Joy to the World, Our Teacher's Dead

“Joy to the World, Our Teacher’s Dead” is a humorous children’s playground song popular in the United States. It is a parody of the Christmas carol “Joy to the World” and is thus sung to the tune of that song. Although this song, like many in its genre (see, e.g., “The Burning of the School”) features frequently variable lyrics, a commonly heard version contains the following lyrics:


 * Joy to the world, the teacher’s dead
 * We barbecued the head
 * What happened to the body?
 * We flushed it down the potty
 * And round and round it goes
 * Until it overflows
 * And rou-ound and rou-ou-ound and round it goes

Popular variations replace “barbecued” with “amputated,” “the teacher” with “the principal” or “Barney,” “Don’t worry about the body” with “What happened to his body?” (her body in the Nelson Muntz rendition) or “They tried to find his body,” etc.


 * Joy to the world, the school burned down
 * And all the teachers died
 * The principal is dead
 * We shot him in the head
 * The janitor is gone
 * We flushed him down the john
 * And heeeeaven, the school burned down.

A Midwestern United States variation popular in the 1980s went as follows:


 * Joy to the world, the school burned down
 * And all the teachers died
 * Where is the principal?
 * He’s on the flag pole,
 * Swinging by his underwear,
 * Swinging by his underwear,
 * Swi-ing-ing by-y-y his un-der-wear.

An Australian variation popular in the 1990s:


 * Joy to the world, the school burned down
 * And all the teachers too
 * The principal is dead
 * we shot him in the he-e-ead
 * The secretary too
 * We flushed her down the loo
 * And all of the chi-hilldren are safe at home.

An international version that is recent:


 * “Joy to the world, the school burned down”
 * “And all the teachers too”
 * “Where is the principal”
 * “He’s hanging on the flag pole”
 * “With a rope around his neck” X2
 * “Why is he there, he lost his underwear”


 * A popular version in Barbados went:
 * "Joy to the world,the school burnt down"
 * "And everybody run"
 * "The principal is dead"
 * "We barbecued she head"
 * "The police are looking for we"
 * "We run up the mango tree"
 * "And e-everybody drink Pepsi"