Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

This article is about the children's counting rhyme. For the 1979 song, see Eeny Meeny Miny Moe (Luv' song). For the 2010 song, see Eenie Meenie.
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"
Roud #18267
Song
Form Nursery rhyme and counting-out game
Writer(s) Traditional
Language English

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820,[1] and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.

Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin.

Current versions

A common modern version is:[2]

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

There are many common variations, such as replacing tiger with "piggy", "tinker", "tigger", "chicken", "monkey", "baby", "spider", "teacher", "miner", a two-syllable name, etc.; and changing the verb in the third line to "screams", "wiggles", "squeals" or another verb.[3] The last two lines may be changed to "if he hollers, let him pay, fifty dollars every day."

Sometimes additional lines are added at the end of the rhyme to draw out or manipulate the selection process or make it seem less predetermined, such as:

My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U[3]

Or alternatively:

O-U-T spells out, you are not it.
Pig snout you are out. (Kiwi's only)
Out goes Y-O-U.[4]

Occasionally the line copies 'Ip dip':

Not because you're dirty,
Not because you're clean,
Just because you kissed a boy/girl behind the magazine.[5]

Origins

The first record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:

Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.[3]

The "Hana, man" was found by Henry Bolton in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.[3] Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:

Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?[3]

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one:

Hickery Pickery, pease scon
Where will this young man gang?
He'll go east, he'll go west,
he'll go to the crow's nest.
Hickery Pickery, Hickery Pickery[6]

More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version, is:

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;
Olla bolla Domino,
Okka, Pokka dominocha,
Hy! Pon! Tush!

This was one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888.[7]

A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:

Ena, mena, mona, mite,
Bascalora, bora, bite,
Hugga, bucca, bau,
Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.
Stick, stock, stone dead - OUT.[8]

One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count "Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite".[3]

Another possibility is that British colonials returning from the Sub-Continent introduced a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:

ubi eni mana bou,
baji neki baji thou,
elim tilim latim gou.[9]

The rhyme inspired the song "Eena Meena Deeka" in the 1957 Bollywood film Aasha.

Another possible origin is from a Swahili poem brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans: Iino ya mmiini maiini mo.[10]

Earlier version

Some older versions of this rhyme had the word nigger instead of tiger:

Eeny, meena, mina, mo,
Catch a nigger by the toe;
If he hollers let him go,
Eena, meena, mina, mo.[3]

This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.[11] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,
Catch a nigger by his toe,
If he won't work then let him go;
Skidum, skidee, skidoo.
But when you get money, your little bride
Will surely find out where you hide,
So there's the door and when I count four,
Then out goes you.[12]

It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his "A Counting-Out Song", from Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, published in 1935.[13] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.[3]

Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes that the word "nigger" was common in American folk-lore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.[3] This, combined with evidence of various other versions of the rhyme in the British Isles pre-dating this version, would seem to suggest that it originated in North America, although the apparently American word 'holler' was first recorded in written form in England in the fourteenth century, whereas according to the Oxford English Dictionary the words 'Niger' or 'nigger' were first recorded in England in the sixteenth century with their current disparaging meaning. The 'olla' and 'toe' are found as nonsense words in some nineteenth century versions of the rhyme, and it could possibly be that the original 'Where do all the Frenchmen Go?' (probably originating during one of the periods of Anglo-French warfare) was later on replaced by the earlier version in the United States, using some of the nonsense words.

Variations

There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from early twentieth century in the United States of America:

Eeny, meeny, miny moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers make him pay,
Fifty dollars every day.[3]

A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, is:

Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Put the baby on the po.
When he's done,
Wipe his bum.
And tell his mother what he's done.[14] (Alternatively: Shove the paper up the lum[15])

Versions collected in New Zealand in 2002 include:

Eeny, meeny, miny mangi,
Catch a mangi by the tangi.
If he squeals, steal his wheels,
Eeny, meeny, miny mangi.[4]

Lawsuit

A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go" and "Pick a seat, it's time to go". The passengers in question were African American and stated that they were humiliated due to what they called the "racist history" of the rhyme. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal was denied.[16]

Popular culture

There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny ..." is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,[17][18] the 2003 film Elephant,[19] and the sixth season finale of the AMC television series The Walking Dead.

