18
What nursery rhymes and playground songs were popular when you were very young?
(lemmy.blahaj.zone)
Jingle bells Batman smells…
this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
18 points (90.9% liked)
Ask Lemmy
39891 readers
882 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Robin laid an egg
Ah. You're from the post-Simpsons generation. Prior to the Simpsons writers popularising the egg line, the most common version had "Robin flew away".
Where I am, the next lines usually had Batman losing his underpants in a location that rhymed with "(a)way", most often a motorway.
Tom Scott did an entire video about this. That the UK has endless versions, but the US has been "laid an egg" for basically all of living memory.
robin's been laying an egg since at least the 1970s
This one was a clapping game rhyme.
Miss Mary Mac Mac Mac
All dressed in black black black
With silver buttons buttons buttons
All down her back back back
There was more, something about her house and pushing someone down stairs I think but I can't remember.
Ok so I couldn't get this out of my head and looked it up and it turns out the 'official' rhyme has it's own wikipedia page, but it's nothing like how I remember it? The official version is full of hippos and elephants and shit and she's a kid, it's really weird.
In the version I did at school, Mary Mac was an old lady and she lived in an old house, and I think it was her mother she pushed down the stairs?
This little snippet came back to me while I was doing the dishes- 'down the stairs, stairs stairs' and then something something 'crack, crack, crack, she broke her back, back, back'.
Man I wish I could remember it all, this would have been a fascinating addition to the folklore to record somewhere.
Hello operator, give me number 9,
And if you disconnect me, I think I'll lose my..
I remember seeing girls doing so many of those. That was a big one. There was another one where, it worked into the clapping game choreography, every line ended with "Bisquick" and at that point you'd reach up and brush your shoulders.
Basically from birth until adulthood when your life ends and your job begins, the girls around me were constantly sharing stuff like that between them. Over a couple decades it smoothly transitioned from pattycake to line dances to club dances. Double Dutch was in there, somewhere.
Ring around the Rosie Pocket full of posies Ashes ashes We all fall down!
Tic-Tac-Toe 3-in-a-row Barney got shot by a GI Joe Called the doctor, the doctor said Whoop! Barney's dead
I've not heard that second one, bet it was popular tho, I know primary school aged me would've found it hysterical and repeated it endlessly.
Postman pat, Postman pat, Postman pat ran over his cat. Blood and guts went fly-ing, Postman pat was cry-ing, That will teach him not to drink and drive
I remember the last line as "Have you ever seen a cat as flat as that?"
That rhymes way better
Saßen zwei Gestalten
auf dem Donnerbalken
und sie schrien
nach Klopapier
Klopapier ...
Und dann kam der Dritte
Setzt sich in die Mitte
Und sie schrien
nach Klopapier
Klopapier ... (this continues counting till ten. It's about an old fashioned wooden many-seated outhouse without toiletpaper which breaks down in the end. It's one of two songs about poop my dad taught us, which briefly made my brother and me the rockstars of the playground. Poop!)
I love you, you love me... Then something about ganging up on Barnie...
🎵I hate you,
You hate me,
We're a fucked up family🎵
Was definitely popular on the playground when I was a kid.
As was "diarrhea, chachacha"
Let's get together and kill Barney
With a great big (gun?) and a kick from you and me?
Skibidi dab dab dee yes yes
Skibidi dab dab dee dee
Lies
Jingle bells Jingle bells, Santa Claus is dead // GI Joe the Eskimo shot him in the head.
Row row row your boat, gently down the stream // Throw your teacher overboard and listen to her scream.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school // We have tortured every teacher and we've broken every rule.
Chinese, Japanese, Dirty knees, Look at these.
Relax, don’t do it
Pick your nose and chew it
Ri ra rutsch, wir fahren mit der Kutsch
- I've Been Working On The Railroad.
- There was an Old Man Named Michael Finnegan.
Beginegan?
Under, Over, Pepsi Cola! One-a-baba, two-a-baba, un deux trois!
Un elefante, brinco le daba, a una tela de araña.
Y cuando vio, que sostenía, vino brincar otro elefante,
Dos elefantes...
Huh, that one was different for me, it was:
Un elefante, se columpiaba(n), sobre la tela de una araña
Como veía, que resistía, fue(ron) a llamar a otro elefante
Dos elefantes...
Probably changes based on where. I grew up partially in El Salvador.
We also had the CriCri(?) nursery rhymes, and another one I vaguely remember that went something like
Allá en la puente, había un chorrito,
Se hacía grande, de hacía chiquito
But I forgot the rest of the lyrics at the moment
We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship...
I don't remember. It was a very long time ago.
Honestly fair