Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Not to be confused with Eenie Meenie.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" Roud #18267
Written by	Traditional
Language	English
Form	Nursery rhyme and counting-out game

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", which can be spelled a number of ways, is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person to be "it" for games (such as tag) and similar purposes such as counting out a child that has to be stood down from a group of children as part of a playground game. It is one of a large group of similar 'Counting-out rhymes' where the child pointed-to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820, and is common in many languages including German forms, with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.

Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin.

Current versions

A common modern version is:

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers, let him go,

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

There are many common variations, such as replacing tiger with "tinker", "tigger", "chicken", "monkey", "baby", "spider", or a two-syllable name; and changing the verb in the third line to "screams", "wiggles", "squeals" or another verb.

Sometimes additional lines are added at the end of the rhyme to draw out or manipulate the selection process or make it seem less predetermined, such as:

My mother told me/says to pick the very best one,

And that is Y-O-U (alternative: And you are [not] it!)

Occasionally the line copies 'Ip dip':

Not because you're dirty,

Not because you're clean,

Just because you kissed a boy/girl behind the magazine.

Origins

The first American record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York are said to have repeated the rhyme:

Hana, man, mona, mike;

Barcelona, bona, strike;

Hare, ware, frown, vanac;

Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.

The rhyme seems to have been unknown in England among collectors until the late nineteenth century, although it was found by Henry Bolton in the USA, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s. He also found a similar rhyme in German:

Ene, tene, mone, mei,

Pastor, lone, bone, strei,

Ene, fune, herke, berke,

Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?

The most common English form seems to be

Eena, Meena, Mona, My,

Barcelona, Bona, stry,

Air, ware, frum, dy,

Aracy, baraca, we, wo, wack

but there is a well-entrenched version, collected from Durham.

Eena meena mina mo,

Where do all the Frenchmen go?

To the East and to the West,

To the bonny birdie's nest;

Apples in the garden,

fishes in the sea,

if you want a pretty girl

please choose me!

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one ..

Hickery Pickery, pease scon

Where will this young man gang?

He'll go east, he'll go west,

he'll go to the crow's nest.

Hickery Pickery, Hickery Pickery

More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version is

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;

Olla bolla Domino,

Okka, Pokka dominocha,

Hy! Pon! Tush!

...which was one of many variants of 'counting out Rhymes' collected by Bolton in 1888.

Another possibility is that the British occupiers of India brought a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:

ubi eni mana bou,

baji neki baji thou,

elim tilim latim gou.

Another rhyme popular in India which closely matches the initial couplet in similar-sounding words goes like... अक्कड़ बक्कड़ बाम्बे बो (Akkad Bakkad Bambay Bo)

अस्सी नब्भे पूरे सौ (Assi Nabbe Pooray Sau = 80 90 total 100)

सौ में लगी बिल्ली (Sau mein lagi billi = Buy a cat with 100)

बिल्ली भागी दिल्ली (Billi bhaagi Dilli = The cat ran away to Delhi)

बोले शेख चिल्ली (Bolay Shekh Chilli = The Saint Chilly said...)

खेले डंडा गिल्ली (Khelay Danda Gilli = (They) Play (game called) Danda Gilli)

गिल्ली गई टूट (Gilli gayi toot = The Gilli Broke)

बच्चे गए रूठ (Bachchay Gaye Rooth = The children went cross)

बच्चों को मनाएंगे (Bachchon ko manainge = We'll coerce the kids)

रस मलाई खायेंगे (Ras-Malayi Khainge = They'll eat sweet dish)

रस मलाई अच्छी (Ras-Malayi Achchee = The sweet dish was good)

हमने खायी मच्छी (Hamne Khayi Machchee = We ate fish)

मच्छी में काँटा (Machchee mein kaanta = The fish had a bone)

पड़ेगा ज़ोर से चांटा (Padeyga zor se chhanta = You'll get a slap)

This is usually followed by the last person being either selected for his turn in the game, or slapped.

One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count "Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite". There are similar examples of children's rhymes that were collected in England that are more obviously counting rhymes up to ten, such as 'Ya, ta, tethera, pethera, pip, Slata, lata, covera, dovera, dick'.

