Song Video
Lyrics
I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there,
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair.
The monkey bumped the skunk,
And sat on the elephant's trunk;
The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees,
And that was the end of the monk!
The monk!
Information About Animal Fair
Animal Fair" is a favorite children's song the origin of which is unknown. It was notably sung during the Spanish American War by the Rough Riders led by Colonel Leonard Wood, and more famously Teddy Roosevelt, while crossing the water to Cuba.
The song can be sung as a round making it a popular campfire song. There are a number of different versions in circulation.
The song was included in several popular children's recordings, including: Captain Kangaroo's Treasure House of the Best Love Songs (1958), Disney Children's Favorite Songs 1 (1979) and Wee Sing Silly Songs.
There is a cool little book with pop-up pages and such based on this song. You can see it on the Amazon site at: Animal Fair: A Spectacular Pop-Up. It has also been the inspiration for several compilations by the same name, including a book of poems about animals by poet William Cole written in 1958.
Alternative Lyrics & Related Songs
This the Monkey and Elephant version that sneezed and got drunk
The monkey he got drunk,
and sat on the elephant's trunk.
The elephant sneezed
and fell on his knees
and that's what became of the monk.
This version is about the Monkey and Elephant and a trip to the animal fair and an animal show
I went to the Animal Fair,
The birds and the bees were there,
The hairy Baboon by the light of the moon,
Was combing his golden hair,
The monkey fell out of his bunk,
Slid down the elephants trunk,
Weeeeeeeeeeeee,
And what became of the Monkey. .Monkey. .Monkey!!
I went to the animal show,
Where all of the animals go.
A big giraffe was making me laugh
By yelling, “Look out below!â€
I went to the animal zoo
To see a gnu I knew.
But the gnu I knew would be new to you
If you went to the animal zoo.
The following version is a tongue twister that you might want to try out yourself
Said a flee to a fly in a flue,
Said the flee "Oh, what shall we do?"
Said the fly "Let us flee,"
Said the flee "Let us fly,"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Here's a longer version that combines the drunk monkey and an animal fair
It was at the animal's fair
the fox and the geese were there
The grey baboon by the light of the moon
combed his silvery hair
The monkey, he got drunk
He fell on the elephant's trunk
The elephant SNEEZED
and went down on his knees
and that was the end
of the monk, monk, monk!
If you aren't over the monkey and the elephant yet, you can throw in the following verse
You should have seen the monk;
He climbed up the elephant's truck.
You'll notice that this is a similar version but it throws in a group of kids in the last stanza
I went to the animal fair,
The birds and the beasts were there.
The big baboon by the light of the moon,
Was combing his auburn hair.
You should have seen the monk,
He climbed up the elephant's trunk,
The elephant sneezed,
And fell to his knees.
And that was the end of the monk, the monk, the monk.
The animal fair, the animal fair,
We had such fun when we were there.
There never was a fair to compare
With the rollicking frolicking animal fair.
Here's another short version of Animal Fair that combines two other versions together
I went to the animal fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon, by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair
The monkey did get drunk
And sat on the elephant's trunk.
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
But what become of the monk monk monk?
To mix it up a little bit, you can interchange "monk" with "monkey"