Why Yankee Doodle called it 'macaroni'

What's the deal with Yankee Doodle Dandy and macaroni? Vox's Phil Edwards explains.

We've all heard the Yankee Doodle Dandy lyrics and wondered what they meant. But the Yankee Doodle song turns out to have a surprisingly logical explanation.

[demonspecialist]

Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a pony. Got 360 noscoped and rest in pepperoni.

[wooderdsaunders]

Imagine if Yankee doodle was the American national anthem.

[akramh]

Anyone else realized you haven't had macaroni and cheese for awhile?

[willparkinson]

I always thought it was the horse he called Macaroni.

[CloudySkies]

I know why he called it "macaroni".







It rhymed with "pony".

[gregbard]

My hometown, Norwalk, Connecticut has the claim that the soldier, Colonel Thomas Fitch, V is the person that inspired this song. His sister put the feathers in the soldiers' caps so as to create a uniform look from a group without any uniform. His grave marker has an account of the story in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery.

Norwalk has a bridge named the "Yankee Doodle Bridge." and Yankee Doodle is the state song of Connecticut.

Unfortunately, the song was around about 12 years before the events described in the legend occurred. So the legend could not be true.

[quaes]

I got so excited when they mention Lafayette and The Battle of Yorktown.

[Redorgreenful]

So they sang the song back to the British IRONICALLY like the hipsters they are

[brianathomas]

Was online a good twenty minutes before getting any of this titillating and concise information. I am absolutely impressed. Keep more content like this coming and I will be sure to let friends and colleagues know of your awesome brand of knowledge sharing.

[crystallin]

I personally thought that it was:
"Yankee Doodle Drew His Gun And Fought His Macaroni"
I didn't know how it made sense but I followed it anyway. #IMSTUPID

[newecreator]

Macaroni and Cheese.
Meal of Champions.

[giantsfan]

I don't want fop damn it, I'm a Dapper Dan man

[eloiseannicle]

I'm British and I used to sing this as a child, as did other children I knew. I had no idea at the time it had anything to do with America (not being familiar with the term Yankee yet) it was just a fun silly nonsense to me.

[memicoot]

That's so much like my bro Lafayette - what a jokester!

[Khalidazizphoto]

This so called italians dish "Mac&Chees" sounds more like the german dish wich ist called Kässpätzle (Käs(e) = Cheese, Spätzle tiny noodle wich got their name from the romian (former italian) which called that noodles spezzate what means broken/cut (noodles). Kässpätzle is served with a lot of onions, cheese and bacon

[suunkarra]

The argument they say at 0:49 could be one explanation. However, another could be since these young aristocrats where taking the Grand Tour of Europe they would also be well educated, therefore they could be able to use Macaronic language. This is when two or more languages are mixed together, in this context it would often be for comedic effect. The best example I can think of is "Do you have to go the bathroom?, Oui Oui!". So the macaronis could be named after their usage of the Macaronic language at the time as well.

[JesusHComedy]

I thought it was a phrase that meant oh he has gone crazy

[SwampNymph]

Those lyrics confused me as a child. But it makes more sense now that i know macaroni was a fashion craze in the 16 and 1700s. The first thing that came to mind was the foodstuff.

[harryzhang]

Now I understand clearly... I always like this song and like to sing it when marching from class to class :) and now I understand finally the macaroni

[calliereynoldz]

I so appreciate it. If I was home schooling you would be on a must see list of videos.