Song

Ice Cream Man is a parody song of Iron Man by the band Black Sabbath. The lyrics goes as follows:

I am Ice Cream Man

Running over fat kids with my van

When I ring my bell

All the fat kids run like hell

Context

I collected this from my friend that I made in university. He is Asian American and grew up in the city of Walnut his whole life. This parody song is significant as it was an immature song that was popular at the same time of our lives, despite him present in America and me in China. What was also significant was that despite there being many different versions of the Ice Cream Man song, we both knew of this exact version of the song when we were on the opposite side of the globe. Additionally, he mentions that the song was popularized by word of mouth in his school, rather than a video going viral.

Analysis

When looking up examples of the Ice Cream Man song, there were all different to the one my friend and I knew. One example has the same first stanza as the one presented above. However, the song is extended to 6 minutes, with additional lines such as “Watch them run in fear” and “As I shift to Reverse Gear”. Another example only had one stanza like the example provided above, but the last two lines were “if I don’t hit them at first” and “I will surely hit them in reverse”. It is interesting to see another example of the same music have the same lyrical elements, but structured differently.

This parody song is folk music because in this situation, the folk refers those who are the same generation that can identify and perform the song. Despite being based on authored material, Iron Man by Black Sabbath, the parody song has numerous evidence for oikotypical variation.