I’m My Own Grandpa

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I’m My Own Grandpa

performed by The Jesters, Lonzo and Oscar, Willie Nelson, and others
written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe
released 1947

Now, many many years ago
When I was twenty three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as could be

This widow had a grown-up daughter
Had hair of red
My father fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life
My daughter was my mother
‘Cause she was my father’s wife

To complicate the matters
Even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle
Though it made me very sad

For if he was my uncle
That also made him the brother
Of the widow’s grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother

I’m my own grandpa
I’m my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I’m my own grandpa

My father’s wife then had a son
That kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild
For he was my daughter’s son

My wife is now my mother’s mother
And it makes me blue
Because, she is my wife
She’s my grandmother too

I’m my own grandpa
I’m my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I’m my own grandpa

Now, if my wife is my grandmother
Then, I am her grandchild
And every time I think of it
It nearly drives me wild

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw
As the husband of my grandmother
I am my own grandpa

I’m my own grandpa
I’m my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I’m my own grandpa

I’m my own grandpa
I’m my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I’m my own grandpa

_____________________________

I recently rediscovered this novelty / comedy song. Novelty songs used to be a lot more common in the country music genre, in particular and I wish we could bring that back. People sometimes opine about the state of our present society, and there are always debates on how we’re doing. One sign of health, in my opinion, is that your society has a sense of humor.

I guess what I’m saying is that I want Hollywood to make more comedies and for Taylor Swift to drop some funny songs.

You might be wondering why we’re here. Well, I was hoping to sort out the song’s family tree to a point wherein I could understand it. I also kind of hoped that there might be some fascinating source material inspiration for the lyrics. And since this account is primarily just me looking things up and then writing down and reacting to what I’ve looked up… here we are.

The explanation for the title of the song is that the songwriter humorously drops the “step” from his various familial relationships. To be honest, though, trying to put a title on this confused genealogy using “step” terminology might be more difficult and confusing than what he came up with.

The stepgrandson of the narrator is also the narrator’s stepbrother.
The widow-wife of the narrator is the grandmother of the stepbrother/stepgrandson.
I *don’t* think this makes the wife the grandmother of her grandson’s step-brother, though. The feels like one step too far.

Is there some interesting source material here? Yes. Apparently Mark Twain has been credited with this idea by some, and then Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman kind of lived this out.

(more on the song, via wiki)

“I’m My Own Grandpa” (sometimes rendered as “I’m My Own Grandpaw“) is a novelty song written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe, performed by Lonzo and Oscar in 1947, about a man who, through an unlikely (but legal) combination of marriages, becomes stepfather to his own stepmother. By dropping the “step-” modifiers, he becomes his own grandfather.

In the 1930s, Latham had a group, the Jesters, on network radio; their specialties were bits of spoken humor and novelty songs. While reading a book of Mark Twain anecdotes, he once found a paragraph in which Twain proved it would be possible for a man to become his own grandfather. (“Very Closely Related” appears on page 87 of Wit and Humor of the Age, which was co-authored by Mark Twain in 1883.) In 1947, Latham and Jaffe expanded the idea into a song, which became a hit for Lonzo and Oscar.

Genealogy

In the song, the narrator marries a widow with an adult daughter. Subsequently, his father marries the widow’s daughter. This creates a comic tangle of relationships by a mixture of blood and marriage; for example, the narrator’s father is now also his stepson-in-law. The situation is complicated further when both couples have children.

Although the song continues to mention that both the narrator’s wife and stepdaughter had children by the narrator and his father, respectively, the narrator actually becomes “his own grandpa” once his father marries the woman’s daughter:

• The narrator marries the older woman.
  • This results in the woman’s daughter becoming his stepdaughter.
• Subsequently, the narrator’s father marries the older woman’s daughter.
  • The woman’s daughter, being the new wife of the narrator’s father, is now both his stepdaughter and his stepmother. Concurrently, the narrator’s father, being his stepdaughter’s husband, is also his own stepson-in-law.
    • The narrator’s wife, being the mother of his stepmother, is both the narrator’s spouse and his step-grandmother.
      • The husband of the narrator’s wife would then be the narrator’s step-grandfather. Since the narrator is that person, he has managed to become his own (step-step)grandfather. The “step-step” concept applies because the step-father of one’s step-mother would be one’s step-step-grandfather, making a “double step” event possible.

