crambo

Subject: crambo
From: reggie miles
Date: 03 Feb 99 - 03:16 PM

I saw this word in a book called Conundrums. I think it means nonsense words or phrases that occur in songs. I was watching saturday morning cartoons one day and caught a Tom and Jerry episode where one of Jerry's relatives comes to visit, he has a long handlebar moustache and wears a large cowboy hat and says he's come to play music on his guitar on the tv. The song he practices during the rest of the toon is Froggy Went a Courtin' but he has a difficult time because each time he starts the song his guitar string always breaks. Tom's whiskers become his replacements. His version of that tune is a hoot largely because of his southern drawl and his stuttering eef which occurs right after the first phrase (a froggy went a courtin', he did ride) (then he effs) and then he says "crambo". Has anyone seen this toon? reggie

Subject: RE: crambo
From: Mo
Date: 03 Feb 99 - 07:00 PM

Oh yes - I love it! But then I love all Fred Quimby Tom & Jerrys - the later ones are not worth the cels they're inked on IMAO. Pauvre pauvre pussycat.....

Mo

Subject: RE: crambo
From:
Date: 03 Feb 99 - 08:02 PM

Actually, a conundrum is a riddle, often (but not necessariy) whose answer is in the form of a pun.--John

Subject: RE: crambo
From: Mo
Date: 04 Feb 99 - 07:14 PM

No offence John - but are you sure you are on the right thread here? Maybe it's a Mudcat Glitch....

Mo

Subject: RE: crambo
From:
Date: 04 Feb 99 - 08:14 PM

No offense taken, Mo. I was only responding to Reggie's original thread wherein he mentioned a definition of "conundrum".

Subject: RE: crambo
From: reggie miles
Date: 04 Feb 99 - 10:50 PM

The book where I first saw the word (crambo) was called "Conundrums". I don't own a copy of this book now but in it, as I recall, they described the word as meaning a nonsense phrase or word in songs. Webester's Third New International Dictionary describes it in two ways, as a second-rate rhyme and as a game in which one player gives a word or line of verse that is to be matched in rhyme by other players. I'm not sure if the explanation from the book Conundrums has any validity, at least according to Webster's. Perhaps it's a folk definition that the dictionary just didn't bother to include for one reason or another. I've been attracted to novelty songs as long as I've been involved with music. While performing at at a garden party a few summers ago I was asked to sing Froggy Went A Courtin'. Luckily one of my partners new a version of it, I had never bothered to include it in my repertoire. The request came from the hostess of the party. When we finished the song she sang us her version which included one of the best examples of crambo that I've ever heard. For years I've been trying to get this woman to record her version for my records, to no avail. My inquiry into this is primarily to see if any others of you out there in cyber-space have ever run across this word. It's not an uncommon occurance in older folk songs. Crambo I mean. Thanks, reggie

Subject: RE: crambo
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 03:32 AM

We learn something new every day,don't we? I saw the toon years ago - I loved it too, as well as the other Quimby ones. I've no idea why now, but I assumed crambo was a Cajun or Southern dish - probably thinkng of gumbo, I suppose! We didn't get much of either in the UK. We used to sing the song at school in the fifties, and Burl Ives had a small hit with it, I recall; he (and we) used to sing a-ha instead of crambo, so it's obviously just a nonsense filler.

Hey, if you were a rat, would you let your neice marry the pres-eye-dent?!

Steve

Subject: RE: crambo
From: Mo
Date: 05 Feb 99 - 07:00 PM

Oops - sorry Jon, I hadn't noticed that word in the original posting - must get to the opticians soon.....

Mo

Subject: RE: crambo
From: reggie miles
Date: 06 Feb 99 - 02:29 PM

There's a Willie McTell song called "Kill It Kid" in one of the verses he sings, "Crazy 'bout yer lovin', fool about yer life, goin' round crazy 'bout yer ____." It's that last word or phrase that throws me. It sounds like, wapadoodoc, but I can't make it out. Any body out there in cyber-ville up on their Willie McTell lyrics? If it is wapadoodoc, what is a wapadoodoc? Or is it just another example of nonsense crambology? reggie

Subject: RE: crambo
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 10:18 AM

crambo \KRAM-boh\ noun

: a game in which one player gives a word or line of verse to be matched in rhyme by other players

Subject: RE: crambo
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 10:52 AM

IMO it's the best T+J cartoon ever. I'm not a huge T+J fan, but it had me in stitches when I first saw it and it gets funnier each time. That sound as each whisker is plucked! A true classic.

Subject: RE: crambo
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 10:56 AM

You can actually watch the closing few seconds of the cartoon on YouTube!

Subject: RE: crambo
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Aug 07 - 12:39 PM

CRAMBO.....All of it on YouTube

Still a weird thing......Crambo

Spaw

Subject: RE: crambo
From: GUEST,Fati
Date: 05 Nov 07 - 03:14 AM

yea i love it.... i wonder what's the lyrics tho

Subject: RE: crambo
From: Declan
Date: 05 Nov 07 - 01:38 PM

If you go to an O'Brien's Sandwich Bar in Dublin (or elsewhere) you can buy a Crambo. Its a sort of a club sandwich (or 'sambo' in Dublin slang) which I presume is so called because it is crammed with food.

Total thread drift, but the word was familiar to me. I expect to get a free Crambo on my next visit to O'Brien's as reward for this blatant piece of advertising.

Subject: RE: crambo
From: GUEST,Barbara
Date: 29 Jun 12 - 02:26 AM

I remember the song from when I was a child, I'm 56 now. The song popped in my head today and I had to look it up. I always thought he said gumbo.

Subject: RE: crambo
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Jun 12 - 03:03 AM

No-one seems to have mentioned the game Dumb Crambo, a form of charades in which words have to be acted out in mime and guessed by the watchers ~~ the subjects often being specialised themes, such as film or book titles &c.

~Michael~