"Me Ol' Bamboo" is a song featured in the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang performed by Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and about fifteen other men. In the film, Caractacus Potts does the dance to escape an angry victim of his malfunctioning hair-cutting machine. The dance involves the use of bamboo sticks as props. At the end of the dance, Potts collects enough money to buy Chitty.
The song is a light-spirited song about different men and their various usages of cane-like apparatuses. Songwriter/lyricist Robert B. Sherman was inspired to write the song by his own use of a bamboo walking stick, which he used after a World War II knee injury.
Lyrics[]
Dancers:
A gentleman's got a walking stick
A seaman's got a gaff
And the Merry Men of Robin Hood
They used their quarterstaff
On the Spanish plains inside their canes
They hide their ruddy swords
But we make do with an old bamboo
And everyone applauds!
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, hey!
Me ol' bamboo, me ol' bamboo
You better never bother with me ol' bamboo
You can 'ave me 'at or me bumbershoot
But you better never bother with me ol' bamboo
When punting on the beautiful Thames-
Caractacus:
-You use a sturdy pole
Dancers:
To protect their fair complexion-
Caractacus:
-Ladies use a parasol
Dancers:
It's useful in the underbrush-
Caractacus:
-to have a hefty spear
Dancers:
Right!
All:
But what we do with an ol' bamboo
Makes everybody cheer
One, two, three, ho!
Me ol' bamboo, me ol' bamboo
You better never bother with me ol' bamboo
You can 'ave me 'at or me bumbershoot
But you better never bother with me ol' bamboo
'Ave a go, mate!
Caractacus:
A flyer in an "aerioplane"
Dancers:
He steers it with a stick
Caractacus:
He does?
A collier in the pits o' Wales
Dancers:
He leans upon his pick
Caractacus:
That's right!
All:
Now every wheel of an automobile
Revolves around a shaft (Hey!)
But what we do with an old bamboo
Makes everyone go daft
One, two
Me ol' bamboo, me ol' bamboo
You better never bother with me ol' bamboo
You can 'ave me 'at or me bumbershoot
But you better never bother with me ol' bamboo
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, hey!
And a one, two, three, four, and a five, and six, and a seven, ho!
Me ol' bamboo, me ol' bamboo
You better never bother with me ol' bamboo
You can 'ave me 'at or me bumbershoot
But you better never bother with me ol' bamboo
You better never bother with me ol' bamboo
