Sound Off

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In the military, especially during a long march or run, the sergeant will lead a song called a cadence call, military cadence, or jody song to keep his subordinates' spirits up as they train, march, or work around their base or encampment. Counting cadence during a march is called sound off.

The songs cover a variety of topics, including the civilian at home who's sleeping with your significant other (i.e. Jody), the amount of Badass your service or unit has compared to the other services or units, the hazards unique to your particular unit or service, your own vulgar and violent tendencies, et cetera.

Although many of the songs are call-and-response, not all of them are. However, they are always sung to the rhythm of the task at hand.

Examples of Sound Off include:

Advertising

• Ads for Frosted Flakes cereal over the past few years have adopted one of these as their theme. "We are tigers..." Taken from the Princeton U fight chant.

Anime and Manga

• In a bit of Cultural Cross-Reference, the Ground Forces trainees in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are shown using the "If I die in the combat zone" cadence of Full Metal Jacket in the manga set before the third season.

Film

• Battleground (1949). A jody call used by the protagonists' glider infantry platoon is the theme music of the movie.
• Full Metal Jacket, for that matter, has quite a few during the boot camp scenes. (Each line is sung by Gunny Hartman, and repeated by the recruits)

"Up every mornin' to the rising sun Gonna run all day 'till the runnin's done Ho Chi Minh is a son of a bitch Got the blue balls, crabs and the seven-year itch" "I don't know but I've been told Eskimo pussy is mighty cold Looks good Tastes good Feels good Real good!" "I don't want no teenage queen I just want my M-14!" "This is my rifle, this is my gun, This is for fighting, this is for fun!"

• From Sgt. Bilko:

I can barely move my legs! Do me a favor and kill me now! Something, something rhymes with "legs"! My life is over anyhow!

• Troops jogging around the military base in Hot Shots are singing the theme from The Brady Bunch as a cadence...
• Used in D2: The Mighty Ducks, with Gordon riding a go-kart while the Ducks rollerblade along with him.

I don't know but I been told Team USA's gonna win the gold Listen up and listen good We're all headed for Hollywood

• Monsters, Inc.

I don't know, but it's been said I love scaring kids in bed!

• Ice Age

I don't know, but I've been told End of the world be mighty cold

• The title of the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon comes from an old marching song (Civil War/Wild West era). Some versions are quite a bit racier than the movie's version.
• In the film An Officer and a Gentleman, the Navy officer candidates, led by their own Drill Sergeant Nasty chant:

I don't know but it's been said that Air Force wings are made of lead. I don't know, but I've been told that Navy wings are made of gold.

• • The film also features the Real Life military classic "Napalm Sticks to Kids". Network television showings generally use an alternate take.
• Lampooned in the movie Stripes, when Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, after joining the Army, begin using "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" as a jody during their first march. Bizarrely, it works really well. Not only the right rhythm to it, it even has a call-and-response section....
  • Reportedly, some armed forces units are actually using this song as a jody now, because of the use in this film and how surprisingly well it worked.
• In Renaissance Man, civilian instructor Bill Rago makes up a jody call about Hamlet. By the end of the film, Drill Sergeant Cass is using it for the new batch of recruits.

Hamlet's momma, she's the queen Buys it in the final scene Drinks a glass of funky wine Now she's Satan's valentine

• During one of the training scenes in Space Chimps, Titan tries to start off a round, but Ham is having none of it:

Titan: I am Titan, I am strong! Ham: No one wants to sing along!

• From Kindergarten Cop, during the "Arnold is learning to bond with the kindergarteners" montage and he's leading the kids around the playground in recess:

Readin', writin', arithematic Too much homework makes me sick When it's time to pass the test Kindergarten is the best!

• Little Giants, in which the eponymous Giants (a children's American Football team) have this crude cadence insulting their sole opponent's coaches:

I don't know, but I've been told: Butz's butt is green with mold. You say thank you, I say please. Kevin sits down when he pees.

• In Heartbreak Ridge Gunny Highway orders one of his men to give a cadence after witnessing the other platoon give a rather mundane one. The young man complies and belts out an incredibly rude one... right as they pass by a female Marine. Gunny's look is priceless.

Model A Ford with a tankfull of gas Hand full of pussy and a mouthful of ass.

Literature

• Discworld: City Guard trainees being led by Detritus:

"Now we sing this stupid song Sing it as we run along Why we sing this we don't know We can't make the words rhyme prop'rly" Sound off! (One, two!) Sound off! (Many, lots!) Sound off! (Er... wot?)!

• • All the little angels rise up, rise up! All the little angels rise up high!
• Kayla Williams's book Love My Rifle More Than You: Young And Female In The US Army, takes its title from a cadence going:

Cindy, Cindy, Cindy Lou Love my rifle more than you You were once my beauty queen Now I love my M-16.

• The Aiel of The Wheel of Time, a Proud Warrior Race, only sing in battle and at funerals. One of their marching songs begins:

Wash the spears While the sun climbs high Wash the spears While the sun falls low Wash the spears Who fears to die Wash the spears No one I know!

