'"Found a Peanut"' is a traditional song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

, often considered a children's song, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize, and can take a long time to sing. It is sung to the tune of "Oh My Darling, Clementine

Oh My Darling, Clementine

Oh My Darling, Clementine is an American western folk ballad usually credited to Percy Montrose , although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford. The song is believed to have been based on another song called Down by the River Liv'd a Maiden by H. S...

". It may often be sung around a camp fire.

Basic lyrics

A basic version of the variable lyrics is:

Found a peanut

Peanut

The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...

Found a peanut,

Found a peanut just now.

just now I found a peanut,

Found a peanut just now.

Cracked it open, cracked it open, cracked it open right now

right now i cracked it open, cracked it open right now.

It was rotten, it was rotten, it was rotten just now,

just now it was rotten, it was rotten just now.

and it continues with the same rhythm
Ate it anyway

got ill

called the doctor

operation had an operation just now

he couldn't find it

died anyway

went to heaven

got a job there

selling peanuts

but I dropped one

then I found it

and it restarts from "Cracked it open"

Many variations

The simple repetitive structure of the song lends itself to near infinite variations. Sometimes "Just now" is substituted for "last night". Sometimes the verse will not reference the preceding verse as in the first example above.

Another common variation on "last night" is "yesterday". This is used by "This Morning With Richard Not Judy

This Morning With Richard Not Judy

This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2...

" (TMWRNJ) by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

Other substitutions include:

• Other foods can also be used, such as an apple, for which the second line can be "it was wormy"
• "green and mouldy" by "found it rotten" or "it was rotten".
• "Wouldn't take me" by "Kicked an angel" or "Punched St. Peter".
• "Penicillin" by "Didn't Work"
• "Operation" by "Cut Me Open" / "Took the Peanut Out" / "Sewed Me Up Again" / "Left The Scissors In" / "Cut Me Open Again".
• "Didn't want me," by "Woke up," and
• "It was a dream" by "Shovelling coal."

Origins

Some attribute the song to Jack Schafer of Detroit, MI in 1958, although the song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas in his film debut, Jeffrey Lynn, and Thelma Ritter...

. Those lyrics end at "Ate it anyway."

Appearance in popular culture

The 1949 film, A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas in his film debut, Jeffrey Lynn, and Thelma Ritter...

The song appears memorably in a morbidly funny moment during the film Tromeo and Juliet

Tromeo and Juliet

Tromeo and Juliet is a 1996 independent transgressive comedy film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet from Troma Entertainment...

, where a family in a car are singing the song before they get into an accident. In the following scene, the character Detective Scalus says, "They found a peanut alright, a peanut of death!"

The song also appears at the opening of the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, The Abduction of Figaro

The Abduction of Figaro

The Abduction of Figaro is a comic opera, described as "A Simply Grand Opera by P. D. Q. Bach," which is actually the work of composer Peter Schickele. It is a parody of opera in general, and the title is a play on two operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio and The...

, by Peter Schickele

Peter Schickele

Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...

 (P.D.Q. Bach).

This Morning With Richard Not Judy

This Morning With Richard Not Judy

This Morning With Richard Not Judy or TMWRNJ was a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starring Lee and Herring. Two series were broadcast in 1998 and 1999 on BBC2...

 (TMWRNJ) by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

In Serial Mom

Serial Mom

Serial Mom is a 1994 American dark satire written and directed by John Waters, starring Kathleen Turner as the title character, Sam Waterston as her husband, and Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard as her children. Despite statements to the contrary in the movie, the story is completely fictional...

, the 1994 American satirical comedy, Beverly Sutphin (played by Kathleen Turner

Kathleen Turner

Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...

) sings this song with her fellow prisoners as they ride on a bus en route to court.

A version appears on the 2009 Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds album, "Dracula Boots".