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Children's counting-out rhyme From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" – which can be spelled a number of ways – is a children's counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is chosen. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820[1] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. Some versions use a racial epithet, which has made the rhyme controversial at times.
Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin.
A common modern version is:[2]
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words, such as "O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea"[3] or "My mother [told me/says to] pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it";[3] while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U."[4] "Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme.[5][6]
The first record of a similar rhyme, called the "Hana, man," is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:[3]
Hana, man, mona, mike;
Barcelona, bona, strike;
Hare, ware, frown, vanac;
Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.
Mario Arellano de Santiago discovered that this version was in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.[3] Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:[3]
Ene, tene, mone, mei,
Pastor, lone, bone, strei,
Ene, fune, herke, berke,
Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?
Variations of this rhyme with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s. This is one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888:[7]
Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;
Olla bolla Domino,
Okka, Pokka dominocha,
Hy! Pon! Tush!
A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:[8]
Ena, mena, mona, mite,
Bascalora, bora, bite,
Hugga, bucca, bau,
Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.
Stick, stock, stone dead – OUT.
There are many theories about the origins of the rhyme. They include:
baji neki baji thou,
elim tilim latim gou.
Anne manne miene mukke,
Ikke tikke takke tukke,
Eere vrouwe grieze knech,
Ikke wikke wakke weg.
Some versions of this rhyme used the racial slur "nigger" instead of "tiger". Iona and Peter Opie in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951), remark that the word "nigger" was common in American folklore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb. They quote the following version:[3]
Eena, meena, mina, mo,
Catch a nigger by his toe;
If he squeals let him go,
Eena, meena, mina, mo.
This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.[12] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":[13]
Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,
Catch a nigger by the toe,
If he won't work then let him go;
Skidum, skidee, skidoo.
But when you get money, your little bride
Will surely find out where you hide,
So there's the door and when I count four,
Then out goes you.
It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his "A Counting-Out Song", from Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides, published in 1935.[14] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.[3]
There are considerable variations in the words of the rhyme, including from the early twentieth century in the United States of America:[3]
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe.
If he hollers make him pay,
Fifty dollars every day
During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported that Atlanta children were heard reciting this version:[15]
Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,
Catch the emperor by his toe.
If he hollers make him say:
"I surrender to the USA."
Distinct versions of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, include:[16][17]
Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Put the baby on the po.
When he's done,
Wipe his bum.
And tell his mother what he's done. (Alternatively: Shove the paper up the lum)
Eeny, meeny, miney, mo.
Little bugger on the po.
First the wee and then the poo.
Poo is smelly, so are you.
In Australia, children sang:[18]
Eeny meeny miny moe,
catch a nigger by the toe,
when he squeals, let him go,
eeny meeny miny moe.
From Nepal:[4]
Eenie meenie mango
You can go
I am sorry
Khichapokhari
Ghantaghar ko agadi
Ranipokhari
![Thumb](#/media/File:Picking_a_running_mate_"Eenie,_meenie,_minie,_mo"._LCCN2010645509.jpg)
There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny ..." is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,[24][25] the 2003 film Elephant,[26] and the sixth-season finale of the television series The Walking Dead.
The lyrics to "Loose Booty", the sole a-side single from Funkadelic's 1972 album "America Eats Its Young" (1972), opens with this verse:
Eeny meeny miney moe,
Catch a junkie by the toe,
If he holler let him go,
If he don't, do the loose booty
The vinyl release of Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997) uses the words "eeny meeny miny moe" (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.[27]
"Iniminimanimo" is a 1999 song by Kim Kay.
The title of Chester Himes's novel If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) refers to the rhyme.[28]
Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.[citation needed]
In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.[29]
In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo), first appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series.[30]
The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis".[citation needed]
The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor.[31] The uncensored word was restored for the Criterion Collection edition of the film.
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