Talk:For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

"Which nobody can deny"? Is that the American version? Here in Britain, the usual line is "And so say all of us."
 * Yes, in the US it's pretty much always sung with "deny." Fool4jesus (talk) 15:57, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

And occasionally other words are substituted for "fellow."... -- Smjg 16:18, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Interesting. Can you add this information to the article as "regional variants"?  --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:05, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)
 * I edited the article to make reference to the differing version. -- Longhair | Talk 20:28, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Can anyone confirm that the song is American in origin? Which is the older variant, the (chiefly American) "...nobody can deny" or the (chiefly British/Commonwealth) "...so say all of us"? Enquiring minds want to know! —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:17, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

I suppose the French translation is a joke, probably as well as the other translations. A popular song when celbrating someone is "Il (elle) est vraiment phénoménal..." which I heard or sang possibly dozens of times, but I never heard the translation of the jolly good fellow. Maybe British students sing it during trips in France, it wouldn't make it a French song...
 * The Brazilian Portuguese version was ok. It's used mainly in dubbling/subtiles of USAmerican films. -- 200.100.252.17 09:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

In the lyrics, there is a "pause" after "fellow." Maybe it should be called a fermata, especially if the note is sustained when singing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.184.171.245 (talk) 19:05, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

American (?) Lyrics
The "nobody can deny" line is not an Americanism. It is found, among others, in James Joyce's "The Dead". I'm  Jack (Lumber) and I approve this message. 00:51, 11 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I added reimprove section since the claim that these are regional variations is not cited and is not commonly known, if true. Quark1005 (talk) 01:22, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

American and british song?
Is their some sort of race to claim the world and its culture going on here on wikipedia that emotionally and mentally healthy people aren't aware of? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.40.178.252 (talk) 22:19, 4 March 2009 (UTC)


 * More likely is that at some point the article had "... is a British song..." and someone added "American", or the other way round. Anyway, the fix is simple. :) Shreevatsa (talk) 00:14, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Finding more and better citations
Places to find info about "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow":

This article could definitely use improvement.  Sharktopus  talk 14:06, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Pop culture uses
The list needs to be trimmed, and I just deleted some examples that were randomly placed in sections like "See Also" and "References". The song has potentially been performed thousands of times and we don't need to list them all. The one I added, from iCarly, is an example of one that should be kept because the context of its use is as part of a plot point because Happy Birthday wasn't public domain and this is stated on screen as the reason for singing Jolly Good Fellow. 70.72.223.215 (talk) 14:01, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

Pause length
Really needs a citation because the assertion is demonstrably false. If the first part is sung without pause, it's 8 measures long, a very standard metrical grouping. This suggests that only a fermata is indicated. 2602:306:CC83:FE0:B95D:ACCA:CE10:882C (talk) 23:19, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Irish version
Can someone confirm that the Irish version is correct? It looks to be the same as the British one with "sunsé" in place of "so say". A cursory search for "sunsé" hasn't turned up any definition that would fit the context. As there's no citation, I might delete it if nobody objects. Z57N (talk) 23:59, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

"Gay Fellow" in general and "For they are jolly gay fellows" in particular
In James Joyce's The Dead, the group sing, "For they are jolly gay fellows," presumably to the same tune. Does anyone know if this was Joyce's invention? Did the use of "gay" instead of good exist elsewhere, before or since? Czrisher (talk) 14:37, 17 March 2021 (UTC)