That Ice Cream Truck Jingle Is Really A Minstrel Song From 1916

Via NPR’s Codeswitch, a nice, disgusting piece of history; this song, recorded by actor Harry C. Browne and just very much titled Nigger Love a Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!, lets the ice cream riff go exactly once before stopping it with this interlude:

Browne: “You niggers quit throwin’ them bones and come down and get your ice cream!”
Black men (incredulously): “Ice Cream?!?”
Browne: “Yes, ice cream! Colored man’s ice cream: WATERMELON!!”

The melody itself comes from “Turkey in the Straw,” a folk song popularized by minstrel performers in the early 19th century, which later turned into “Zip Coon,” the song that served as the basis for “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” another notorious piece of racist Americana. [NPR]