The called him the "Cherokee Kid" and the "Ropin' Fool"
'Cause he'd been crackin' jokes 'n' twirlin' ropes since he'd dropped out of school
He was a horse wrangler and a cowboy bum before he was really grown
From the Wild-West shows to vaudeville and an act that was all his own

But the center of his gravity was always in the plains
And he never met a man he didn't like
From the land of the Chickasaw, with a big wad of gum in his jaw
He said that "Congress wrote the jokes, but then of course they called 'em 'laws' "

Would 'ja know if Will Rogers ever was in your town?
I could bet he was just 'cause he was the travelin-est man around
Doin' gigs to hustle a little money up for the local Red Cross drives
To help the poor folks scramblin' for their farms and for their lives

I know my folks 'd bring him up when I was just a kid and then
How the one-liners 'd crackle 'round the table once again!
As he chased away pretensions with a wise-crack and a smile
And taught us all how to laugh at ourselves without anybody gettin' riled

But the center of his gravity was somewhere in the plains
And he never met a man he didn't like
And all he knew was what he read in the papers so he said
And said Congress wrote more jokes 'n him but then of course they was probably better fed

And then him 'n Wiley Post started out to fly around the world
Wiring newspaper dispatches back to give the folks a whirl
Promoting aviation, making friends in other lands
But it seemed nobody ever dreamed, they'd finally run out of sand