How much wood would a woodchuck chuck

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck (sometimes phrased with "could" rather than "would") is an American English-language tongue-twister.[1][2] The woodchuck, a word originating from Algonquian "wejack", is a kind of marmot, regionally called a groundhog.[3] The complete beginning of the tongue-twister usually goes: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"[1][2] The tongue-twister relies primarily on alliteration to achieve its effects, with five "w" sounds interspersed among five "ch" sounds,[4] as well as 6 "ood" sounds.

For the film, see How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck (film).

A woodchuck
Sawn logs of wood

Answers

A traditional, if nonsensical, "response" to the question is: "A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood".[5] Other—similarly unhelpful—responses include "So much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood!" and "He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood."[6]

A 1957 Associated Press piece refers to the question as "a riddle which beats the Sphinx, since it's still unanswered".[7] A more concrete answer was published by the Associated Press in 1988, which reported that a New York fish and wildlife technician named Richard Thomas had calculated the volume of dirt in a typical 25–30-foot (7.6–9.1 m) long woodchuck burrow and had determined that if the woodchuck had moved an equivalent volume of wood, it could move "about 700 pounds (320 kg) on a good day, with the wind at his back".[8][9] Another study, which considered "chuck" to be the opposite of upchucking, determined that a woodchuck could ingest 361.9237001 cm3 (22.08593926 cu in)[10] of wood per day.[11]

Origin

The origin of the phrase is from a 1902 song "The Woodchuck Song", written by Robert Hobart Davis for Fay Templeton in the musical The Runaways.[12][13] The lyrics became better known in a 1904 version of the song written by Theodore Morse, with a chorus of "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?",[14] which was recorded by Ragtime Roberts, in 1904.[15]

The tongue-twister is documented as "folklore" in 1972 at Farmington, Michigan.[16] It is used in the title of Werner Herzog's 1976 film How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck, a documentation of the World Livestock Auctioneer Championship in New Holland, Pennsylvania.

  • Google features this tongue twister as an Easter egg in its search engine, as well as Google Now.[17][18][19] Several other virtual assistants, including Siri and Cortana, have their own unique, humorous responses to the phrase.[20][21]
  • In the parody-filled video game Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush Threepwood asks a carpenter the question and gets a slight variation of the response: "A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck can't chuck wood."[22] The conversation continues in a similar manner until Threepwood tells the carpenter that "a woodchuck should chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, as long as a woodchuck would chuck wood".[23]
  • Wolfram|Alpha provides the etymology of the traditional response when asked the query "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?",[24] but can also return the aforementioned numerical result reported by the Associated Press.[25]
  • Ludacris incorporates this tongue twister in the Chamillionaire single "Creepin' (Solo)".[26]
  • A British YouTube personality, KSI used a version of the phrase in his song titled "Earthquake", which achieved over 30 million views.[27] The line in question asks another YouTuber, Behzinga, 'how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck looked like you?'
  • American rapper Tyler, the Creator used an explicit version of the phrase on his hit song, "Tamale". His rendition of the phrase is "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could ever give a fuck?"[28]
  • South Park character Eric Cartman, dressed as AWESOM-O, answered "seventeen".[29]
  • A popular Swedish Dj and musician Aronchupa has released a song with the same title in 2020.[30]

