What Did The Fox Say Song Lyrics

Where The Lyrics Actually Come From

The "What Did The Fox Say" song was released in 2013 by Ylvis, a Norwegian comedy duo. It became a massive viral hit on YouTube, reaching over a billion views. The song is built around the premise of imagining what sound a fox would make if it weren't "ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding." The lyrics are straightforward nonsense comedy, not particularly deep, but the melody stuck around longer than most novelty songs from that era. Here are the actual lyrics to the song for anyone looking to reference them: When I was a child, I heard sounds in the night
Like a distant hooting, echoing through the trees
And whenever my parents asked me who it could be
I said maybe it was some spooky owl, don't you know?

Now I'm living out in the woods
I see animals every day
Rabbits, squirrels, even the occasional bear
But nothing prepared me for what I heard one night What does the fox say?
Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding
What does the fox say?
Wah-wah-wah
Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff
What does the fox say?
Helicopter blades buzzing flies
Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle
Echolocation
Didgeridoo
Yappity-yippity-yoop-yoop
What does the fox say? The rest continues with increasingly absurd phonetic sounds. The key thing to understand is that these are not random. The production team spent time mapping out consonant clusters that sound distinctly "otherworldly" to human ears. That's why it works as a song rather than just a recording of someone making noise.

How People Actually Use These Lyrics

Most people end up searching for these lyrics for one of three reasons: they want to sing along at a party, they need them for a kids' activity or classroom, or they're trying to settle a debate about what certain sounds in the song actually are. I ran into the third one repeatedly back when I was moderating music forums. People would argue for hours about whether "klik-klik-klik" was supposed to represent bat echolocation or just random percussion. The workaround I started using was to find the official lyric video from Ylvis on YouTube and pause it frame by frame. The on-screen text resolves most disputes. When it still didn't help, I'd go to the song's publishing information through ASCAP or BMI databases. Sometimes the credited writers list alternate spellings that clarify the intended pronunciation. If you need a clean text version without ads or pop-ups cluttering your screen, sites like AZLyrics or Genius carry the full lyrics. Genius tends to have more annotated breakdowns of each section, which can actually be useful since the song has several distinct verses that some printouts skip over.

Common Problems When Looking for These Lyrics

One thing nobody warns you about: many lyric sites have incomplete versions. The song runs roughly three minutes and forty seconds, but a lot of compressed listings online cut off after the first chorus and a couple verses. If you're trying to learn the whole thing and your source only has about half, you'll waste time cross-referencing. Another issue is the phonetic spellings. Sites often standardize them differently. One might write "yappity-yippity-yoop-yoop" while another renders it as "wapiti-wippity-wop-wop." Neither is wrong because the original audio is deliberately mumbly and indistinct. The best approach is to pick one source and stick with it rather than trying to merge multiple versions together. You'll just end up with a Frankenstein lyric sheet that doesn't match the song anymore. There's also the matter of version differences. The radio edit trims some sections compared to the full album version. If you have the single edit and are reading lyrics for the longer version, you'll encounter passages that have no corresponding audio. I learned this the hard way when preparing a karaoke track for a friend's birthday and hitting sections where nothing was supposed to happen.

Download and Usage Notes

The official audio is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and other major platforms. If you want a PDF of the lyrics, the easiest route is visiting Genius or AZLyrics and using their print function. Some users prefer to screenshot the Genius page and compile their own version, which gives you control over formatting and font size. For performance rights, note that Ylvis holds the publishing. If you're using these lyrics commercially, in a video, or for public performance, you'll need to go through the proper licensing channels. This isn't something to skip. A lot of people assume novelty songs fall under fair use because they're silly, but that's not how copyright works. I've seen channels get strikes for exactly this reason. If you just want to sing it at home or share the lyrics with friends, you're fine. The song is widely available and the official channels make it easy to access. The whole thing is essentially a comedy sketch set to music, which is probably why it aged the way it did. It was never meant to be taken seriously, and the lyrics reflect that from start to finish.