"If You're Happy and You Know It" is a popular children's song, or nursery rhyme, credited to songwriter Alfred B. Smith c. 1916. It has, like many familiar childhood cantations, been altered in various ways over the years for various uses, particularly as political rags.
The original song as it is known to Americans begins:-
- If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
- If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
- If you're happy and you know it,
- Then your face will surely show it,
- If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
Numerous variations of this have been created as entertainment. For example, there is an example relating to the proposed attack on Iraq, written by John Robbins, which begins as follows[1]:-
If You're Happy and you Know it is also a forthcoming picture book for children, to be published in March 2003 by Oxford University Press."If You're Happy And You Know It, Bomb Iraq"
A recent, alternate version:"If You're Happy And You Know It, Bomb Iraq Redux"