See also

References
  1. Thomas A. Green, Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music (1997): "Sometimes, tongue twisters utilize elaborate sound inversions in complex juxtapositions—for example, 'How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'"
  2. Elizabeth Tucker Children's Folklore: A Handbook 2008, Page 22. "Popular English tongue twisters include 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers', 'She sells seashells by the seashore', and 'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'.
  3. Richard M. Hogg, Norman Francis Blake, Roger Lass, The Cambridge History of the English Language (1992), Vol. 6, p. 189. "The woodchuck, from Algonquian wejack, a marmot regionally called groundhog, has evoked in jocular folklore the unanswerable question: 'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'".
  4. Sherrill B. Flora, Early Literacy Intervention Activities, Grades PK - K (2011), p. 79.
  5. See, e.g., Florence Kingsland, In and Out Door Games: With Suggestions for Entertainments (1904), p. 250: "If a woodchuck could chuck, a woodchuck can't would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." Variations abound, as in, Edward W. Mumford, compiler, Smiles in Rime (1904): "Well, If a woodchuck could chuck wood, a woodchuck would chuck all the wood that a woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood!"; Helen Josephine Ferris, Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected for Boys and Girls (1957), p. 358: "He would chuck what wood a woodchuck would chuck, / If a woodchuck would chuck wood".
  6. "Tongue Twister: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck", Repeat After Us; accessed 2018.06.27.
  7. Dion Henderson, "Groundhog Has His Annual Day Saturday; Move Over Mr. Bacon", Sarasota Journal (January 31, 1957), p. 14.
  8. "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?", Spokane Chronicle (July 11, 1988), p. A9.
  9. Press Won't Chuck That Woodchuck Story.
  10. Giving this number without any error bars.
  11. P. A. Paskevich and T. B. Shea (July–August 1995). "The Ability of Woodchucks to Chuck Cellulose Fibers". Annals of Improbable Research. 1 (4): 4–9.
  12. The Tammany Times, Volumes 20–21, 1902, Page 305. "'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck would chuck wood?' That is the beginning of the refrain of a song that Mr. Robert Hobart Davis has written for Fay Templeton in The Runaways. Miss Templeton is trying the song..."
  13. Hobbies, Volume 78, Issues 1–6, Page 119, Otto C. Lightner, Pearl Ann Reeder, 1973. "Mathias quotes Davis as saying he made $20,000 from the sale of 'The Woodchuck Song' (this must have been from sheet music, for royalties were not paid on record sales in those days) after he and Morse called at Fay Templeton's home..."
  14. Tim Gracyk, Bob Roberts - Tenor. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  15. Edison Amberola Monthly, Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1976, Volume 1, Page 8. "'The Woodchuck's Song' is a Record of Fay Templeton's song in The Runaways. made by Bob Roberts, a baritone who is thereby introduced to buyers of Edison Gold Moulded Records. This song has for its chorus the old query, 'How...'".
  16. The James T. Callow Folklore Archive, Tongue Twister: How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck, Michigan; Farmington; 09-26-1972.
  17. Nazarian, Robert (November 17, 2013). "Google Now Easter Egg collection". Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  18. Knoll, Marc (November 8, 2013). "Awesome List Of Google Now Voice Commands". Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  19. Shrestha, Ashesh (December 28, 2013). "Try These Google Now Easter Eggs". Nepal. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  20. Tillman, Maggie (2018-10-16). "Best Google Assistant Easter Eggs: Your guide to funny Assistant commands". Pocket-lint. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  21. O'Boyle, Britta, and Chris Hall (2015-12-29). "Siri vs Cortana: Which is the funniest assistant?". Pocket-lint. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  22. Can be found transcribed in this list of quotes or in the game. en.wikiquote.org
  23. "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991 Video Game) Quotes".
  24. "Wolfram Alpha woodchuck easter egg".
  25. ""How much wood would a woodchuck chuck" (purported quantity)". Wolfram Alpha. Archived from the original on 2020-06-14. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  26. "Chamillionaire–Creepin (Solo) Feat. Ludacris Lyrics". YouTube. March 13, 2011. p. 3:20.
  27. KSI (2017-08-12), KSI ft Ricegum - Earthquake (Official Music Video), retrieved 2017-11-06
  28. Tyler, The Creator – Tamale, retrieved 2019-04-07
  29. Trey Parker, "SOUTH PARK", Episode 805, "AWESOM-O".
  30. "AronChupa & Little Sis Nora - The Woodchuck Song".
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