Does An Elephant Love Peanuts?

DOES AN ELEPHANT LOVE PEANUTS?

by Hanley
as sung by Eddie Cantor


You ask me if I love you; Do I? Don't I?
Same old question twenty times a day.
I swear by stars above you-- Do I? Don't I?
You're not convinced? Here's all that I can say:

Does an elephant love peanuts?  Does he?
Does a goldfish love a bowl?
Does an ostrich love to stand while
His head's down in a sandpile?
Does a hotdog love a roll?
Does a bumblebee love honey? Does he?
Does an oyster love a stew?
When it comes to table manners,
Does a monkey love bananas?
If he does, then, baby, I love you.

Does a horsefly love the horses? Does he?
Does a squirrel love a nut?
Does a bold gorilla thrill a 
Shy romantic miss gorilla?
Does a hobo love a mutt?
Does a tomcat love a back fence? Does he?
Does a cow just love to moo?
Does a rooster's cock-a-doodle
Make a hen go off her noodle?
If he does, then baby, I love you.

Do mosquitos love a fat man? Do they?
Does a piggy love to squeal?
Does a goose love to meander
When she's found a proper gander?
Has an eel got sex appeal?
Does a big giraffe love necking? Does he?
Does a dove just love to coo?
Does a herring feel quite tickled
Just as soon as he gets pickled?
If he does, then baby, I love you!

Note: This is one of the few cases where the genera of love song and novelty song overlap. ("Sheba, Please Be Mine" is another.) Curiously, it leaves its own central question (the veracity of the narrator's love) unanswered. It repeats zoological folk fallacies-- for the record, ostriches do not bury their heads, however charming the metaphor. While it is arguable that a monkey may love bananas, to say that an oyster loves a stew is to assert a highly dubious proposition. While pigs indeed do squeal, to state that they love it seems a subjective assumption. Unanswered questions are common in the novelty song idiom.

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