National Kazoo Day Date in the current year: January 28, 2024

The kazoo is a musical instrument that modifies the player’s voice by adding a “buzzing” quality to it when the player vocalizes into the instrument. The kazoo has a membrane that vibrates when the player hums (rather than blows) into the instrument and thus changes the sound of the voice.

Membrane instruments that modify the player’s voice have been used in Africa for centuries. The kazoo is believed to have been invented by an African-American man named Alabama Vest and German-American clockmaker Thaddeus Von Clegg from Macon, Georgia around the 1840s but there is no documentary evidence to support this claim.

The documented history of the kazoo began in 1879, when Simon Seller patented a “Toy Trumpet” that had the same operating principle as the kazoo. Four years later, Warren Herbert Frost patented the kazoo, although his instrument didn’t have the submarine shape associated with modern kazoos. The modern kazoo, and the first one made of metal, was patented by George D. Smith in 1902.

In 1912, Emil Sorg launched commercial production of kazoos. Four years later, he opened a factory in Eden, New York. Today, there are two kazoo factories in the United States: the Original Kazoo Factory in Eden and the Kazoobie Kazoo Factory in Beaufort, South Carolina. The Beaufort factory also operates the Kazoo Museum that opened in the current location in 2010 (it was originally established in 2007 in Seattle, Washington).

The kazoo is one of the easiest instruments to play, so it is widely played by professionals and amateurs alike. It is rarely used in what you might call “serious music”; kazoos are much more common in jug bands and comedy bands. They are often used to create a comic effect in soundtracks and other recordings.

National Kazoo Day has been observed every year since 1983. It was founded by Chaplin Willard Rahn of the Joyful Noise Kazoo Band to celebrate the joy and happiness that kazoo music brings to people of all ages and backgrounds.

There are many ways to celebrate National Kazoo Day. You can learn interesting facts about this musical instrument and share them with anyone who is willing to listen, listen to kazoo music, start learning to play the kazoo or teach someone if you already can play, make your own kazoo, start a kazoo band, or book a kazoo factory tour if you can make a trip to New York or South Carolina.

And don’t forget to spread the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #NationalKazooDay and #KazooDay. By the way, National Kazoo Day isn’t the only holiday celebrating this amazing instrument! There’s also International Kazoo Day, celebrated annually on February 19 to raise global awareness of the kazoo and popularize the instrument on all continents.