Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit

"Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit" (alternately "Beans, Beans, good for your heart") is a playground saying and children's song about how beans cause flatulence (i.e. farting). ^[1]

The basis of the song (and bean/fart humor in general) is the high amount of oligosaccharides present in beans. Bacteria in the large intestine digest these sugars, producing carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane. ^[2]

Lyrics

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So eat your beans with every meal! ^[3]

Alternate lyrics include:

Beans, beans, the magical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you feel.
So let’s have beans for every meal! ^{[4] [5]}

Another alternate version includes:

Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart.
The more you eat, the more you fart.
The more you fart, the better it feels.
Beans should be served at every meal! ^[6]

A variant documented by Iona Opie, an English folklorist, is:

Beans, beans, make you fart.
Beans, beans, are good for your heart.
Apple crumble makes you rumble;
Custard powder makes it louder. ^[7]

Popular culture

• A version of the rhyme appears at the beginning of Robert Crumb's comic strip, "Crybaby's Blues". ^[8]
• In The Simpsons season 4 episode 20 "Whacking Day," Bart performs a rendition of "Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit" in a Christian school. ^[9]
• The American bean brand Bush Brothers and Company wrote a related song with the singer Josh Groban. ^{[10] [11] [12]} The lyrics include a direct reference to the rhyme: "They'd yell about the musical fruit // They'd say the more that I ate, the more I'd (toot)". ^[13]
• In a "Dot's Poetry Corner" segment of Animaniacs , Dot recites a variation entitled "Ode to a Veggie", that goes "Beans, beans, the musical fruit / The more you eat, the more they kick you off the air if you finish this poem." ^[14]

General references

• Dawson, Jim. Who Cut the Cheese?: A Cultural History of the Fart, ISBN   1-58008-011-1

References

1. Carey, Bjorn Scientists take the ‘toot’ out of beans NBC News, April 25, 2006 (accessed November 17, 2007).
2. "Flatulence". MedicaLook.com. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
3. Andrew Croft. "The Nature of Beans".
4. "Beans, Beans, They're Good for Your Heart - USA". Mama Lisa's World of Children and International Culture. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
5. "Beans, Beans, They're Good for Your Heart – Baby Rhymes". 2020-09-10. Archived from the original on 2023-09-27. Retrieved 2023-09-27.
6. Blank, Trevor J (Jan 1, 2010). "Cheeky Behavior: The Meaning and Function of 'Fartlore' in Childhood and Adolescene". Children's Folklore Review. 32 (2010): 62. Retrieved 8 June 2025.
7. Opie, Iona (1993). The people in the playground. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 187. ISBN   9780198112655 . Retrieved 9 June 2025.
8. Crumb, Robert. The Complete Crumb Comics Vol 11 . Fantagraphics Books 1995, p.42. ISBN   978-1560971726. (Originally from Arcade #5, Spring 1976.)
9. "Recap / The Simpsons S 4 E 20 Whacking Day". TV Tropes. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
10. "Josh Groban Opens Up About His Deeply Moving 'Bean Song'". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
11. Beans, Bush’s®. "Bush's® partners with singer, songwriter Josh Groban to give beans their rightful musical due with 'Bean Song'". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2021-11-03.
12. "Bush's Beans remixes 'bean song' with Josh Groban ballad". Marketing Dive. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
13. Josh Groban - Bean Song | Bush's Beans , retrieved 2021-11-03
14. "Lookit the Fuzzy Heads/No Face Like Home". Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs. Season 1. Episode 64. 16 May 1994. Dot's Poetry Corner.