Turkey in the Straw

About

"Turkey in the Straw" is an American folk song dating back to the early 19th century. Originally popularized by fiddle players, the song grew in popularity among vaudeville and minstrel shows that featured blackface performers, inspiring explicitly racist versions of the song. The song known in modern contexts as the song associated with ice cream trucks.

Origin

The song dates back to the 1820s (song below). Based on the earlier British traditional song "The (Old) Rose Tree," the song "was brought to America's colonies by Scots-Irish immigrants who settled along the Appalachian Trail and added lyrics that mirrored their new lifestyle."^[5]

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Racist Versions

In the 1830s, George Washington Dixon, a minstrel performer, popularized the song's melody with the song "Zip C**n" (song below, left). NPR^[6] writes, "Set to the familiar tune and referencing a blackface character who, as Johnson wrote, was 'the city-slicker counterpart to the dimwitted, rural blackface character whose name became infamous in 20th century America: Jim Crow.'"

In 1916, Columbia Records released another version of the song that features more racial slurs. Harry C. Browne's song "N*gger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!"^[8] was recorded in March 1916 (video clip featuring the song below).

Association with Ice Cream

In the 1890s, the Regina Company sold music boxes that were popular in ice cream parlors. One of the songs included in the music boxes was "Turkey in the Straw."^[7] As the parlor transitioned to trucks, ice cream vendors used the song as well.

As the connection between the song's racist history grew in the public consciousness in the mid-2010s, pressure on ice cream vendors to ditch the song increased. On June 18th, 2020, the Good Humor ice cream company, known for its products association with ice cream trucks released a statement about the song in an Instagram^[9] They wrote:

Good Humor does not tolerate any form of racism or hate. That means acknowledging the painful origins and history behind common ice cream truck songs, like “Turkey in the Straw.”⠀
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Good Humor has not owned ice cream trucks since the 1970s. We did not create this or other jingles and do not use this song in any advertising materials. However, as a leader in this industry, we want to use our influence to help stop these songs from being played in ice cream trucks immediately.⠀
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“Turkey in the Straw” is an old folk song that gained popularity in 19th century minstrel shows. Its melody was coopted for multiple adaptations with highly offensive, racist lyrics. Ice cream trucks across the country have historically played the melody from “Turkey in the Straw” and other minstrel songs, and these same melodies can be heard to this day. While the racist associations of “Turkey in the Straw” are not the only part of its legacy, it is undeniable that this melody conjures memories of its racist iterations.⠀ ⠀
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We are actively working on a plan to end the use of any songs connected to racism by independent ice cream trucks. This is just one step we’re taking to fight for racial justice and equality.⠀ ⠀ ⠀
We look forward to sharing more soon.

On August 13th, 2020, Good Humor released a new ice cream truck jingle by producer Rza on YouTube. The post received more than 311,000 views (shown below). Good Humor and Rza made the song free for use, encouraging ice cream vendors to stop using "Turkey in the Straw" and instead use the new song.^[10]

Japanese MAD Videos

"Turkey in the Straw," well-known as "Oklahoma Mixer" (Japanese: オクラホマミキサー) in Japan, is also familiar to Japanese people because almost all Japanese people have danced with this song in their school days since this song is used in school education program. Therefore, similar to Mayim Mayim and Can-Can, this folk song have been introduced in pop culture for many times. Among those instances, the most used version in this video remix fad on NND is taken from KONAMI's shoot 'em up video game Fantastic Journey (Japanese: 極上パロディウス, Gokujō Parodius), which was included in 2007 released title Parodius Portable (shown below, right).^[1]

On NND, the early MAD videos using this song had been uploaded since 2009. However, even one of them featured Shuzo Matusoka^[2], those videos didn't get much attention. Then, this song became really popular on NND in February 2011 by several MAD videos featuring popular TV anime series in that season including Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Infinite Stratos, Squid Girl, etc… Among them, the video below "OklahoMadoka Mixer" had been watched over 500,000 times.^[3]

Those succeeded videos uploaded in early 2011 led to a substantial increase in popularity of the series. As of April 2012, the amount of videos related to this series on NND is more than 300.^[4]

Search Interest

External References

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