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Arty Farty Had A Party

The name Fuzzy-Wuzzy goes back a lot further than 1941, it's a British army nickname for some of the Sudanese tribes who supported the Madhi (Muhammad Ahmad, who defeated Gordon at Khartoum).

They're the subject of a poem by Kipling:

WE’VE fought with many men acrost the seas,
An’ some of ’em was brave an’ some was not:
The Paythan an’ the Zulu an’ Burmese;
But the Fuzzy was the finest o’ the lot.
We never got a ha’porth’s change of ’im:
’E squatted in the scrub an’ ’ocked our ’orses,
’E cut our sentries up at Suakim,
An’ ’e played the cat an’ banjo with our forces.

So ’ere’s to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your ’ome in the Soudan;
You’re a pore benighted ’eathen but a first-class fightin’ man;
We gives you your certificate, an’ if you want it signed
We’ll come an’ ’ave a romp with you whenever you’re inclined.

So it's possible that the children's rhyme goes back some way before it was incorporated into song by Al Hoffman and the rest.
 
Well, yes, but there's no compelling reason to link the African guerillas Kipling extols with the nursery rhyme. The term "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" as baby-talk for "furry" could go back quite a long way and been applied to the nappy-haired soldiers independently of any other influence. Since there are no bears in Africa, this makes more sense to me than the assumption that there's a fundamental link between the two uses of the term.

I've got books due at the library today, and if I have the energy I'll see if I can find some folklore books that trace the rhyme back textually, but since I'm convalescing from flu and since text-tracking of folklore is a thankless job I just as easily might not.
 
Fuzzy, Wuzzy

I'm not saying that the poem originated in the 1960's or in the 1940's but it was known by a 9 or 10 year old in the late 1930's early 1940's and was known to be a bear not an african warrior of sorts and the writer did write the footnote refering to a dancing bear in Bedford as all the poems in this poetry book have footnotes refering to her own memories during wartime England.

The book was published in the 60's but the individual poems were written or collected from the 1930's and 40's while she was an evacuee in Bedford, so logic dictates that the poem was not created by the writers of a 1980's film and that this particular poem refering to a bear was at least known in the late 1930's early 1940's.

I do remember myself that the author on hearing the phrase fuzzy wuzzies on a popular tv show (Dads Army, Clive Dunn said it regulary I think when political correctness was much more laxed) as refering to african soldiers recalling the poem and the tale of the dancing bear to me while I was young, I don't think she wrote it at all but she knew the poem from when she was a child.
 
I suppose the travelling showman could have named his bear after the African warriors. It's not geographically accurate (but his education could have been patchy), but a bear is fierce and (originally) hairy, and since political correctness didn't exist at the time it's not a bad name for a fierce hairy bear.
 
MsPix said:
...but a bear is fierce and (originally) hairy, and since political correctness didn't exist at the time it's not a bad name for a fierce hairy bear.

OMG! Don't mention PC here - you'll have the Thought Police on your case, just like that! :(
 
emmbob said:
Oh my old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He bought 10,000 tickets to see a football match
Fatty passed to Skinny
Skinny passed it back
Fatty took a rotten shot and knocked the goalie flat
.

From the 70s the next verse i knew as a kid was

"Where was the Goalie
When the ball was in the net?
Halfway to Jamaicia
In a supersonic jet!


I'm sure there were other variations.

-

-
 
That's reminded me of another variant from the 60s...


Where was the goalie,
When the ball went in the net?
Hanging from the crossbar,
With his shorts wrapped round his neck.
 
I seem to remember this variation:

My old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat
He farted through the keyhole
And paralysed the cat
 
Fatty & Skinny had a race.
halfway up the pillow case.
Fatty said "it wasn't fair
'Cos Skinny was half way there".
 
From the fifties...

Fatty and Skinny went walking one day
Fatty blew off and blew Skinny away!
 
Popeye the sailor man! (toot, too!)
Lived in a caravan! (toot, toot!)
*He swithed on the gas
*and he blew up ass!
Popeye the sailor man (toot, toot!)

*Interchangeable with...

He switched on the telly
and blew up his belly

or

He opened the door
and he fell through the floor

And I have a vague memory of:

Wee skinny malinky
and big banana feet,
went to the pictures and fell through the seat!
When the picture started, skinny malinky farted...

Can not remember how it ends unfortunately.

I heard one more, from an old great uncle:

My old man"s the lord mayor of London!
He works in the toilets at night!
But when he comes home in the morning,
His boots are all covered in Shi-
ine up your buttons with Brasso,
Brasso"s a wonderful thing!
Shine up your buttons with Brasso,
It"s only a tenner a tin!

And another uncle provided:

Wee three kings of Orient are,
selling knickers a penny a pair!
They"re fantastic, No Elastic,
Very Unsafety wear!

Sorry if they don"t really apply, but they still make me chuckle and it is onlt fair to share! :)
 
My big brother sang (and I believed he had made up, but I was wrong)

I'm Popeye the sailor man (toot, toot)
I live in a garbage can.
I like to go swimmin' with barenaked wimmen.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man (toot, toot!)

I'm Popeye the sailor man (toot, toot)
I live in a frying pan.
Turn on the switches and I lose me britches.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man (toot, toot!)


Obviously, the frying pan in question was an electric skillet, or it wouldn't have had switches.

As for the three kings of Orient

We three kinds of Orientar
Bearing gifts of lighted cigars.
It was loaded, it exploded - Boom!

