In the HOKEY PO-KEY when they say "that's what IT'S all about" is IT referring to life?

Question

What does "IT'S" refer to? Life in general? Or are they referring to the hokey pokey itself being all about that? I am confused, and very much trying to read more into this than is probably there. Is it perhaps an old reference to a Masonic code word? Or maybe a teamsters hand shake?

Answer 1

Common misconception.

The hoki poki is an ancient tribal dance performed by the tree people of New Guinea. British missionaries were so entranced by the dance, mainly after smoking "watits" - a local mushroom-like hallucinogen - that they brought the dance (and the drug) back to Britain, introducing only the former to local children. It didn't catch on, not at first.

Over the next decades, British hipsters would hold dinner parties where eventually someone would bring out a tray of "watits" to be smoked and invariably even the most reserved, upper-crust dinner guest would be swept up in the thrill of the "hoki-poki" dance, the climax of which obliged the host to grab hold of the "watits"-filled tray at one end and spin around at increasing speed until the watits was spilled all over the room.

After one such party, children rumored to be of royal decent, crept down to the ballroom early the next morning before the maids arrived, saw the disarray from the hoki-poki ceremony, and shouted: "My God! That's WATITS all about!"

Newly "watit-awakened", the the youth of Britain embraced the hoki-poki and never looked back.

This of course has never been admitted by the New Guinea mission, but what do you expect.

Answer 2

You are reading too much into it. This is a dance, like the modern version would be the macarena. The lyrics to the song are the steps in accomplishing the dance. Hokey is a term for corny or lame, the dance pokes fun at its self as being lame and the twist is each verse adds another element, "that's what its all about" changes after every verse. It has remained popular and who knows maybe it has something to do with what you are implying. Is the theme that if you follow instructions you can get through life? May be a bit of a stretch...

"You Put your left hand in...ew what did I just put my hand in?"

Answer 3

Its just a silly song and dance.

The Hokey Pokey was written By: Roland Lawrence LaPrise, concocted the song along with two fellow musicians in the late 1940s for the ski crowd in Sun Valley, Idaho. The group, the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker), recorded the song in 1949, and they were awarded U.S. copyright in 1950, Acuff-Rose Music Inc.

Answer 4

Hokey Pokey means magical as the term Hocus Pocus found in Bugs Bunny.

Answer 5

You're just a few weeks late. The man who wrote the Hokey Pokey has only just died. If you'd have asked a month or so ago you could have asked him directly.

It was quite sad. They had trouble with the coffin. They put the left leg in and that's when all the problems started.

Answer 6

I think that we should start an in-depth study on the origins of the so-called "hokey pokey" to try to get to the bottom of this. I'll get the funding for the study, you try to secure a team of elite historians. Damn it, we're gonna figure this out!

Answer 7

The original name for this is hokey-cokey and that paricular phrase only refers to the actual dance movements.

Answer 8

lol i think they are saying what the hokey pokey is all about

Answer 9

I think they are referring to the dance itself.

Answer 10

No. It only refers to Lamarckian evolution.