Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
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| "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" Roud #13497 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | c. 1825 |
| Written | USA |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery Rhyme |
"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13497.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
Common modern versions include:
- Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
- Had a wife but couldn't keep her;
- He put her in a pumpkin shell
- And there he kept her very well.
- Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,
- Had another and didn't love her;
- Peter learned to read and spell,
- And then he loved her very well.[1]
[edit] Origins
The rhyme is not present in any of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century collections published in Britain. The first surviving version of the rhyme was published in Mother Goose's Quarto: or Melodies Complete, in Boston, Massachusetts around 1825.[1] However, a verse collected from Aberdeen, Scotland and published in 1868 had the words:
- Peter, my neeper,
- Had a wife,
- And he couidna' keep her,
- He pat her i' the wa',
- And lat a' the mice eat her.
As a result it is possible that the verse was an older one adapted to include pumkins in America.[1]
[edit] References in popular culture
- One of Gary Larson's single-panel Far Side cartoons, Pumpkineater is in court, and a television reporter announces to a camera that his sister, Jeannie Jeannie Eatszucchini, is about to testify against him.
- In Todd McFarlane's/Greg Parisi's Twisted Fairy Tales line, Peter is depicted as a ragged and crazed man and is stuffing his wife's bloody remains inside a pumpkin.
- In the comic "Grimm Fairy Tales" annual 01 there is a depiction of Peter as a murderous hillbilly that has wished to get a wife, gotten one that cheated on him and then chopped her up and stuffed her into his pumpkins.
- The Family Guy episode, Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater is a play on the nursery rhyme's title.
- The Garth Brooks song "It's Midnight Cinderella" also mentions Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
- In a Friends episode, Ross improvises the phrase, turning it to "Cheater, Cheater compulsive eater" in order to apply to Monica.
- In the USA late night show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson the episode name for the skit Murder, She Wrote (2008) is "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater... OF DEATH!".