• • Mat's revived Band of the Red Hand has "Jak O' The Shadows", sung to the tune of the Garryowen

We'll drink the wine till the cup is dry, And kiss the girls so they'll not cry, And toss the dice until we fly, To dance with Jak O'the Shadows...

• The Dragonriders of Pern series uses songs as training/mnemonics, and some of them quite fit this mold.

Drummer, beat, and piper, blow, Harper, strike, and solider, go, Free the flame and sear the grasses, Till the dawning red star passes.

• * The first Red Dwarf book has Rimmer trying to start "We are tough and we are mean, Rimmer's Z Shift gets things clean!" Nobody wants to join in.

Live-Action TV

• Band of Brothers: Easy Company of the 101st Airborne sings this one as they run up three miles up a steep hill with a stomach full of spaghetti:

"We pull upon the risers We fall upon the grass We never land upon our feet We always hit our ass So highdy highdy Christ almighty, who the hell are we? Zim zam, Goddamn, we're Airborne Infantry!"

• • They also do several verses of the airborne version of Battle Hymn of the Republic (Blood Upon the Risers) "Gory, gory what a hell of a way to die! He ain't gonna jump no more!" later on.
• In The Pacific, a company-wide version of "Happy Birthday" turns into "how fucked are you now?"
• The theme music for the first and second seasons of The Unit was a remixed cadence call, "Fired Up, Feels Good." Somewhat snicker-worthy in that they used a Marine cadence call for a show about Army special ops. Oops. A different theme for the next two seasons.
• The Australian Late Show released a comedy tape/CD that included,

I don't know but I've been told Fitted sheets are hard to fold

• Word of God says this is the origin of Adama and Starbuck's exchanges in Battlestar Galactica, though in the show no context is given, and it's not delivered in any particular cadence.

Hey, Starbuck, whaddya hear? Nothing but the rain, sir. Then grab your gun and bring in the cat. Boom boom boom

• Used in Stephen Colbert's Basic Training experience as part of the "Operation Iraqi Steven: Army of Me" week of shows recorded in Baghdad, Iraq.
• There was a Rottentrolls spinoff/Christmas Special called Combat Sheep: Don't Flock (or something like that), which included a convention of people who make up training jodys, with many short gags of having one of them speaking solely in cadence calls. One example:

I must say that I'm in shock; I've spilled Tango down my sock

• In the Red Dwarf Season Four episode Meltdown, the waxdroids who Rimmer has appointed himself General of are led in a marching song by a robot Elvis Presley.

"All we do is a kill and slay "Don't care we if we get blown away!"

Music

• Modest Mouse's "I Came A Rat":

Well I don't know but I've been told\\You'll never die and you never grow old

• The late Captain Jack, of Dance Dance Revolution fame, and his (well, their) eponymous song. Makes sense, since Frankie Gee (the lead singer) was a soldier in the US Army, and the military theme was pretty much his entire stage persona.

Ejo, Captain Jack Bring me back to the railroad track Gimme a [gun/bottle/woman] in my hand I wanna be a [shootin'/drinkin'/fuckin'] man Left, right, left The military step The Air Force rap The Seventeen is the best Gooooooooooooooooooooooooo left go right go pick up the step, go left go right go left...

• Christina Aguilera sampled a Marine cadence called "Tarzan and Jane Swinging On a Vine" in "Candyman".

Newspaper Comics

• One old Beetle Bailey strip has Beetle leading a squad singing Call Me Irresponsible. Incidentally, the first few lines do fit the standard Sound Off rhythm

Radio

• Radio station WCPT in Chicago, a progressive (liberal) radio station, used this cadence during commercial breaks several years ago^[when?]:

I don't know but I've been told Right-wing lies are getting old So tune your dial to 'CPT Progressive talk for you and me!

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

• In his 2002 Broadway stand-up show, Robin Williams lampooned the Swiss Army knife's perennial inclusion of a corkscrew, imagining a Swiss Drill Sergeant Nasty explaining to raw recruits how to open a bottle of wine under fire. "I don't know but I've been told, Chardonnay must be served cold..."

Tabletop Games

• No lyrics are actually given, but the Imperial Guard, Space Marines, and Sisters of Battle in Warhammer 40,000 have a wide variety of battle hymns and chants they sing into battle. One popular choice is the Litany of Death.
  • The Grey Knights have the Canticle of Absolution, which is, of course, six-hundred-and-sixty-six words long.

Theatre

• Parodied in Seussical: The Musical with the soldiers chanting "Green Eggs and Ham".
• In Spamalot, the musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a cadence is used to foreshadow a character's sexuality and combine a reprise of a previous song with another Flying Circus reference. (If you don't get the joke, watch the Lumberjack sketch.)

I don't know but it's been said We're off to war, we're not yet dead Become a knight and you'll go far In suspenders and a bra

• The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged) has one for Joshua and his soldiers:

Gather round it's time to go Kick some ass in Jericho Listen up, now here's the news We're taking Israel for the Jews!

• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum opts for puns:

One, two! One, two! We not only fought, but we won, too! Left, right! Left, right! There's none of the enemy left, right?

Video Games

• The sound clip for building a Network Node in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:

"I don't know but I been told Deidre's got a Network Node Likes to press on the on-off switch Dig that crazy Gaian witch —Spartan! Barracks! March! (Yes sir!)

• Jamjars from Banjo-Tooie uses these to explain newly learned moves to the main characters. If you talk to him again, he tries a plain English explanation instead.

Jump up high and then press Z, Don't need fly pads or feathers red!

• In Fallout 3, the Mister Gutsy variants of the Mister Handy droids will quote directly from the "If I should die in the combat zone" cadence when they die.
• Parodied in The Sims 2 with the description of the Military Recruit career. "I don't know but I've been told, cleaning latrines gets mighty old!"

Web Comics

• Darths and Droids has the following when the droids start their invasion of Naboo

We are badass through and through! Now it's time to take Naboo! We are tougher than the Hutts! We will kick these Gungans' butts!

Web Original

• Skippy of Skippy's List loves to screw around with these.

58. The following words and phrases may not be used in a cadence- Budding sexuality, necrophilia, I hate everyone in this formation and wish they were dead, sexual lubrication, black earth mother, all Marines are latent homosexuals, Tantric yoga, Gotterdammerung, Korean hooker, Eskimo Nell, we've all got jackboots now, slut puppy, or any references to squid.

Western Animation

• The Simpsons had one when Prinicipal Skinner rejoined the Army. Skinner disapproved of the version the recruits already knew, and decided to make it more educational.

"I don't know but I've been told The Parthenon is mighty old" (How old?) "We don't know!"

• The Simpsons also had a parody one in the episode where Bart and his friends went to war against Nelson:

"We are happy, we are merry We've got a rhyming dictionary"

• The Simpsons has another reference in the episode where the kids go to military school. "Company L? But they smell!" "Yes, we've all heard the song."

• In a Taz-Mania short where the family goes hiking and it starts to rain, somebody calls for a cadence and Taz chants:

Taz hate water, Taz hate water Taz hate water, Taz hate water

• Referenced in the Futurama episode "War Is The H-Word"—the officer's club has a sign outside reading "We don't know but we've been told our beer on tap is mighty cold."
• "Colonel Hathi's March" from Disney's The Jungle Book. It's sung by the Elephant Patrol whenever they make their entrance about twice in the film (The first time is when Mowgli and Bagheera accidentally run into them while attempting to get the former back to the "Man-village", and the second is when Bagheera asks them to help him and Baloo find Mowgli before Shere Khan does).

Hup, two, three, four Keep it up, two, three, four Hup, two, three, four Keep it up, two, three four Company, sound off! Oh, the aim of our patrol, Is a question rather droll For to march and drill Over field and hill (trumpets) Is a military goal! Is a military goal! Hup, two, three, four Dress it up, two, three, four By the ranks or single file, Over every jungle mile Oh, we stamp and crush Through the underbrush (trumpets) In a military style! In a military style!

• There's also the reprise:

Oh, we march from here to there And it doesn't matter where Well, you can hear us push Through the deepest bush Hup, two, three, four! With a military air! With a military air! (trumpets) We're a crackerjack brigade In a pachyderm parade But we'd rather stroll To a waterhole Hup, two, three, four! For a furlough in the shade! For a furlough in the shade!

• In the Family Guy episode "Saving Private Brian:"

West Side Story, Anything Goes Two of our favorite Broadway shows Miss Saigon and Cabaret Overrated I should say.

• In Animaniacs done solely by a Drill Sergeant Nasty:

Recruits smell and that's no lie Hate your guts, gonna make you cry Call me smart, call me inspired You're gonna march 'til I get tired.

• In the same episode

Drill Sgt: I don't know but I've been told Army life is mighty bold Every night before retreat Yakko: We order out for luncheon meat.

• In The Oblongs, the Debbies have such a song when earning money for a Girl Scouts (or "Little Amazons") competition. The lyrics contain advice for upper-class debutantes.

I don't know but I've been told Marry a man who's rich and old I don't know but it's been said Don't sign a prenup when you wed.

• In The Fairly OddParents:

I don't know but I've been told Gigglepie accessories are seperately sold.

• In Ozzy and Drix:

I don't know but I've been told Hector's feet have stinky mold.

Real Life

• Truth in Television. Songs like this are very much a part of life in the armed forces, especially during basic training since they allow a person to focus on something other then the monotonous/unpleasant job at hand. A simple Google search for "Jody Calls" will yield many examples of these songs. Unfortunately, the traditional whimsical tone of Jody Calls isn't immune to abuse, and on occasion, soldiers have voiced discomfort about Jody Calls they've felt are too racist or homophobic. This trend seems a minor issue at best these days, and most calls (like the ones listed here) certainly aren't meant to be taken as the literal meaning of their words.