how much wood could a woodchuck chuck alliteration
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck - wikipedia How much wood would a woodchuck chuck Jump to : navigation , search For the film , see How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck ( film ) . A woodchuck Sawn logs of wood How much wood could a woodchuck chuck is an American English - language tongue - twister . The woodchuck from the Algonquian word `` wejack '' is a kind of marmot regionally called a groundhog . The complete beginning of the tongue - twister usually goes : `` How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood ? '' The tongue - twister relies primarily on alliteration to achieve its effects , with five `` w '' sounds interspersed among five `` ch '' sounds . Contents ( hide ) 1 Answers 2 Origin 3 Popular culture 4 See also 5 References Answers ( edit ) The traditional `` response '' to the question is : `` A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood '' . This answer is considered nonsensical for being a tautology . A 1957 Associated Press piece refers to the question as `` a riddle which beats the Sphinx , since it 's still unanswered '' . 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 '' . Another study , which considered `` chuck '' to be the opposite of upchucking , determined that a woodchuck could ingest 361.9237001 cm ( 22.08593926 cu in ) of wood per day . Another proposed response comes from the parody - filled video game Monkey Island 2 : LeChuck 's Revenge , where the protagonist asks a carpenter the question and gets the response : `` A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck ca n't chuck wood . '' Origin ( edit ) 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 . 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 ? '' , which was recorded by Ragtime Roberts , in 1904 . The tongue - twister is documented as `` folklore '' in 1972 at Farmington , Michigan . 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 . The woodchuck is also known as a groundhog , leading to the alternate version How much ground could a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground ? Popular culture ( edit ) Google features this tongue twister as an Easter egg in its Google search and Google Now . A slight variation was featured in the video game `` Monkey Island 2 : LeChuck 's Revenge '' . Wolfram Alpha features an easter egg when asked the query `` How much wood could a woodchuck chuck ? '' Ludacris incorporates this tongue twister in the Chamillionaire single `` Creepin ' ( Solo ) '' . A British YouTube personality , KSI used a version of the phrase in his song titled `` Earthquake '' which achieved over 30 million views . The line in question asks an another YouTuber , Behzinga , ' how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck looked like you ? ' See also ( edit ) Alliteration Announcer 's test Malapropism Spoonerism Theophilus Thistle References ( edit ) ^ Jump up to : 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 ? ' '' ^ Jump up to : Elizabeth Tucker Children 's Folklorgue 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 ? ' . Jump up ^ 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 ? ' '' . Jump up ^ Sherrill B. Flora , Early Literacy Intervention Activities , Grades PK - K ( 2011 ) , p. 79 . Jump up ^ See , e.g. , Florence Kingsland , In and Out Door Games : With Suggestions for Entertainments ( 1904 ) , p. 250 : `` If a woodchuck could chuck , a woodchuck ca n'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 '' . Jump up ^ Dion Henderson , `` Groundhog Has His Annual Day Saturday ; Move Over Mr. Bacon '' , Sarasota Journal ( January 31 , 1957 ) , p. 14 . Jump up ^ `` How much wood would a woodchuck chuck ? '' , Spokane Chronicle ( July 11 , 1988 ) , p . A9 . Jump up ^ Press Wo n't Chuck That Woodchuck Story . Jump up ^ Giving this number without any error bars . Jump up ^ 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 . Jump up ^ Can be found transcribed in this list of quotes or in the game.en.wikiquote.org Jump up ^ 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 ... '' Jump up ^ 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 ... '' Jump up ^ Tim Gracyk , Bob Roberts - Tenor . Retrieved 16 May 2013 . Jump up ^ 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 ... ' '' . Jump up ^ The James T. Callow Folklore Archive , Tongue Twister : How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck , Michigan ; Farmington ; 09 - 26 - 1972 . Jump up ^ Nazarian , Robert ( November 17 , 2013 ) . `` Google Now Easter Egg collection '' . Retrieved April 3 , 2014 . Jump up ^ Knoll , Marc ( November 8 , 2013 ) . `` Awesome List Of Google Now Voice Commands '' . Retrieved April 3 , 2014 . Jump up ^ Shrestha , Ashesh ( December 28 , 2013 ) . `` Try These Google Now Easter Eggs '' . Nepal . Retrieved April 3 , 2014 . Jump up ^ `` 100 + Google Now Voice Commands and Easter Eggs '' . Retrieved June 4 , 2014 . Jump up ^ `` Monkey Island 2 : LeChuck 's Revenge ( 1991 Video Game ) Quotes '' . Jump up ^ `` Wolfram Alpha woodchuck easter egg '' . Jump up ^ `` Chamillionaire -- Creepin ( Solo ) Feat . Ludacris Lyrics '' . YouTube . March 13 , 2011 . p. 3 : 20 . Jump up ^ KSI ( 2017 - 08 - 12 ) , KSI ft Ricegum - Earthquake ( Official Music Video ) , retrieved 2017 - 11 - 06 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=How_much_wood_would_a_woodchuck_chuck&oldid=814115407 '' Categories : Fictional squirrels Tongue - twisters 1902 songs Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 6 December 2017 , at 23 : 44 . About Wikipedia
1. Woodchuck chucking wood
2. Tongue twister
3. Origin of the phrase
4. Popular culture references
5. Woodchuck's ability to chuck wood