Found a Peanut

A basic version of the variable lyrics is:

Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut last night.

last night I found a peanut, found a peanut last night.

Cracked it open, cracked it open, cracked it open last night

last night I cracked it open, cracked it open last night.

It was rotten, it was rotten, it was rotten last night,

last night it was rotten, it was rotten last night .

Then it continues with the same rhythm:

Ate it anyway

Got sick

Called the doctor

Operation

Couldn't save me

Went to Heaven

Met God

Wouldn't take me

Sent back home

Went out walking

Had a nightmare

Woke Up

The simple repetitive structure of the song lends itself to near infinite variations. Sometimes "Just now" is substituted for "last night". Sometimes the verse will not reference the preceding verse as in the first example above.

Versions current in Baltimore in 1955 weren't quite as heavenly focused, and ended in: "Shoveling coal, shoveling coal, shoveling coal just now ..."

Another common variation on "last night" is "yesterday". This is used by "This Morning With Richard Not Judy" by Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

Other substitutions include:

• Other foods can also be used, such as an apple, for which the second line can be "it was wormy".
• "It was rotten" by "Found it rotten", "It was mouldy" or "Green and mouldy".
• "Ate it anyway" by "Still I ate it".
• "Got sick" by "Appendicitis".
• "Wouldn't take me" by "Kicked an angel", "Punched St. Peter", or "Said a naughty word".
• "Penicillin" by "Didn't Work".
• "Operation" by "Cut me open", "Took the peanut out", "Sewed me up again", "Left the scissors in", "Cut me open again".
• "Wouldn't take me" by "Didn't want me".
• "It was a dream" by "Shoveling coal".

The Hebrew version sometimes introduces the verse: "Now I'm dead" (Akhshav ani met, עכשיו אני מת) before "I ascended to heaven". Sometimes "God" (Elohim, אלוהים), rather than "Gabriel" is used. Finally, sometimes before the recap either the verse: "So I answered him" (Az aniti lo, אז עניתי לו) or a single line: "So I answered him thus:" (Az aniti lo she-, -אז עניתי לו ש) is added.

Some attribute the song to Jack Schafer of Detroit, MI in 1958, although the song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives. Those lyrics end at "Ate it anyway."

Other evidence, however, suggests that the song was widely known in the United States as early as the 1940s. A 1945 issue of the Florida Flambeau describes "Found a Peanut" as an "old song" from "high school days."[5] Likewise, the Norwalk Hour described a performance of the song in a school talent show in 1942.[6]

The song appears in the 1949 film A Letter to Three Wives.

The song appears in the film Tromeo and Juliet in a scene in which a family in a car sings a song before getting into an accident. In the following scene, the character Detective Scalus says, "They found a peanut, all right, a peanut of death!"

The song also appears at the opening of the opera The Abduction of Figaro by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach).

The song appeared on This Morning with Richard Not Judy with Stewart Lee and Richard Herring.

In the 1994 American satirical comedy Serial Mom, Beverly Sutphin (played by Kathleen Turner) sings the song with her fellow prisoners as they ride on a bus en route to court.

A version appears on the 2009 album Dracula Boots by Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds.

A version with somewhat different lyrics was released by Thee Midniters in 1966.

The Kidsongs Kids and their camp counselors Eddie and Monica sing this song on A Day at Camp (1989) during their campfire medley.

Mentioned in Marc Maron's 2015 comedy special More Later.