Hello and welcome back to the Most Amazing Channel on the internet.
I am your host Rebecca Felgate and today we are talking about the Top 10 Scary Nursery
Rhyme Dark Origins.
Have you guys seen some of our similar videos – like the top 10 scary cursed songs you
should never listen to!
There is a link to that in the cards of this video which should be above my head right
now if you want to check that out later.
Before we get into this video too….
I want to ask you what your favourite nursery rhyme is!
I am all about a bit of twinkle twinkle little star….
Cosmic.
Okay – nursery rhymes – nursery rhymes are something we sing to children – mostly
babies….. butttt are they appropriate ?
- Ring o Ring o Roses I think that North America and the Uk have
slightly different wordings for this nursery rhyme but they have the same dark origin!
In the UK it goes Ring o Ring o roses, a pocket full of posies, attisho, attisho, we all fall
down.
I know in some variations people say Ashes Ashes but either way, as some of you may know
this cute little nursery rhyme kids sing while holding hands in a circle is actually about
the majority of Europe dying from the Plague.
The all fall down bit - where these days kids will throw themselves on the floor, is literally
about dropping dead.
How dark.
Ring o ring of roses is about the red rash plague victims would notice at the onset of
the sickness, he pocket filled with posies is about the herbs and flowers people would
smell that they believed protected them from the plague.. the atisho is a sneeze – also
a symptom, and the ashes bit is about how the bodies of victims were burned.
What a cheery ditty.
9 - Eeey Meeny Miney Moe Just when you thought learning to count via
a cute little nusery rhyme was safe, you find out that actually the poem was hella racist.
Not cool.
So in the UK we say Eeney meeny miny moe, catch a piggy by its toe, and in the States
I think they say tiger… but anyway…. in the original, it was not an animal, but the
N word.
And he rest of the rhyme was awful - If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee,
skidoo.
Getting kids to count and teaching them deepset racism.
Awful.
8 - It’s Raining It’s Pouring I used to like singing this one…
I think because I found the prospect of snoring kind of funny.
The rhyme goes – It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.
He went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning.
Why?
Oh, cause he is dead, apparently.
The origin of the story here seems to be from England, where we do love a good pint.
It is thought the man was a drunk - no better place to hide from the rain and drown your
sorrows than the pub?
The nursery rhyme is a cautionary tale about drinking too much to ail your woes – if
you take it too far, you might drunkenly bump your head and not get up in the morning!
7 - This Little Piggy I loved it when I was really small and my
mum would play This Little Piggy on my toes!
This Little Piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed at home.
This little Piggy had roast beef, and this little piggy had none, and THIS little piggy
went weee wee wee wee weee weee all the way home…it would always end in a tickle and
lots of laughter.
Now, as an adult and a vegetarian I realise what the rhyme actually meant – the piggy
who went to the market wasn’t going shopping for lovely things to eat….he was the thing
to eat.
He went to market to be sold, then killed and eaten.
Maybe some little cows out there were eating roast pork just to complete the rhyme.
We should have known all along – the Piggy who went to market was always the big chubby
toe, too…. the fattest and tastiest of all the toes.
In August 2018, a tweet from Samantha went viral when she realised exactly this…..
and a lot of people were shocked too.
. Leave the piggys, and toes for that matter, alone!
6 - London Bridge Is Falling Down Long before Fergie decided to sing about London,
London, London, kids for centuries had been singing the old London Bridge is falling down
nursery rhyme.
It is thought that in parts the song refers to immurement – which is a centuries old
practice especially popular in the middle ages where people thought human sacrifice
would make a building strong.
The rumour was that dozens of children were bricked into the walls of London Bridge to
stop it from ever falling.
Dark.
Next up, a zest rhyme with a very dark undertone!
5 - Oranges and Lemons Oranges and Lemons say the bells of saint
Clements.
What a lovely little tune.
I always forget the bit at the end that goes Here comes a candle to light you to bed, and
here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead.
Okay….pretty sinister.
It turns out the bells of st clements.
It seems executions always started with the chiming of bells.
The whole song is about an execution…..execution by decapitation.
Awful.
4 - Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie Turns out Georgie Porgie is not legit.
You may have heard of the rhyme – it goes Georgie Porgie Puffing and pie, Kissed the
girls and made them cry, when the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.
Turns out lil Georgie here was a sex pest.
Georgie is thought to refer to Georgie Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham – a man who people
speculated King James the First was in love with.
There isn’t any proof of this, but it was said that Villiers had wandering eyes and
hands and was VERY fond of young women.
It is said he would force himself on women who didn’t consent to his advance, sexually
abusing them and raping them.
He often was set upon by their husbands – the boys who came out to play – leading him
to run away before they could punish him.
It seems he was never truly punished because of the Kings protection.
3 - Ten Little Indians I guess I should have seen this one coming….
Ten little Indians had another nasty variant using the N word….annnnd here is the cover
to a book of the Icelandic version of the song.
Not okay.
In 1868 a song called 10 Little Injuns was adapted and elaborated for a minstrel show,
which isn’t the most awkward thing about this story – the most scary and awkward
thing is that the lyrics counted down from ten with an Injun dying each stanza.
RIGHT.
Horrible.
2 Peter The Pumpkin Eater This one goes – Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater.
Had a wife and couldn’t keep her.
He put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well.
I’ll admit that while as a kid I just enjoyed rhyming Peter with Pumpkin Eater…on closer
inspection the words are quite concerning.
Like why couldn’t Peter keep his wife and what on earth do you mean he put her in a
pumpkin shell?
Well it turns out that actually the rhyme dates back to young and decidedly more religious
America.
Back then the rhyme was a warning to women – a warning that they had to be faithful
else they might fall victim of comeuppance.
You see it seems Peter found his wife cheating on her, murdered her and hid her body in a
giant hallowed out pumpkin.
Cool.
It seems that there is a similar ditty from English folklore called Eeper Weeper about
a chimney sweep who killed his second wife.
Stop killing wives… just… you…move on like everyone else!
1 - Mary Mary Quite Contrary Mary Mary quite contrary, How does your garden
grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row.
Sounds legit, right – a nice garden!
But wait, why is Mary so contrary?
That means like conflicting… which is weird for a pretty girl in a garden… it turns
out that the nursey rhyme is actually about Bloody Mary – Mary the 1st of England – Mary
Tudor….this formidable queen reigned for just years, in which time she managed to kill
over three hundred protestants, earning her the name Bloody Mary.
The Nursery rhyme is actually about her spate of murders.
The garden is actually a euphemism for her growing cemeteries, as she filled them with
her religious murder victims.
Silver bells and cockle shells were instruments of torture and the maiden was a device used
to behead people.
So that was the top 10 Scary Nursey Rhyme dark origins…what did you think to this
video and which scared you the most?
Let me know in the comments section down below…
Comments from my recent video – the Top 10 Scary Grim Reaper Urban Legends
Connect the Dots said – seasons do not fear the reaper – nor do the sun and the wind
and the rain.
To which Hentai Forever wrote: The IRS doesn’t either.
Ha….
True.
I found this comment from one of our channel members – Jennifer – Really interesting
! the banshee isnt just in irish legend shes also in scot. it was either my great grandfather
or my great great grandfather, i cant remember which, but one of them claimed to have heard
a banshee screaming when his father died.?
That is terrifying but sooo interesting!
Another of our channel members – Laura Anderson said - The grim reaper is scary enough without
any urban legends?
YOU ARE right ! Honestly this channel gives me nightmares!
Yey channel members !