum your feet on the floor
A rafi: wave arms in the air
Repeat the song a number of times, getting faster and faster. Or alternatively, the song can be sung in a four-part round!

2

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Does sound a little like “Ging gang gooly”, which was what our leaders used to try to get us to sing.

Ging gang gooly gooly gooly gooly wotcha
Ging gang goo
Ging gang goo

(repeat)

I can only imagine that over time, as scoutship has spread across oceans and continents, pervading cultures, songs have multiplied and mutated. Yours appears to be a rogue strain of Ging Gang Gooly, probably harmless - but given the horrific effects of certain strains of “Woggle Lurgi” on the English population in 1967, it’s safer wiped out anyway. The army will be along shortly to drop a great big bomb on you, like they nearly did in Outbreak. True scouts will of course be able to survive this by constructing a crude shelter out of twigs, bark, moss, and seventy tons of concrete.

3

Ross, Ross, Ross…you failed to post the internal bridge -

Hi la, <snap>,
Hi la shi-la,
Hi la, hi la shi-la,
ho-oh la-ah ho.
Hi la, <snap>
Hi la shi-la
Hi la, hi la shi-la,
Ho.

Ging gong … (ad nauseum)

Furhter point: I learnedand taught the song as “Ging Gong”, rather than the more pedestrian “Ging Gang”, as the ‘aw’ sound lends a fuller and more robust tone, whereas the ‘ae’ leads to a stretched and pinched tone. In addition, the ‘aw’ presets the lips for the ‘oo’ phoneme, while the change from the ‘ae’ to the ‘oo’ requires much change in the lip positioning (labial gymnastics, if you will).

Or it could just be a regionalism.

4

Many aeons ago, in Girl Scout Camp, at Camp Sacajawea, somewhere in the wilds of New Jersey, I learned this song as a two-parter. One person would sing “Oompah, oompah, oompah” as the background vocal, while the other would solemnly intone the following ancient words of wisdom:

Ging gang goony goony goony watchung
Ging gang goon
Ging gang goon.

Ging gang goony goony goony watchung
Ging gang goon
Ging gang goon. La la la

Hayla, oh hayla shayla
Oh hayla shaaaaaaaaaayla hayla ooooOOOOOOO! (wonk wonk wonk wonk)

Hayla, oh hayla shayla
Oh halya shaaaaaaaaaayla hayla ooooooooo. Shaddywaddy, shaddywaddy, shaddywaddy, shaddywaddy, oompah, oompah, oompah.

The girl who was doing the “oompah” part now got to sing the main line, and the one who had just finished “shaddywaddying” was now on oompah patrol.

5

All these songs are obviously anti-Asian propaganda.

Around the time of the “Red Scare,” there was a little-known problem called the “Yellow Scare.” It was around that time the Scouts would not allow Chinese or Japanese into their organization. They created these now politically-incorrect “silly songs” that mimiced Asian speech (“Ging gang goony watchung…”) and distributed the stereotype that Asians have no control over their body and will bounce their backsides on the floor and wave their arms at will.

I hear the Boy Scouts are trying to update these songs with homosexual stereotypes. :rolleyes:

[sub]Oh, and if you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic[/sub]

6

Australian version (FWIW) Ging gang gooly gooly gooly gooly wash wash…

[sub]they are actually cricket terms[/sub] :smiley:

7

Thank you. But where did “A ram sam sam” or “A rafi” go?

It’s seems to be a major part in the hymne, especially during the “actions”
*[shhhhhjjjj, I’m realy ROTFLOL, but don’t tell!] *

8

I don’t know about the “ram sam sam” part, but the “A rafi” is a stereotypical interpretation of an Asian’s laugh. According to the stereotype, they say they don’t actually laugh, they just go “a laffy-” which comes out to “a rafi” when you add the stereotype that they pronounce their “Ls” as “Rs.”