The song was covered by The Kidsongs Kids for the Kidsongs video A Day at Camp, released in 1989.[7]
Sony Music included a Children's Chorus version on the 3-CD release Favorite Children's Songs in 2004.[8]
A children's parody version of the song often uses lyrics such as "Hitler is a jerk,
Mussolini is a weenie." (Or in a more vulgar vein, "...Mussolini bit his weenie, now it doesn't squirt (or "work" in another version)!" or "...Mussolini chopped his weenie, now it doesn't work!" ) Several variants are cited in
Iona and
Peter Opie's survey, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. One variant is "Whistle While You Work. Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini is a meanie and the
Japs are worse."
The Dad's Army episode "
The Deadly Attachment" contains a scene in which
Private Pike sings a parody of the song mocking Hitler to a captured German officer. This prompts the prisoner to add Pike's name to a list of names for whom retribution will be sought after the war ends, after
Captain Mainwaring inadvertently gives it away by exclaiming "Don't tell him, Pike!" after the prisoner asks what it is.
Django Reinhardt and
Ray Ventura et ses Collégiens recorded a version entitled "Sifflez en travaillant" in the jazz guitar and swing style, featured on the album "Intégrale Django Reinhardt Vol 7 (1937-1938)".[9]