This is my third attempt to try posting this. I hope it doesn't suddenly show up three times all at once.

I learned this song at Wagon Road Summer Camp (a camp for disabled kids run by the Childrens' Aid Society of New York), which was just outside NYC, in the 1970s. It half-popped into my head again the other day, and I went on an Internet search to find the lyrics I couldn't remember. The versions I found were slightly different than the one I learned, which isn't surprising. What has been surprising is that everywhere I've looked so far says that it's a "Traditional folk song." It sounds, to me, more like a vaudville song, and probably has a creditable author.

I figured if anyone could tell me who wrote it and when, it would be folks at MudCat.

Here's the version I learned:

Chorus:

Boom-Boom! Ain't it great to be crazy?
Boom-Boom! Ain't it great to be nuts like us?*
Giddy and foolish all day long.
Boom-Boom! Ain't it great to be crazy?

A horse and a flea and three blind mice,
Sitting on the curbstone shooting dice
The horse, he slipped, and fell on the flea.
"Whoops!" said the flea, "There's a horse on me!"

(Chorus)

Way down south where bananas grow,
An ant stepped on an elephant's toe.
The Elephant cried, with a tear in his eye:
"Why don't you pick on someone your size?"

(Chorus)

Eli, Eli, he sells socks --
A dollar a pair, and a nickel a box.
The longer you wear them, the stronger they get.
Put them in the water and the don't get wet!

(Chorus)

I bought a pair of combination underwear,
Guarunteed not to rip or tear...
Six months later, to my consternation,
I couldn't get 'em off 'cause I'd lost the combination!

(Chorus) -- repeat until whomever you're waiting for gets there.

*The YMCA Campfire song book, Sing Out! (And the version in the DT) repeat the first line.