On the front page of the July 2015 Funny Times, this cartoon by Mary Lawton:
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The visuals: a parody of Munch’s The Scream, in and around an ice cream truck. The text: the song/chant “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” (a pun on ice cream / I scream, depending on word division).
The ice cream truck. Of course, there’s a Wikipedia page:
An ice cream van (British) or ice cream truck (American) is a commercial vehicle that serves as a mobile retail outlet for ice cream, usually during the summer. Ice cream vans are often seen parked at public events, or near parks, beaches, or other areas where people congregate. Ice cream vans often travel near where children play — outside schools, in residential areas, or in other locations. They usually stop briefly before moving on to the next street.
Ice cream vans are often brightly decorated and carry images of ice cream, or some other adornment, such as cartoon characters.
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… Along the sides, a large sliding window acts as a serving hatch, and this is often covered with small pictures of the available products, with their associated prices. A distinctive feature of ice cream vans is their melodic chimes, and often these take the form of a famous and recognizable tune, usually in the USA “The Mister Softee Jingle”, “Turkey in the Straw”, “Do Your Ears Hang Low?, “Pop Goes The Weasel”, “The Entertainer”, “Music Box Dancer”, “Home on the Range”, “It’s a Small World”, “Musunde Hiraite” (a Japanese children’s song usually played with a recording of a woman saying ‘hello’ at the end of the song on ice cream trucks), or “Camptown Races”; or, in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, “Greensleeves”, “Whistle While You Work” in Crewe and Nantwich, “You Are My Sunshine” in Vale Royal, “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” in Sheffield, and “Match of the Day” in other places.
… Most ice cream vans tend to sell both pre-manufactured ice pops in wrappers, and soft serve ice cream from a machine, served in a cone, and often with a chocolate flake (in Britain) or a sugary syrup flavoured with, for example, strawberry. Soft serve ice cream is served topped with sprinkles for a slight extra charge.
Digression: Cazwell’s “Ice Cream Truck”. From an 8/20/10 posting:
After I posted a link to Gay Pimp’s (Jonny McGovern‘s) “Soccer Practice” video on my X blog (here; note that this is X-rated territory), an appreciative friend sent along a link to Cazwell’s video “Ice Cream Truck” (Luke Cazwell, né Lucas Cazuela). Two outrageous fags doing white rap in a street-black style to a gay-disco beat. Tremendously unsubtle, campy, and also gay-affirming and often joyous.
Cazwell is heavy on the phallicity. (Oh yes, his dancers are Hispanic, black, and white. Unity in queerness.)
“The Scream”. The Munch painting is often parodied. Two of them (a Bizarro and a Homer Simpson) are reproduced in my 8/20/11 posting “Munch up to date”.
And the song. From Wikipedia:
“Ice Cream” or “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” is a popular song, first published in 1927, with words & music by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert King. After initial success as a late 1920s novelty song, the tune became a traditional jazz standard, while the lyrics refrain “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” has remained a part of popular culture even without the rest of the song.
A 1925 recording by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians:
Mary Lawton. This is Lawton’s first appearance on this blog, and I haven’t been able to find out much about her. On her Etsy site, she identifies herself as a cartoonist and painter who lives in Houston TX. Here are two more of her cartoons, from the New Yorker‘s Cartoon Bank:
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June 20, 2015 at 8:40 am |
I am reminded of this Far Side cartoon.
June 20, 2015 at 10:06 am |
Back when I was in high school in the late 50s, that was a popular cheer at sports events, substituting just about anything that rhymed for “ice cream.”