"What'll We Do With Him Boys? (The Yanks Made a Monkey Out of You)"
by William J. (“Sailor”) Reilly

We did not, if we listen to "What'll We Do With Him Boys?" go with a plan except to get the Kaiser. "The joy ahead of us" that the sergeant relates here is to "sail away for France, tomorrow morning." The rest of the song is a "put up or shut up" statement. "We said that we would give the Kaiser his / We waited for our chance and here it is," the song goes, but then we reach the uncertainty of the chorus. "What'll we do with him, boys?" it is asked. And the answer is "We'll cage him up and send him to the zoo / Where the lion and giraffe / Can take a look at him and laugh / And say, the Yanks made a monkey out of you." The rest of the songs of this genre reap the same reward, brave front, big noise, happy civilians. The fact that it is sung by a service man couldn't have hurt either.

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