History Main / NurseryRhyme

Modern lore often attributes macabre and horrifying "origin stories" to nursery rhymes; the most widespread possibly being that "Ring Around the Rosy" [[note]]"Ring a Ring o' Roses" in British English[[/note]] is a song about [[TheBlackDeath the plague]]. While that particular example is most likely {{Urban Legend|s}}, debate continues for others. The origins of most nursery rhymes are simply not known, and many are in all likelyhood nonsense rhymes that never made much sense. There are, however, more firmly rooted examples demonstrating that this can be TruthInTelevision. "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe", for instance:

Modern lore often attributes macabre and horrifying "origin stories" to nursery rhymes; the most widespread possibly being that "Ring Around the Rosy" [[note]]"Ring a Ring a Roses" in British English[[/note]] is a song about [[TheBlackDeath the plague]]. While that particular example is most likely {{Urban Legend|s}}, debate continues for others. The origins of most nursery rhymes are simply not known, and many are in all likelyhood nonsense rhymes that never made much sense. There are, however, more firmly rooted examples demonstrating that this can be TruthInTelevision. "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe", for instance:

Modern lore often attributes macabre and horrifying "origin stories" to nursery rhymes; the most widespread possibly being that "Ring Around the Rosy" is a song about [[TheBlackDeath the plague]]. While that particular example is most likely {{Urban Legend|s}}, debate continues for others. The origins of most nursery rhymes are simply not known, and many are in all likelyhood nonsense rhymes that never made much sense. There are, however, more firmly rooted examples demonstrating that this can be TruthInTelevision. "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe", for instance:

* Alongside fairy tales, the ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' franchise has also adapted and parodied multiple characters from English-language nursery rhymes, [[FairyTaleFreeForAll who all coexist with each other and other traditional stories]]. In the main films, the Three Blind Mice are recurring characters; in the spin-offs, ''WesternAnimation/PussInBoots2011'' shows Little Boy Blue as a bully in Puss' orphanage, Jack and Jill as a feared couple of bandits, and Humpty Dumpty as an anthropomorphic egg and Puss' former best friend, while its sequel ''WesternAnimation/PussInBootsTheLastWish'' shows Little Jack Horner as the vicious owner of a pie factory and crime lord who built a collection of smuggled magical artifacts after growing envious of fairy-tale characters for upstaging his nursery rhyme.

-->''Sing a song of sixpence,''
-->''A pocketful of rye''
-->''Four-and-twenty blackbirds''
-->''Baked in a pie.''

-->''Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop''
-->''When the wind blows the cradle will rock''
-->''When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall''
-->''And down will come baby, cradle and all.''

-->''Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man,''
-->''Bake me a cake as fast as you can.''
-->''Roll it and squash it and mark it with a B''
-->''And ''dash'' it in the oven for baby and me.''

-->''One, two, put on a shoe''
-->''Three, four, knock at the door''
-->''Five, six, pick up sticks''
-->''Seven, eight, lay them straight''
-->''Nine, ten, a big fat hen.''

-->''Hey-diddle-diddle, the cat and the fiddle''
-->''The cow jumped over the moon''
-->''The little dog laughed to see such a sight.''
-->''And the dish ran away with the spoon.''

--> There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
--> She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
--> She gave them some broth without any bread;
--> Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

--> Then out went th' old woman to bespeak 'em a coffin,
--> And when she came back, she found 'em all a-loffeing[[note]]laughing uproariously[[/note]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fairy Tales]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

--> ''Orgy Porgy, Ford and fun\\

[[folder: Live Action Television]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Toys]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fairy Tales ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]
* In ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'', Shadow's stories are often nursery rhymes with some modern jokes sprinkled in.

* ''Series/MotherGooseTreasury'' might as well be Nursery Rhyme: The Show. It is all about the title character's interaction with Nursery Rhyme characters.
* In ''Series/TheNoddyShop'', a fairy tale book based on a nursery rhyme will sometimes be read by the characters, with a modern version of the rhyme being played over it based on the episode's moral. For example, in "Lost and Found", [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010127001600/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s104.html a version of Little Bo Peep]] is shown in which Bo Peep and her sheep decide to split up to become famous, but then realize that it would be better if they did an act together.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Toys ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

Nursery rhymes are a form of [[OralTradition oral folklore]] and overlap with children's songs, lullabies and riddles. They may be connected to ParlorGames. Counting-out rhymes are a subgroup.

Obviously, drawn upon for IronicNurseryTune. May also feature in a FracturedFairyTale or a FairyTaleFreeForAll. Often has RhymintTitle and/or features characters with RhymingNames. Compare the PlaygroundSong.

Obviously, drawn upon for IronicNurseryTune. May also feature in a FracturedFairyTale or a FairyTaleFreeForAll. Often features characters with RhymingNames. Compare the PlaygroundSong.

* Creator/JRRTolkien wrote several "expanded" versions of nursery rhymes, filling in background to make them "reasonable". The idea is that these are the "original" versions, and what we remember today are just vague fragments that don't make any sense on their own. He attributed them to Bilbo and put one -- from "Hey diddle diddle" -- in Frodo's mouth in the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''.

* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Deep Secret'', one of the Deep Secrets of the title is hidden in a nursery rhyme, and the hero has to interpret it in order to save the LoveInterest's life.

* In Manga/BlackButler, the main antagonist of the Noah's Ark Circus uses the name Tom the Piper's Son as his alias.
* In Anime/LegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon, [[Franchise/LupinIII Lupin]]'s search for the MacGuffinLocation is hidden within an actual Nursery Rhyme; "How many miles to Babylon? Three-score miles and ten...". Lupin even lampshades it regarding its brilliance and figures out the code within the rhyme; the 70 miles mentioned in the rhyme refer to seven booby traps in the Tower of Babel's ruins protecting part of the titular MacGuffin.

* The soundtrack of ''Film/CrossOfIron'' includes the German nursery rhyme "Hänschen klein" to produce SoundtrackDissonance with the {{war|is hell}}.

* In ''Film/ChildrensPartyAtThePalace'', two nursery rhymes, “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Three Little Kittens” are referenced by Cruella de Vil and her chaperone.

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'',
** Slick [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2173 compares himself to Old Mother Hubbard.]]
** Fuchsia, [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3624 to the damned]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}'', [[http://www.erstwhiletales.com/maidmaleen-35/#.T2-Bydm6SuI Maid Maleen ends with peasant girls singing such a verse, inspired by her tale.]]
* In ''Webcomic/BlueYonder'', [[http://www.blueyondercomic.net/comics/1625491/blue-yonder-chapter-2-page-31/ a villain derides Jared as "Little Boy Blue".]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]