The song is a "playlet," a word Stoller used for the glimpses into teenage life that characterized the songs Leiber and Stoller wrote and produced. The lyrics describe the listing of household chores to a kid, presumably a teenager, the teenager's response and the parents' retort — an experience very familiar to a middle-class teenager of the day. Leiber has said the Coasters portrayed "a white kid’s view of a black person’s conception of white society." The serio-comic street-smart “playlets” etched out by the songwriters were sung by the Coasters with a sly clowning humor, while the saxophone of King Curtis filled in, in the up-tempo doo-wop style. The group was openly "theatrical" in style—they were not pretending to be expressing their own experience. The threatened punishment for not taking out the garbage and sweeping the floor is, in the song's humorous lyrics: And the refrain is:
Popular culture
Québécois duo Les Jérolas recorded in 1959 a French version "Rouspet' pas"
Billy Sanders recorded a version in German, "Jackety Jack" in early 1959. .
The sax solo by King Curtis inspired the 1963 Boots Randolph song "Yakety Sax"
Sha Na Na performed this as part of their set at the original Woodstock Festival and recorded 2 live covers of the song in 1971 and 1972
The song was covered by Jan & Dean and was planned to be released on their album Carnival of Sound in 1968. Carnival of Sound was not released until 2010.
Lee Perry released a cover version in 1969, altering the lyric "You ain't gonna rock and roll no more" to "You ain't gonna reggae reggae reggae no more"
The Pipkins covered their song in 1970, produced by John Burgess.
Electronic/disco group El Coco covered this song in 1975 with some comedy elements, taken from their debut album, Mondo Disco, released on AVI Records.
Vince Vance & the Valiants, one of multiple groups parodying Barbara Ann as "Bomb Iran" in 1980, created a similarly themed 2005 parody called "Yakety Yak ".
Stand by Me, the 1986 classic coming of age drama included "Yakety Yak" on its iconic soundtrack.
The song has also been mixed & recorded by 2 Live Crew for the 1988 movieTwins. In the same film, Julius sings along, with hilarious results, as the song plays in his earphones while flying to the United States.
The song is sung by the Coasters in the 1988 horror-comedy Phantom of the Ritz which the four-man group makes a cameo appearance.
It has also served as the theme to Clive Anderson's chat-show Clive Anderson Talks Back during the 1990s, and as the opening theme of the 1988 movie The Great Outdoors.
It was the inspiration and theme song for the 2002-2003 Canadian/Australian animated series, Yakkity Yak.
A modified version, "Yakety Yak, Take it Back", was used in a 1990 all-star PSA for the Take It Back Foundation.
A music video starring Plucky Duck as the kid tasked with chores, and a group of anthropomorphic yaks in police officer suits, aired on the 90th episode of Tiny Toon Adventures and used in The Plucky Duck Show.
The song was parodied for use in adverts for Radox bath soak and McCain Micro Chips in the 1980s and 1990s respectively.