Variants of the phrase are also common in song lyrics.

Other uses of the phrase in popular culture include:

Music

The vinyl release of Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997) uses the words "eeny meeny miny moe" (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.[20]

Eenie Meenie Records is a Los Angeles-based music record label.

The names of many songs include some or all of the phrase, including:

Literature

The title of Chester Himes's novel If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) refers to the rhyme.[21]

In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.[22]

Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.

Film and television

In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series.[23]

The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis".

The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor.[24]

In May 2014, an unbroadcast outtake of BBC motoring show Top Gear showed presenter Jeremy Clarkson reciting the rhyme and deliberately mumbling a line which some took to be "catch a nigger by his toe".[25] In response to accusations of racism, Clarkson apologised to viewers that his attempts to obscure the line "weren't quite good enough".[26]

In April 2016, the popular American TV show The Walking Dead used the rhyme in the final episode of season six, in which the character Negan uses it to choose who to kill.

See also

References

  1. ↑ I. & P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 1952), p. 12.
  2. ↑ Donna Wood (1971). Move, Sing, Listen, Play. Alfred Music Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 145749680-1.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 156-8.
  4. 1 2 L. and W. Bauer, "Choosing Who's In/It" (PDF). 2002. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  5. ↑ R. D. Abrahams and L. Rankin, Counting-out Rhymes: a Dictionary (University of Texas Press, 1980), p. 119.
  6. ↑ Charles Taylor Chatterings of the Pica (1820)
  7. ↑ H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888)
  8. ↑ Fred Jago The Glossary of the Cornish Dialect (1882)
  9. ↑ Nihar Ranjan Mishra, From Kamakhya, a socio-cultural study (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2004), p. 157.
  10. ↑ Bennett, P.R. (1974). Remarks on a little-known Africanism. Ba Shiru, 6(1), 69-71.
  11. ↑ H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888, Kessinger Publishing, 2006), pp. 46 and 105.
  12. ↑ B. Fitzgibbon, Words and music, "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" F. B. Haviland Publishing Co (1906).
  13. ↑ R. Kipling, R. T. Jones, G. Orwell, eds The Works of Rudyard Kipling (Wordsworth Editions, 1994), p. 771.
  14. ↑ I. Opie and P. Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 36.
  15. ↑ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zgErBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&source=bl&ots=toB3QtMZk3&sig=0yhNl3WaldT0Qv5e1aLEjEVx46k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidn6GP_cvPAhVpJMAKHZtADJYQ6AEIOTAD#v=onepage&q&f=false
  16. ↑ "Sawyer v. Southwest Airlines". Ca10.washburnlaw.edu. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
  17. ↑ S. Willis, High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film (Duke University Press, 1997), ISBN 082232041X, p. 199.
  18. ↑ J. Naisbitt, N. Naisbitt and D. Philips, High Tech High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2001), ISBN 1857882601, p. 85.
  19. ↑ A. Young, The Scene of Violence: Cinema, Crime, Affect (Routledge, 2009), ISBN 1134008724, p. 39.
  20. ↑ D. Griffiths, OK Computer (Continuum, 2004), p. 32.
  21. ↑ G. H. Muller, Chester Himes (Twayne, 1989), ISBN 0805775455, p. 23.
  22. ↑ M. Kimmich, Offspring Fictions: Salman Rushdie's Family Novels (Rodopi, 2008), ISBN 9042024909, p. 209.
  23. ↑ J. Lenburg Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators (Hal Leonard, 2006), ISBN 155783671X, p. 197.
  24. ↑ Slide, Anthony (1998). Banned in the U.S.A..: British Films in the United States and Their Censorship, 1933–1966. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-254-3. Retrieved 2008-10-02. p. 90.
  25. ↑ "Jeremy Clarkson: I didn't mean to use N-word - video| News | The Week UK". Theweek.co.uk. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
  26. ↑ Josh Halliday, Nicholas Watt and Kevin Rawlinson. "Jeremy Clarkson 'begs forgiveness' over N-word footage | Media". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
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