Math & words

Tacocat!

Spell TACOCAT. Now read it backward. Wait…

Watch on YouTube
Tacocat!3:18

A song. A few new discoveries.

Play with words, names, sentences and numbers that read the same forward and backward. Try noon, kayak, racecar and “Never odd or even,” then discover a clock time, a date and a very big multiplication pattern.

For sentence palindromes, ignore spaces, punctuation and capitalization. February 2, 2020 works in the DDMMYYYY and MMDDYYYY formats shown. “Stressed” becomes “desserts” backward—but those different words are not a palindrome.

Made for curious kids around ages 6–12 and the grown-ups watching with them. Music and animation created with AI tools under Mike Sego’s direction. YouTube’s video description includes the release notes and credits.

Read the sing-along lyrics
Smarty Party! Okay. Spell "tacocat." Now spell it backwards. T-A-C-O-C-A-T. Whoa. A palindrome's a word that you can flip around— Read it back to front, it's the same word you found! Noon is noon, and wow is wow, Mom is mom—try it now! A kayak paddles either way, And level's level every day! Hannah, Anna, Otto, Bob— Spell 'em backwards—good job! Tacocat! Tacocat! Spell it backwards—still tacocat! Left to right or right to left, It's the same both ways—how 'bout that? Tacocat! Tacocat! Now whole sentences! Skip the spaces, Skip the commas—just the letters in their places! "Was it a car or a cat I saw?" Backwards, too! "Never odd or even!" Backwards, too! "Step on no pets!" Backwards, too! And the famous one from nineteen forty-eight: "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!" Great! Tacocat! Tacocat! Spell it backwards—still tacocat! Left to right or right to left, It's the same both ways—how 'bout that? Tacocat! Tacocat! Wow! Aha! Racecar! Aha! Wow! Aha! Racecar! Aha! Wait! Numbers do it too: one-two-one— Eleven times eleven, that's how it's done! Check the clock at twelve twenty-one— Read it backwards, it's the same one! Even a date: oh-two, oh-two, twenty-twenty— Any way you write it, it's the same—how nifty! Nine ones, times nine ones, makes... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! The tune goes up and comes back down the same— This bridge is a palindrome! That's the game! Tacocat! Tacocat! Spell it backwards—still tacocat! Left to right or right to left, It's the same both ways—how 'bout that? Tacocat! Tacocat! Spell it backwards—still tacocat! Wow! Aha! Racecar! Aha! Wow! Wow! Aha! Racecar! Aha! Wow! Okay. Spell "stressed" backwards. D-E-S-S-E-R-T-S. ...Desserts! I feel better already. Smarty Party Songs! Like, subscribe, PARTY!

Lyrics from the published video’s caption file.

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A new discovery. A ridiculous adventure. A song you’ll probably hear again at breakfast.

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