Mairzy Doats
Meaning
Meaning
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The song's refrain, as written on the sheet music, seems meaningless:
*Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey*
*A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?*

However, the lyrics of the [bridge](/wiki/Bridge_%28music%29 "Bridge (music)") provide a clue:
*If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey,*
*Sing "[Mares](/wiki/Mare "Mare") eat [oats](/wiki/Oat "Oat") and [does](/wiki/Deer "Deer") eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."*

This hint allows the ear to translate the final line as "a [kid](/wiki/Goat "Goat")'ll eat ivy, too; wouldn't you?"

Milton Drake, one of the writers, said the song had been based on an English [nursery rhyme](/wiki/Nursery_rhyme "Nursery rhyme"). According to this story, Drake's four\-year\-old daughter came home singing, "Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters." (Cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oysters.)

Drake joined Hoffman and Livingston to come up with a tune for the new version of the rhyme, but for a year no one was willing to publish a "silly song". Finally, Hoffman pitched it to his friend [Al Trace](/wiki/Al_Trace "Al Trace"), bandleader of the Silly Symphonists. Trace liked the song and recorded it. It became a huge hit, most notably with the Merry Macs' 1944 recording.


How can the song's structure be used to create other humorous lyrics?