The verses are generally irreverent, sometimes barbed, but seldom ill-natured.
Campus favorites other than faculty members have been sung about, too.
The tune, a sample verse, and the chorus are shown below. The idea of the song was borrowed from students at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut by Andrew C. Imbrie 1895, who composed the first verses. The life expectancy of the average faculty verse is only a few years, but some have gone on for a decade or more. A verse for Professor William Berryman Scott, composed in 1902, was still being sung in 1919. Another, celebrating the arrival of the original preceptors in 1905, was still being sung in 1930.