Rude and Crude Childhood Rhymes:
A few years ago I first heard my girlfriend's version of
Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts:
Greasy grimy gopher guts
Marinated monkey's meat
Perforated burning feet
One pint jar of all purpose porpoise pus
And me without a spoon
Later, in Mt. Shasta, I had the "pleasure" of hearing
the following version:
Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts
Mutilated monkey meat
Little birdie dirty feet
And I forgot my spoon
But I still have a straw--slurp
Though perhaps a bit strange, such crude/gross children's
rhymes are quite popular. I remember, years ago, saying gross rhymes about body
functions, sex, and school. Although I could hazard a guess as to the function
of "My eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school, we have tortured
all the teachers, we have broken every rule...", I am unsure of the exact fascination
children have with such rhymes as:
There's a soldier in the grass
with a bullet up his ass
take it out, take it out
like a good Girl Scout
Anyway, I do believe this is an interesting phenomenon
that is quite worthy of much more study. I did recently come across a book
on "the subversive folklore of children" (by Josepha Sherman and T.K.F
Weisskopf). The authors' thesis is essentially that children learn and
use these rhymes as a way to understand the unexplained (topics such as
sex and death are not always talked over thoroughly with children), establish
their own independence by fighting authority, and to show off their
creativity and wit.
