Picture this: a family on a road trip home after a fun summer day in the sun, speeding down the interstate. As the minivan rolls up to the closest town, a green guide sign next to the approaching exit pops up off of the right shoulder, advertising ice cream available for tired travelers in need of a break. As if reading each other’s minds, the parents break into grins, reciting a chant together “I scream, you scream,”—the whole family joins in—” we all scream for ice cream!

It’s a familiar saying—one some of us have likely heard countless times growing up, and perhaps repeated obnoxiously with our friends when the ice cream truck rolled down the street—but just where did this peculiar saying come from?

It’s not hard to imagine some clever person or ice cream connoisseur saying the words when the topic of the scoopable treat came up—the delectable dessert we call ice cream is definitely something worth screaming over—but it’s a silly little saying, nonetheless.

Whether you deem the ten-word saying silly or a poetic work of literary genius, there is a bit of interesting history to the origin of the phrase, dating back to the first half of the twentieth century.

The I-Scream Bar

Unsurprisingly, the origins of one of our favorite ice-cream-related sayings come from an old advertising slogan. The ad industry of the early twentieth century was on a roll with the advent of so many new inventions in need of advertising, and the story goes that the saying “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” was originally a slogan for the treat now known as Edy’s Pie. The ice cream treat itself was originally coined the “I-Scream bar,” and, well...you can probably figure out why the origin story of the saying has ties to this particular ice cream bar based solely off of the name 

The inventor of the I-Scream bar, Christian Kent Nelson, is said to have come up with a catchy advertising slogan for his bar that went something along the lines of “I-scream, you scream, we all scream for the I-scream bar!” While definitely not as catchy as our modernized saying, it gets the job done. 

The I-Scream bar itself is actually a rather significant dessert as far as the history of ice cream is concerned. Up until Christian Kent Nelson created the I-Scream bar, there was no such ice cream bar in existence! The inspiration for creating the ice cream bar reportedly came to Nelson when he was manning his confectionary store in 1920. It was during a particularly sweltering day that a young boy came in to buy ice cream, but then changed his mind and decided to buy a chocolate bar. Nelson reportedly asked the boy why he changed his mind, and he said he wanted both but only had money for one treat.

From there, Nelson worked to create a one-of-a-kind ice cream bar that was coated in chocolate. After finally perfecting the recipe, Nelson began to give out his treats, and they were a smashing success. Nelson eventually partnered with Russell C. Stover, the famed chocolatier, to make the ice cream treat. They renamed the I-Scream bar the Eskimo Pie, and the name was then changed to Edy’s Pie in 2020.

Not Just a Saying—A Song

The next evolution of this catchy slogan came in the form of a jazz song written by Billy Moll, Robert King, and Howard Johnson called “I scream – You scream – We All Scream For Ice Cream.” The song was reportedly a hit in influential jazz clubs across the country, played by such important jazz groups as The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2006.

The song is complete with several verses and a chorus, and lots of “Rahs!” for good measure. Here is the chorus of the well-known song:

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Rah! Rah! Rah!

Tuesdays, Mondays, we all scream for sundaes,

Sis-boom-bah!

Boola-boola, sarsaparoolla,

If you got chocolate, we’ll take vanoola!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

Rah! Rah! Rah!”

“I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” continued to rise in popularity through the 1950s and 1960s, becoming even more well known when it was featured in the 1973 movie, Sleeper. The Woody Allen film stars Diane Keaton and is set in a dystopian future—a plot that contrasts quite drastically with the upbeat jazz song. Nevertheless, Allen included the song on the movie’s soundtrack and performed it himself on clarinet with the aforementioned Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the New Orleans Funeral and Ragtime Orchestra.

Well, there you have it—a complete and quirky history of the saying we’ve all heard as kids concerning our favorite summertime treat. Maybe this means we all need to start singing “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” when the Besties Ice Cream truck rolls through the neighborhood. Or maybe it just means that we now know a little more about the origins of the silly little saying that has been commonplace vernacular for years and years. Either way, all this talk about ice cream has undoubtedly conjured up nostalgic memories of licking a scoop of sweet, creamy ice cream balanced on a sugary cone.

If that’s what you’re craving, you better reserve Besties Ice Cream Truck for your next party or event, or track us down if you’re in Denver. After all, I scream, you scream, we all scream for Besties Ice Cream!