what is yankee doodle dandy on about?

Question

he stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni...
what? is this from some piece of american history the rest of the world doesn't know? is it macaroni as in the pasta?

Answer 1

Darling, it is a kid song. For kids. None of them make any sense.

Answer 2

He wasn't taking his sane pills that day. Just playin.

"Why did yankee doodle stick a feather in his hat and call it macaroni? Back in Pre-Revolutionary America when the song "Yankee Doodle" was first popular, the singer was not referring to the pasta "macaroni" in the line that reads "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni". "Macaroni" was a fancy ("dandy") style of Italian dress widely imitated in England at the time. So by just sticking a feather in his cap and calling himself a "Macaroni" (a "dandy"), Yankee Doodle was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country bumpkin, because that was how the English regarded most colonials at that time. But times have long since changed, and it is important to reflect on the fact that despite the turbulent early relationship between England and the American colonists, our two countries are strongly united."

To the person that said child stories make no sense- That's not true. They usually stem from something, somewhere. Like "Ring Around the Rosey Pocket Full of Posies. Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down" <-- The plague and the posies (flowers) people would use to try to cover the stench of the rotting flesh.

Answer 3

The origins of the words and music of the Yankee Doodle are not known exactly due to the fact that the song has many versions. But, this patriotic U.S. song has an uncomplimentary history.
The music and words go back to 15th century Holland, as a harvesting song that began, "Yanker dudel doodle down." In England, the tune was used for a nursery rhyme -- "Lucy Locket". Later, the song poked fun of Puritan church leader Oliver Cromwell, because "Yankee" was a mispronunciation of the word "English" in the Dutch language, and "doodle" refers to a dumb person. But it was a British surgeon, Richard Schuckburgh, who wrote the words we know today that ridiculed the ragtag colonists fighting in the French and Indian War.
Soon after, the British troops used the song to make fun of the American colonists during the Revolutionary War. Yet it became the American colonists' rallying anthem for that war. At the time the Revolutionary War began, Americans were proud to be called yankees and "Yankee Doodle" became the colonists most stirring anthem of defiance and liberty.
During Pre-Revolutionary America when the song "Yankee Doodle" first became popular, the word macaroni in the line that reads "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni" didn't refer to the pasta. Instead, "Macaroni" was a fancy and overdressed ("dandy") style of Italian clothing widely imitated in England at the time. So by just sticking a feather in his cap and calling himself a "Macaroni", Yankee Doodle was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country bumpkin (an awkward and unsophisticated person), because that was how the English regarded most colonials at that time.

Answer 4

Some believe that this was one of the first alternative lyrics used by the British army during the revolutionary war. Macaroni was a very nice club in London at the time, London being the town that the Yankee came to. The joke being that the Yankees are stupid enough to believe that a feather in the hat is sufficiently spiffy to gain entry to Macaroni.

The word macaroni also meant "dandy", or "fop", or "dude" at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle

Which is more than you want to know, probably.

Answer 5

Basically it was from snubbing our noses at the British at the time of the American Revolution. A dandy was a term for a soft, girly kind of man. And sticking a feather in ones cap was in style in England at the time but calling it macaroni is to show that Americans were all backwater fools as the British felt was the case.

Answer 6

No, not the pasta. The song is about a guy who wants to snaz up his appearance. He rides to town on a pony. He stuck a feather in his regular old cap and called it "Macaroni", which was a fancy name brand of hats that incorporated feathers in the design. It's like sticking a feather in his cap and calling it "Armani". Basically, he was trying to look the part of a fancy gentleman by faking his appearance.

Answer 7

Actually, the song was written before George Cohen by a gay pilgrim. The title of the song was actually "Yank my Doodle, Dandy!"

And the line got changed from "Stuck a feather (a slang term for d!ck) in his @ss and it felt like macaroni"...because apparently it wasn't getting the guy hard or something.

Answer 8

The macaroni lyrics are from a rhyming children's song called, "Yankee Doodle." George M. Cohen wrote "Yankee Doodle Dandy." They are two different songs.

Answer 9

When he said macaroni means the fashion name he put it to his feather on the cap.

thanks for make me sing the song again, and again LOL

Answer 10

Macaronis were a London street gang.

Answer 11

The song "Yankee Doodle Dandy" expresses European perceptions of the colonials. The link below breaks down the whole song verse by verse from 1775. Thanks for asking I even learned something.