Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 27, 1941: "Student song on evaporated milk: No teats to pull, No dung to fling, Just punch two holes In the Goddam thing." Ramon F Adams, "Come an' Get It: The Story of the Old Cowboy Cook" (1936), has an extended story about an elderly lady who enters a jingle contest for Carnation milk. She hands the letter to a cowboy she knows for him to mail. Soon she gets a letter from the Carnation company saying they can't use her jingle because it's unprintable. The lady suspects the cowboy, and asks him what happened. He replies that her two-line jingle needed to be longer, so he added two lines. The results is: "Carnation milk, best in the lan', Comes to the table in a little red can. No teats to pull, no hay to pitch, Jes' punch a hole in the sonofabitch." It seems likely that the verse came originally from the joke rather than the other way around.
|