My 7 year old came home from school the other day and shared this little ditty with us (it’s used to determine who is ‘it’ in a game of tips etc, like eeny meeny miny mo):
Michey Mouse had a house underneath the movies, when the movie started, Mickey Mouse farted, what colour was his gas? (Someone then says a colour, and you spell out the colour.)
Anyway, this sent me back to a rhyme we used to sing way back when I was a kid:
Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. Wonder Woman lost her bosoms flying TAA.
I’m wondering how localised these little songs are – do they belong to individual schools, or do they spread across cities? Does anyone else have kids using the Mickey Mouse one? And does anyone else remember singing about Wonder Woman somehow misplacing her breasts on a Trans Australian Airlines flight?
Not very deep and meaningful questions, I know, but thought I’d put them out there anyways.
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Jesus chris
Superstar
Tearing round the corner on a Yamaha
Saw a cop
Had to stop
Hit him on the head with a lollypop
We three kings of orient are
One in a taxi
One in a car
One on a scooter
Beeping his hooter
Following yonder star
And definitely the Wonder Woman bosoms, flying TAA (Curtin Primary – mid to late 70s) & with a big HEY at the end.
I still can’t help but hear this in my head whenever I hear jingle bells. Always have this little video in my head of her boobs flying out the window and past the tail of the plane.
Wonder Woman lost her bosoms flying TAA – central NSW, early 1980s. Also around the same time:
Jesus Christ, Superstar
Riding along on his Yamaha
Did a skid, killed a kid
Banged (or burned) his balls on the petrol lid
How d’ya feel
When you’re driving the bus
And you bang your nuts
On the steering wheel
(I feel like a Tooheys…)
These were the good old days when we had good old words like ‘root’, ‘moot’ and ‘franger’, The Goodies were on before Doctor Who, and Rolf Harris could sing songs about enslaved Aborigines and nobody raised an eyebrow.
Keijidosha said :
Ditto, Newcastle, primary school, early 1970’s. God, we were witty…
Lazy I said :
Ah yes, it was pretty interesting how rules could differ completely across several courts in the one school from my experience. Me and my friends had the best rules however. Actually fair too. Good times.
oh and…’it’s a long way to the shops if you want a sausage roll’…
enrique said :
Back when I was young we sang ‘catch a nigger by the toe’…stuffed if I even knew what that was. As far as I knew is could have been a ‘nicker’. Additionally, back then the lollies were called ‘fags’ not ‘fads’ and we were allowed to make reference to a golliwog. Ah the innocent days…oh and another song was ‘baked beans good for the heart, baked beans make you fart, the more you eat the better you feel, baked beans for every meal’ hehehe
I remember the wonder woman as well as Father Christmas lost his whiskers flying TAA (South Australia means its not Santa Claus which wouldn’t work)
The one we used to sing as school was:
“Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. Mr Freeze burnt his knees while smoking Craven A.”
We had the batman one in the UK, so hardly a local thing
I can only remember two versions of this one –
We three kings of orient are
Selling ladies’ underwear
They’re fantastic –
No elastic!
Only ten cents a pair.
And
We three kings of orient are
Smoking on a rubber cigar
It was loaded
It exploded!
Now we are only two.
Holden Caulfield said :
“Did a skid, hit a kid, and burned his b@!!$ on the petrol lid!!!”
Oh wow, it’s all coming back to me now…
Eeeny meeny miny mo, catch a tiger by his toe, if he squeals let him go, eeny meeny miny mo. Boy scout you’re out. Not because you’re dirty, not because you’re clean, just because you kissed the girls behind a magazine!
We also had the “bosoms” variant at my school in Sydney (late 70’s to mid 80’s)
It’s weird this post has started this week, I was have a conversation with someone on the weekend about hand ball rules on the hand ball courts were so localised and how completely nonsensical it all seems now but it was gospel when you were a kid.
Our school had a hand ball rules named after all kinds of strange things.
I remember seeing a program on the ABC where they interviewed a woman that kept a catalog of schoolyard games / rhymes for historical preservation. I unfortunately can’t remember the name of the program, but I remember her explaining some of the different variants that cropped up from different areas/schools, may be worth chasing up.
As for Wonder Woman.. if my school taught me anything, it was that she lost her bosoms flying to L.A. (wonder if that was a result of Chinese whispers.. or adapted because TAA no longer existed)
Midwest NSW was:
“Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. The Batmobile lost its wheel, the joker got away, HEY!” (Repeat ad nauseum.)
Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. Wonder Woman lost her bosoms flying TAA.
We had this one, word for word (circa grade 2).
we sang the bosoms version in sydney
We had the “bosoms” variant at my school in Perth in the mid to late 80s. My fiance went to primary school in Townsville and knew a slightly different version, similar to p1’s variation but with the last line changed to “the Joker got away”.
All I know is Ballarat must have a lot of copy cats.
Oh, I don’t remember the words exactly but Wonder Woman and TAA does rings a bell for me too. Not quite as good as Jesus Christ Superstar, riding over hills on a Yamaha…
Jungle Jim said :
Same here. TAA changed to Australian Airlines in 1986, but I still sing it that way.
“Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin flew away. The Batmobile, lost a wheel, and landed in Bombay…” was also a common variant.
I found that these things seemed to go in waves, changing slightly even from one grade to anther within the same school (I had older and younger siblings to compare with).
Never did hear of Wonder Woman loosing here bosoms though…
We always sung it as “Wonder Woman lost her bra…”