Call It Macaroni

A friend of mine recently retired on disability was being teased by his wife that he was hooked on watching A&E’s edgy show, “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” He admitted that he was fascinated with Duane “Dog” Chapman’s rugged Wild West meets Billy Graham capture and convert stories but what he was really hooked on was old movies. Like an anxious school boy I raised my hands a blurted out, “Me too!” One of my favorites is the 1942 James Cagney movie about George M. Cohan, “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” But I must admit I’ve always been puzzled that a patriotic song would have lyrics like, “Yankee Doodle went to town, A riding on a pony, Stuck a feather in his hat, And called it macaroni.” This Yankee Doodle guy sounds to me like he’s a few noodles short of a Kraft’s Mac and Cheese box.

It seems that this song that came to be a Revolutionary war theme song was first used to make fun of the American troops. The song's origins were in a pre-Revolutionary War song originally by British military officers to mock the disheveled, disorganized colonial "Yankees" with whom they served in the French and Indian War. The word doodle first appeared in the early seventeenth century to mean a fool or simpleton. 'Macaroni' was a contemporary slang for foppishness. One version of the Yankee Doodle lyrics is attributed to Doctor Richard Shuckburgh (I include this only because if your name is Shuckburgh you shouldn’t mock anyone), a British Army surgeon, who wrote the song after witnessing the unprofessional appearance of Colonel Thomas Fitch, Jr., the son of Connecticut Governor Thomas Fitch, who arrived in Albany in 1755 with the Connecticut militia. There are records of British troops singing this song outside of church services to mock our troops. What a wonderful irony that in a short period of time the song became a rallying cry and symbol of American freedom.

Many in scholarship believe that “Christian” (Acts 11:26) was originally a derogatory term for disciples of Christ but that the early church turned it around and wore it with pride. Sometimes macaroni is a delicious thing to call the hat you wear! The foolishness of preaching proclaims that what the world calls weak or silly is the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25)! So, here’s to macaroni! -DAN