“Mony Mony” was written in 1968 by Tommy James, an American singer who had a string of hit singles through the 60s. Instead try to focus on the mystery of where the “Mony Mony” audience chant began, how it spread and how it mutated.įirst, a little history. Yes, what you’re about to read is obscene and vulgar, but try to set that aside for a moment.

Such study can tell us a lot about a culture, its language, its mores and folkways and various forms of communication. How memes take root and travel is a serious area of study for cultural anthropologists and sociologists. Another person likes it and spreads to another person–and so on and so on and so on until it’s a generally accepted practice and everyone is doing it. At their core, language, religion and all manner of social conventions are memes. But this concept of ideas and behaviours spreading within a culture goes far, far back into the depths of time. Over the last decade, we’ve all become familiar with dozens of Internet memes: Star Wars Kid, LOL cats, the Rickroll and so on. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures. Wikipedia defines a meme in the following way:Īn idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Perhaps it’s time to address it once and for all–if that’s even possible. The question of the origins of the special audience participation lyrics has been in the back of my mind ever since. Then he just shrugged and turned to deal with a very angry principal who was appalled that such obscenities would be chanted by his students in his gym at his school.

“How do they know what to say?”Ī puzzled look came across Martin’s face for a moment it was apparent that he’d never considered the question before. He helpfully translated with the appropriate arm gestures.īilly: Here she come now singing Mony Monyĭancers: HEY MOTHERF*CKER GET LAID GET F*CKED!īilly: Well, shoot ’em down, turn around, come on Monyīilly: Hey she give me love and I feel alright now “What are they shouting?” I asked Martin. When Martin Streek, the guy in charge of playing the videos, flipped to this clip, the dancers erupted.Īt first, I couldn’t make how what they were yelling. It was probably in the spring of 1987 when I first heard the special audience lyrics in the Billy Idol version of the Tommy James classic, “Mony Mony.” I was hosting one of the old CFNY Video Roadshows at a high school somewhere in Southern Ontario.

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