Got any grapes?

August 19, 2024 9:19 AM

The Duck Song (YouTube). The version with the most views, 636 million so far, was originally posted to YouTube on March 23, 2009. The official site, The Duck Song Trilogy, has more info about the song by Bryant Oden (YouTube channel) and animated by Forrest Whaley (YouTube channel). If you want more backstory about this enduring meme (like my pre-teen child said "got any grapes?" in front of a younger friend, who immediately started singing it) you can read this Q&A with Bryant Oden from 2015. (And here's a version of the joke that I think inspired the song.) Both KnowYourMeme and Dictionary.com have entries about it, and here's a positive critical review from earlier this year in Hillsdale College’s Collegian, written in response to the release of "The Duck Song 4".
posted by skynxnex (22 comments total)

This has been a catch-phrase for our family since our son discovered that song sometime last year. Most of the time it can be funny, but sometimes Daddy can be very annoying.
posted by Captaintripps at 9:25 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]

A friend of mine who’s around my age, so around 50, says that his mom told him the joke when he was a kid. He told me the joke in probably 1994, so it’s at least that old.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:02 AM on August 19 [5 favorites]

yes, yes i do
posted by HearHere at 10:12 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]

When I first heard it, long before 2009, it was a hardware store where they threatened to nail his feet to the floor, which honestly didn't make sense because they definitely should have had nails at the end.
posted by rikschell at 10:16 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I'm sure it was sometime in the 90s that I first heard the joke. In the version I know, the bartender threatens to nail the duck's stupid webbed feet to the bar and the duck asks, "Got any nails?"

One time my sister was telling the joke and when she got to the part where the duck asked, "Got any nails?" she then had the bartender reply, "No! And I don't have any grapes, either!" She paused for a second and then she and I both cracked up at the realization that she had just ruined the joke. It was as funny as the joke itself, which I've always liked.
posted by Redstart at 10:17 AM on August 19 [6 favorites]

Mrs. Hobo, Babby Hobo and I encountered this when a young child we knew watched it right up to just before a punchline, and then said "I'm done now." and stopped watching.

We were transfixed. What possible outcome could result from this rubik's-cube of a mystery plot? We whispered to one another in hushed giggles.

We built it up in our family to mythological levels before we could get home and look up the videos to finish them ourselves. Excellent meta-pranking, there.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 10:34 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]

goddamnit, the only thing that will get this outta my head is bananaphone. thanks a lot.
posted by symbioid at 11:21 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I'm sure it was sometime in the 90s that I first heard the joke. In the version I know, the bartender threatens to nail the duck's stupid webbed feet to the bar and the duck asks, "Got any nails?"

I too heard this version with bartender and nails in the 90s, but instead of grapes the request was for "Mallard Beer". I don't know if that was an innovation of the person who told it to me or not. I also don't remember who told it to me, but I think I might have heard it on the radio?
posted by Reverend John at 11:30 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]

In fact, now that I think of it, I told this joke to my wife's uncle in Germany on our honeymoon, so that was 2003.
posted by Reverend John at 11:36 AM on August 19

I recall telling this joke to my best friend's daughters back in the 1990s when they were little kids, and it was the hardware store/nails variant.
posted by briank at 12:05 PM on August 19

The greatness of this video has little to do with the provenance of the joke. To me it's all about the Bum bum bum and the lemonade guy's face. Waddle waddle
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 12:14 PM on August 19 [9 favorites]

just an aesthetic note, I was contemplating convoluting some metatalk post about how to make a better post, elements that go into it etc.

well, this is it.
posted by clavdivs at 12:55 PM on August 19 [3 favorites]

First heard Garrison Keillor tell this joke a long time ago, decades: the duck walking into a bar and asking for duck food, then finally, nails. His version was a lot easier on my ears than this song.
posted by Rash at 1:27 PM on August 19 [2 favorites]

The exact provenance of the joke has little do with why the video was so popular, other than the fact that it's an odd joke that is one of the enduring staples. I personally have always been somewhat vexed by wondering who, if any, the video wants us to identify or feel sympathy for. Like the lemonade seller since there's a duck that keep showing up and asking the same question out of what seems like some motivation to just mess with the poor worker. Or is it the duck, who is trying to navigate the human world as a talking duck and isn't really getting the help they need to be able to properly interact with these other beings. But, as Press Butt.on to Check says, waddle waddle, waddle away.
posted by skynxnex at 1:28 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]

First heard Garrison Keillor tell this joke a long time ago

Two penguins are standing on an ice floe....
posted by JHarris at 3:23 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]

Two penguins are standing on an ice floe....

One says "Looks like you blew a seal."
Oh wait, wrong joke, nvm
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:21 PM on August 19 [7 favorites]

"Nah, it's just grapes."
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:21 PM on August 19

I am like 90% sure I first heard this joke on MetaFilter and I once told it to a theatre full of cruise ship passengers who were waiting for their tenders to shore.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:58 PM on August 19

I first heard this joke told at the White House Press Corps dinner, as we all nervously waited for the results of the Teapot Dome scandal to be revealed.

No wait, that was when I first told it. I first heard it at Agincourt, told by a longbowman with a powerful basso profundo.

Although there was a similar joke that made the rounds during the councils of Nicea, but everyone was so on edge then and nobody wanted to set Constantine off so it didn't really take off...
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:13 AM on August 20 [2 favorites]

Somehow I missed this video when it went viral so many years ago, thank you for sharing it now! The music and animation are really delightful!
posted by tranquility at 4:16 AM on August 20

it's an odd joke that is one of the enduring staples

Got any staples?
posted by flabdablet at 5:26 AM on August 20 [5 favorites]

The Duck Song is great, and I will always have fond memories of it from when my kid was younger. I was at a back to school gathering for kids (Elementary through High School ages) a week ago, and every song that the host had on the playlist was current pop music. The only non pop song was The Duck Song.
posted by eckeric at 8:18 AM on August 20