Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo

Subject: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Bernard
Date: 31 Dec 00 - 04:40 PM

Years ago a friend of mine used to sing

'Our Tomcat swallowed a Kangaroo...'

to the tune of the 'Soldiers' Chorus' from Faust (Charles Gounod).

He never went any further than that one line, and I was wondering if anyone else had heard it, and if there were more words...

I am well aware of the original words - it's these silly words I'm after!

Sad, innit?!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,nomadman
Date: 31 Dec 00 - 08:16 PM

I heard something like that some years ago. It went:
My father swallowed a kangaroo
Gave me the grizzely bits to chew
First one leg, then the other too
Oh ho ho ho ho
Oh ho ho ho ho
The grizzely kangaroo

Regards
John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Bernard
Date: 01 Jan 01 - 04:06 PM

Thanks a bunch! It always seemed like there should be more. I shall sleep tonight!

Happy New Millennium, John!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: paddymac
Date: 02 Jan 01 - 07:50 AM

Must of been one hell of a tomcat, unless of course, he did it "One bite at a time, sweet jesus --" :>)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 03 Jan 01 - 12:34 AM

I learned it as:

My father slew a kangaroo
He gave me the gristly parts to chew
Now wasn't that an awful thing to do?
To give me a chew
Of the gristly parts
of a kang - a - roo!

From my oldest sister, who I think learned it in Girl Scouts in the early 1960s in Colorado. Don't know if it's the same tune, tho...

You can actually sing it as a round if you're feeling silly enough.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Bernard
Date: 03 Jan 01 - 02:35 PM

It certainly fits! Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Elise
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 05:00 AM

I learned Rabbit's version in summer camp as a kid in the 70's. My parents were appropriately appalled. It's one of those truly annoying songs, like Henry the Eighth I Am, I am.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Oct 04 - 10:57 PM

Frefresh.
Seems like somebody must have more information on this.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Christopher W
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 04:05 AM

My father and uncle used to sing the first line "My auntie swallowed a kangaroo", and I seem to recall the lines "I wish she'd swallow the Kaiser too" and "I bet she borrowed it from the zoo" coming into it somewhere. The reference to the Kaiser might suggest that my father and my uncle got it from my grandfather, who served in the (British) Royal Navy in the first world war.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Amos
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 10:30 AM

My version, learned from an aunt, went:

My father
Swallowed a kangaroo!
Gave us
The grisly parts to chew!
First one leg
Then the other one, too!
Hominy Grits!
Hominy Grits!
And grisly kangaroo!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Evergrowingbrain
Date: 13 Dec 10 - 04:51 PM

My version went

"my auntie swallowed a kangaroo"

My auntie didn't know what to do

My auntie went to the loo

And out came a kaaaaaangarooooooo

But I think my weird mind made up the last two lines. This is the only site on the whole Internet which comes up when searching for
"my auntie swallowed a kangaroo"

I thought of it after watching university challenge tonight.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 01:19 PM

Thank you! Indeed this is the only site that comes up on a google. I had most of the lyrics, but couldn't place the tune -- thank you, Bernard, for that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: ClaireBear
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 02:50 PM

Learned from Dave Ricker, my version has just slightly different words. It scans divinely.

My father stewed up a kangaroo
He gave me the gristly bits to chew
Wasn't that a hell of a thing to do
To give me to chew   
   The gristly bits
      Of a stewed kangaroo?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Splott Man
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 03:58 AM

You can carry on making new verses with your kids with any animal with a long name,

My father killed an armadillo... labrador... etc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 12 - 08:32 PM

My mother used to sing:

My Aunt Jane she swallowed a penny balloon
My Aunt Jane she's gone off to visit the moon
My Aunt Jane I hope she comes back soon
She hasn't yet paid for the balloon she swallowed

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,JMcL
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 10:05 AM

"Beer, boys, and bugger the Band of Hope"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: BrendanB
Date: 31 Oct 12 - 01:49 PM

My father slaughtered a kangaroo
He gave me the gristly end to chew
That's not a very nice thing to do
To give you the gristly end of a kangaroo to chew

Learnt during a particularly drunken Morris weekend.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,dory
Date: 08 May 14 - 07:30 PM

My father-in-law is 101 and bits of old songs and poems pop into his head from time to time. He's from England and had a brother in the navy during WWII. Here's his version of the kangaroo song:

my father ate a kangaroo
he gave me the chibbledy bits to chew
when i had chewed them through and through
he gave me more chibbeldy bits to chew

we were hoping to find more verses and the source of this silly silly song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 May 14 - 12:45 AM

refresh, compensating for our downtime

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Phflupp
Date: 04 Sep 15 - 08:29 AM

My father (British, born 1918) sang the one liner: "My auntie swallowed a penny balloon" ...sadly, that was all I ever heard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Newjustine
Date: 07 Apr 16 - 04:34 PM

As a small girl in the 70s, a friend sang;

My auntie swallowed a kangaroo
And she gave me the gristly bits to chew.
My uncle swalled a penny balloon
To his disgust, the penny balloon bust
And blew him right up to the moon!

A combination of everyone's contribution (and it just popped i to my head this evening). Does it exist nowhere else on the internet? I find that hard to believe!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Robert W
Date: 15 Jul 17 - 07:36 PM

I was wondering if anyone else knew this song and found this chain. I am 64 years old and from Brooklyn New York. Around 1963 or 1964 my friend said that he learned this song from his father. He fsang it as follows:

My father killed a kangaroo
Gave me the grizzly parts to chew
Wasn't that a horrible thing to do
To give me the grizzly parts of a dead kangaroo

We never knew a second verse

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Robert W
Date: 15 Jul 17 - 07:47 PM

Unbeleivable, I found someone who knew the rest

My father killed a parakeet,
Gave me the teeniest feet to eat.
Wasn't that a terrible feat to beat,
To give me to eat the teeniest feet of a parakeet.

My father killed a grizzly bear,
Gave me the hairiest part to wear.
Wasn't that a terrible fare to bear,
To give me to wear the hairiest part of a grizzly bear.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 20 - 05:24 PM

My father gave me a kangaroo
gave me the difficult end to chew
was that a very nice thing to do?
to give me the difficult end of a kangaroo
to chew?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,John Bowden (not a typo!)
Date: 16 Jan 20 - 05:42 PM

In the late 50s in Liverpool, when I was abut 10 years old, we used to sing:

"My grandma swallowed a kangaroo,
She gave me the gristly bits to chew,
I chewed them through and through and through,
My grannie was sick, and I was sick,
And so was the kangaroo!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,ABCD
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 03:21 PM

It's certainly a really irritating take on Gounod's melody, and in a way I'm relieved to have the words of a rather better version than those which I've heard in mercifully, but frustratingly, fragmentary form.

1. "Oh, Jemima, look at your uncle Jim,
    In the duck-pond learning how to swim,
    First the back-stroke, then he does the crawl...." Cetera desunt ( or at least forgotten)

2. "Our tomcat swallowed a load of bricks..."   groaned by Frank Muir, a long time ago now, on the BBC TV version of "My Music".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
From: GUEST,Jack -
Date: 24 Jan 22 - 05:16 AM

Our tomcat swallowed a kangaroo
Aunt Betsy didnt know what to do
She took him down to the local zoo
And there you can see him if you are prepared to pay one and two
[That's one shilling and two pence in old money]