Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit

"Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit" (alternately "Beans, Beans, good for your heart") is a playground saying and children's song about how beans cause flatulence (i.e. farting).[1]

The basis of the song (and bean/fart humor in general) is the high amount of oligosaccharides present in beans. Bacteria in the large intestine digest these sugars, producing carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane.[2]

Lyrics

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So eat your beans with every meal![3]

Alternate lyrics include:

Beans, beans, the magical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So let’s have beans for every meal![4][5]

  • A version of the rhyme appears at the beginning of Robert Crumb's comic strip, "Crybaby's Blues".[6]
  • In The Simpsons season 4 episode 20 "Whacking Day," Bart performs a rendition of "Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit."[7]
  • The American bean brand Bush Brothers and Company wrote a related song with the singer Josh Groban.[8][9][10] The lyrics include a direct reference to the rhyme: "They'd yell about the musical fruit // They'd say the more that I ate, the more I'd (toot)".[11]
  • In a "Dot's Poetry Corner" segment of Animaniacs, Dot recites a variation entitled "Ode to a Veggie", that goes "Beans, beans, the musical fruit / The more you eat, the more they kick you off the air if you finish this poem."[12]
  • In an episode of Rocko's Modern Life, Heffer Wolfe randomly sings "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you-" only to get cut off.

General references

  • Dawson, Jim. Who Cut the Cheese?: A Cultural History of the Fart, ISBN 1-58008-011-1

References

  1. ^ Carey, Bjorn Scientists take the ‘toot’ out of beans NBC News, April 25, 2006 (accessed November 17, 2007).
  2. ^ "Flatulence". MedicaLook.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  3. ^ Andrew Croft. "The Nature of Beans".
  4. ^ "Beans, Beans, They're Good for Your Heart - USA". Mama Lisa's World of Children and International Culture. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  5. ^ "Beans, Beans, They're Good for Your Heart – Baby Rhymes". 2020-09-10. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
  6. ^ Crumb, Robert. The Complete Crumb Comics Vol 11. Fantagraphics Books 1995, p.42. ISBN 978-1560971726. (Originally from Arcade #5, Spring 1976.)
  7. ^ "Recap / The Simpsons S 4 E 20 Whacking Day". TV Tropes. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Josh Groban Opens Up About His Deeply Moving 'Bean Song'". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  9. ^ Beans, Bush’s®. "Bush's® partners with singer, songwriter Josh Groban to give beans their rightful musical due with 'Bean Song'". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  10. ^ "Bush's Beans remixes 'bean song' with Josh Groban ballad". Marketing Dive. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  11. ^ Josh Groban - Bean Song | Bush's Beans, retrieved 2021-11-03
  12. ^ "Lookit the Fuzzy Heads/No Face Like Home". Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs. Season 1. Episode 64. 16 May 1994. Dot's Poetry Corner.