David Zincavage asserts that the origin is Scottish and posits that the first line of the verse is a corruption of Inimicus animo, a Latin phrase that translates as "enemy of the soul." The second line uses "nigger" and this goes to early depictions of the devil as black, as opposed to the modern red; we still have references to darkness as being evil. If you catch the devil by the toe, it won't cause his cloven hoof any pain. If, instead, you've pinched a human's toe instead, he'll yelp, and since you have made a mistake in identifying him, you should release him.

Controversial version

Older versions of this rhyme had the word nigger (instead of tiger) and are less popular now because of the waning public acceptability of the word, including:

Eeny, meena, mina, mo,

Catch a nigger by the toe;

If he hollers let him go,

Eena, meena, mina, mo.

This version was similar to that reported as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,

Catch a nigger by his 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. This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until late twentieth century.

Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes that the word "nigger" was common in American folk-lore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb. This, combined with evidence of various other versions of the rhyme in the UK that pre-date this version, would seem to suggest that this version originated in America, although the apparently American word 'Holler' was first recorded in written form in the fourteenth century, whereas the words 'Niger' or 'Nigger' were first seen in the sixteenth century in Britain, with their current disparaging meaning (O.E.D.). The 'olla' and 'toe' are found as nonsense words in some nineteenth century versions of the rhyme, and it could possibly be that the original 'Where do all the Frenchmen Go?' (probably originating during one of the periods of Anglo-French warfare) was later on replaced by the controversial version in the States, using some of the nonsense words.

Many people who grew up before the late 1960s are likely to report having heard or grown up with this controversial version of the rhyme. Since then, and especially after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this variation has become quite rare in the U.S, although it was used in television programs broadcast in the United Kingdom by the BBC as late as 1972 (see Television listing in Popular Culture, below).

Variations

There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from early twentieth century in the United States of America:

Eeny, meeny, miny moe,

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers make him pay,

Fifty dollars every day.

A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1960s, is:

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.

Lawsuit in the United States

A jocular use of a form of the rhyme by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, encouraging passengers to sit down so the plane could take off, led to a 2003 lawsuit charging the airline with intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Two versions of the rhyme were attested in court; both "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go" and "Pick a seat, it's time to go". The passengers in question were African American and stated that they were humiliated. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal denied.

Popular culture

There are innumerable scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games, as well as lines from many songs, in which "Eeny meeny ..." or a variant is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect.

The phrase sometimes appears in other ways, including:

Music

• "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo" was a popular song written in 1935 by Johnny Mercer and Matty Malneck.
• "Organ Grinder's Swing" was a hit in the 1930s for Ella Fitzgerald, who sang "eenie meenie miny moe, catch that monkey by the toe...".
• 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.
• "Eenie Meenie" was a hit in 2010 for Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston.

Literature

• The title of Chester Himes's novel If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) refers to the rhyme.
• In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.

Film

• In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miney and Mo (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series, the trio were semi-humanized chimpanzees; clothed, living in a funny animal world but rarely speaking understandable words. Later, in the comics, the trio spoke English with the inflections of the Three Stooges.
• The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 English black comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market.
• The 1957 Bollywood hit Asha uses an Indian variant as the basis for the song "Eena Meena Deeka".
• The rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in several films, including the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers; the 1997 film Funny Games and its 2008 remake; and the 2003 film Elephant.
• In the 2000 Coen brothers film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", the rhyme was sung by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The only words used were, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe."

Television

• In the second episode of the four-part Doctor Who story The Celestial Toymaker, "The Hall of Dolls" (originally transmitted 9 April 1966), the King of Hearts recites the "nigger" version to choose among seven chairs – six of which are deadly. On BBC Audio’s CD release, the offending section has been obscured by placing part of Peter Purves's narration over the top.
• In the Dad's Army episode "Keep Young and Beautiful" (originally transmitted 13 October 1972), Frazer, Pike, Walker and Godfrey need a volunteer to go into the church hall office to have a look at Captain Mainwaring's new toupee. Pike recites the "nigger" version, and Walker gets the 'moe'. However, Walker continues the chant – "O-U-T spells out, you must go" – so Pike ends up being 'it' instead.
• Used for humorous effect in episode 5, season 5 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry and Jeff play eeny meeny miney moe to determine which of the two is to donate a kidney to Richard Lewis.

Video Games

• In Phoenix Wright: Justice For All, two sisters are named Ini Miney and Mimi Miney. In the same game, there is also a clown named Moe.

See also

• Nursery rhyme
• Ip dip