The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52902   Message #811757
Posted By: GUEST
26-Oct-02 - 04:48 AM
Thread Name: Origins: (not PC) hunky punky moke
Subject: Origins: (not PC) hunky punky moke
I'm looking for the real title and any info on a tune my father used to sing. It may have been from the traveling minstrel shows -- he was young in a small prairie town in Canada and picked up some minstrel-era repertoire there. The song is about a "knock-knee, double-jointed hunky punky moke" and here are the lyrics as he sang them:

I've met some folks but the funniest of all
The funniest of all I know
Was a knock-knee, double-jointed hunky punky moke
As black as any black crow
You may talk until you're tired but you'll never get a word
From this very funny queer old coon
For he's a knock knee, double-jointed hunky punky moke
And he's happy when he whistles this tune.

(whistle the melody through here)

He whistled in the morning and he whistled in the night
He whistled when he went to bed
He whistled like a locomotive engine in his sleep
And he whistled when his wife was dead.
One day a fellow hit him with a brick upon the jaw
And his mouth swelled up like a balloon
Now he goes around shaking like a monkey in a fit
And this is how he whistles his tune.

(whistle the melody in a comedic, exaggerated, breathy way)

Any clues, anyone? I checked the Library of Congress some years ago while I was in Washington, with no success, and have looked in every appropriate book I've come across.