We two kings of Orientar
Bearing gifts of lighted cigars.
It was loaded, it exploded - Boom!

I, one king of Orientar
Bearing gifts of lighted cigars.
It was loaded, it exploded - Boom!

Silent night, holy night...


I find myself in real danger of posting "Baby Bumblebee" and "Found a Peanut," so I'm going to go call the contractor and find out why nobody's here yet on day 40 of a one-week job before I get too carried away.
 
We three Kings of Leicester Square,
Selling ladies underwear,
No elastic,
Quite fantastic,
Penny and a Pound a pair.
 
I recited some of the shorter rhymes to my OH and flatmate (without warning }:) and they had a giggle.

If anyone has School age children or family, maybe you could ask them if they know any rhymes to see if they are similar to the older rhymes.
Ofc I suppose if you are asking your own children they aren't likely to come up with the really hilarious ones, mainly because the best ones are rude, but it's worth a shot!
Maybe bribe them with some extra pocket money or a trip to the flicks, not sure what goes as decent loot for children today but surely sweets at least still hold an appeal.

My apologies for the text wall and if there are typos...I caught myself writing "some of the more shorter rhymes" earlier eek!

Anyway back to the important (and on topic) stuff we go as I'm just spraffing now...
 
(cue adams family music)

It all began and started,
When Uncle Fester Farted
He Farted through the window and paralyzed the cat
The Cat got so excited
He shouted Man United!
And Man United Shouted
The Adams Family's back!!
 
I do remember this one, I think it was from one of the 80's Police Academy films?

Jean Jean made a machine,
Jo Jo made it go,
Mark Mark did a f*rt,
And blew the whole damn thing apart


Amused the hell out of me!

RS
 
rattica said:
And I have a vague memory of:

Wee skinny malinky
and big banana feet,
went to the pictures and fell through the seat!
When the picture started, skinny malinky farted...

Can not remember how it ends unfortunately.


Skinny Malinky Longlegs, Big Banana feet
went tae the pictures and fell through the seat
when the picture started, Skinny Malinky farted
Skinny Malinky longlegs, Big Banana feet

Although the 'clean' (and, I believe, original) version was:

Skinny Malinky lang legs, umbrella feet,
Went tae the pictures an' couldnae find a seat.
He got the bus hame an' he widnae pay his fare,
So the rotten auld conductor kicked him doon the stair.
 
So, I was avoiding getting anything productive done during the time spent waiting for a call this morning, and got into the now-free archives of a comic that used to be pay-only, and I discovered who really wrote all these songs!

http://www.girlamatic.com//comics/mell. ... pter=13052

Also, a verse of "Popeye the Sailor Man" I didn't know before, early on.
 
There definitely seemed to be something about Glasgow and accidents with buses, as I was sung to by my gran...

'You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus,
You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus,
You cannae push yir grannie, as she's yir mammies mammie,
You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus'

Definitely got a Glesga Vaudville about that one - perhaps the novelty of those new fangled buses sparked consternation in the music halls...
 
I love that one! We used to sing it in the minibus on trips from the care home I worked at - at the residents' request.

As well as being a jaunty number (she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes) and singable as a round, it's a hymn against elder abuse :D

Also the Jeely Piece song!

Kath
 
The Jeely Piece song - is it the same one that I've heard, about the weans and the jeely pieces flung from the seventeenth floor? Brilliant! :D
 
Oh ye cannae fling pieces oot a twenty storey flat,
Seven hundred hungry weans'll testify to that.
If it's butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is pan or plain,
The odds against it reaching earth are ninety-nine tae wan.

Full song here:
http://www.alansim.com/scohtml/sco352.html

I used to sing it in school!
 
That's the one!

It's interesting because it's meant to be a modern dateable folksong from the time when the big towers went up replacing the tenements. Castlemilk was one of the first schemes.

AFAIK it's now sung in the same way that Ally Bally Bee is - I'm not sure of the real title, I've heard it called Penny Candy. I /think/ that Ally Bally Bee is rather older.

Kath
 
If there's ever a meet an an Uncon or something we should perform for money.....

Kath
 
We'll be the new Corries! "O Flower of Scotland, er, de dah dee dah..."
 
Fuzzy Wuzzy

refering back to Fuzzy Wuzzy

I rember reading that unscrupolous side shows used to shave bears and pass them off as the missing link and such, could this poem be a remnant of some memory long forgotten...
 
DeeDeeTee said:
There definitely seemed to be something about Glasgow and accidents with buses, as I was sung to by my gran...

'You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus,
You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus,
You cannae push yir grannie, as she's yir mammies mammie,
You cannae push yir grannie aff a bus'

Definitely got a Glesga Vaudville about that one - perhaps the novelty of those new fangled buses sparked consternation in the music halls...

Lord Delfont chose that song on Desert Isaland Discs. :D
 
Ah well, may as well add one from my childhood. Can't claim authorship sadly.

...To the tune of "Julie" by Shakin' Stevens (which must date it, and me, pretty accurately!)


Oh, oh Julie!
Do ya like my goolies?
I got them outta Woolies
For 99p




... I'll get me coat.
 
Here's one i'm sure my friends and I made up whilst youths, apologies for it purility: I've never heard anyone else sing it:

Puff the Magic Dragon lived on a shelf,
He had no-one to fiddle with so he fiddled with himself,
He got himself a girlfriend but that was not enough,
So he got himself a boyfriend,
And that's why he's called Puff!
 
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