The song continues with

• The narrator and his wife having a son.
  • The narrator’s son is the half-brother of his stepdaughter, as the narrator’s wife is the mother of both.
    • Since his stepdaughter is also his stepmother, then the narrator’s son is also his own (step-half-)uncle because he is the (half-)brother of his (step-)mother.
      • The narrator’s son is therefore a (half-)brother-in-law to the narrator’s father, because the son is the (half-)brother of the father’s wife.
• The narrator’s father and his wife (the narrator’s stepdaughter) then had a son of their own.
  • The child is the narrator’s (step-) grandson because he is the son of his (step-)daughter.
    • The son is the (half-)brother of the narrator because they share a father.

Real-life incidents

According to a 2007 article, the song was inspired by an anecdote that has been published periodically by newspapers for well over 150 years. The earliest citation was from the Republican Chronicle of Ithaca, New York on April 24, 1822, and that was copied from the London Literary Gazette:

A proof that a man may be his own Grandfather.—There was a widow and her daughter-in-law, and a man and his son. The widow married the son, and the daughter the old man; the widow was, therefore, mother to her husband’s father, consequently grandmother to her own husband. They had a son, to whom she was great-grandmother; now, as the son of a great-grandmother must be either a grandfather or great-uncle, this boy was therefore his own grandfather. N. B. This was actually the case with a boy at a school in Norwich.

An 1884 book, The World of Wonders, attributed the original “remarkable genealogical curiosity” to Hood’s Magazine.

In 1989, The Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman married Mandy Smith; she was 18 and he 52. In 1993, Wyman’s 30-year-old son from his first marriage, Stephen, married Smith’s mother, Patsy, who was then aged 46. However this was after Wyman and Smith had divorced. Wyman is therefore, arguably, the father-in-law of his ex-mother-in-law as well as the step-grandfather of his ex-wife.

Cover versions

The cover version by Lonzo and Oscar was recorded in 1947, the same year that Latham and Jaffe released The Jesters original. A version by Guy Lombardo and The Guy Lombardo Trio became a hit in 1948. The song was also recorded by Phil Harris (as “He’s His Own Grandpa”), Jo Stafford (as “I’m My Own Grandmaw”), singer/bandleader Tony Pastor, Kimball Coburn, Homer and Jethro, and “Jon & Alun” (Jon Mark and Alun Davies) on their record Relax Your Mind (1963).

A 1976 episode of The Muppet Show includes a skit in which the song is performed by the all-Muppet Gogolala Jubilee Jugband. Ray Stevens recorded a version for his 1987 album Crackin’ Up. In the movie The Stupids, Stanley Stupid, portrayed by Tom Arnold, sings “I’m My Own Grandpa” while on a talk show about strange families. Willie Nelson performed the song on his 2001 album The Rainbow Connection. This song was also performed by Grandpa Jones, who sang it both at the Grand Ole Opry and on the TV show Hee Haw. It was also later recorded on the album Home is Where the Heart Is by David Grisman and on Michael Cooney‘s album of songs for children. Folk singer Steve Goodman included it in his live shows, and recorded it on his album Somebody Else’s Troubles.

The humorous folk singer, Anthony John Clarke, frequently covers it in his gigs and has recorded it on his 2004 album Just Bring Yourself.

Australian Iconic Country Singer/Songwriter Chad Morgan recorded a cover version in July 1981 Astor records, catalogue number A7325… Also in 2022 a live performance was filmed at Tamworth Country Music Festival NSW Australia.

German country band Truck Stop from Hamburg published a German-language version in 1982 called „Mein Opa, das bin ich.“

In 1984, Norwegian folk singer Øystein Sunde published a Norwegian-language version, «Jeg er min egen bestefar».

Logic and reasoning

Professor Philip Johnson-Laird used the song to illustrate issues in formal logic as contrasted with psychology of reasoning, noting that the transitive property of identity relationships expressed in natural language was highly sensitive to variations in grammar, while reasoning by models, such as the one constructed in the song, avoided this sensitivity.

The situation is included in a set of problems attributed to Alcuin of York, and also in the final story in Baital Pachisi; the question asks to describe the relationship of the children to each other. Alcuin’s solution is that the children are simultaneously uncle and nephew to each other; he does not draw attention to the relationships of the other characters.

We used to do family tree projects at school, and I always thought those things were partially motivated by a teacher’s desire to learn embarrassing family-tree secrets (I don’t know if class projects are even necessary for this type of investigation anymore, thanks to everyone just posting their family trees online with genetic testing sites.) In hindsight, it would have been humorous to hide this song’s circumstances on a fake family tree. [Nobody in 7th grade social studies needed to know about my royal bloodlines.]

I highly encourage giving this classic a listen.