Ole Miss' Hotty Toddy cheer is a cherished part of the history and tradition of Ole Miss. This cheer, which makes no allusion to anything hot, such as a toddy, is a corruption of "highty-tighty," an expression of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, used as an exclamation, for example by Dickens, or as an adjective, like "highfalutin'." A mispronunciation of "hoity-toity," the term "highty-tighty" was the original phrase in the football cheer as requred by the rhyme with "Gosh-A-Mighty." The date of the cheer is uncertain, but University documents show that it may have come from the early 1920's when the wave of post-World War I "flaming youth" clashed, at least in language, with belated Victorian sensibility. The cheer begins with the simple question, "Are you ready?" The resulting response, ("Hell yes! Damn right!") answers the question positively, but with another set of exclamations ("Hotty Toddy, Gosh-A-Mighty") a second question is then asked, ("Who in the hell are we?"). The response to the second question is answered with the emphatic affirmation, "OLE MISS, by damn!"
C'mon guys, it was an honest answer to an honest question asked by one of our own. You guys are ruthless.
don't some people take medication for contracting Hotty Totty? this cheer bhamreb told us about needs some tweaking for the 21st century, something like: Who the hell are we? We are Ole Miss, mf'ers! Bring back our mascot please!
Good question Mesquite, I hadn't even thought of it b4. By the way, I heard Ole Missy is going to bus in the Ag-E cheerleaders in especially to lead this cheer for the LSU game. If you have ever seen the A & M "cheerleaders", you know what I mean !
