Answer: Hot dogs!

It would be all too easy to assume that Mickey Mouse’s first spoken words were “Oh boy!”, because simply thinking of the iconic mouse’s voice brings to mind that familiar high pitch and his signature exclamation.

But while “Oh boy!” might be his trademark now, it wasn’t the first thing Mickey Mouse said when he finally made the jump from not speaking (but whistling, laughing, or otherwise vocalized to express himself). In the 1929 short The Karnival Kid, where Mickey operates a hot dog stand outside a carnival show, he yells to the crowd “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!” in rhythm to the carnival music in the background.

While his first words (and the short they appeared in) might be long forgotten by most, they are echoed in the popular modern show Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, a computer animated children’s show that aired from 2006-2016 and is still in heavy rotation on the Disney Junior station. The show’s credits song “Hot Dog!” performed by They Might Be Giants is an homage to the original short and Mickey’s first spoken words.