Pop Goes the Weasel

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This article is about the nursery rhyme. For the hip hop song by 3rd Bass, see Pop Goes the Weasel (3rd Bass song).
"Pop Goes the Weasel"
Roud #5249
Written by Traditional
Published 1855
Written England
Language English
Form Nursery Rhyme

"Pop Goes the Weasel" is an English language nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5249.

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

There are many different versions of the lyrics to the song. Most share the basic verse:

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.[1]

Often a second verse is added:

Every night when I get home
The monkey's on the table,
Take a stick and knock it off,
Pop goes the weasel.[1]

[edit] Origins

Despite some assumptions this song can only be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century, when a music sheet acquired by the British Library in 1853 described a dance, 'Pop Goes the Weasel', which was, according to the music sheet, 'An Old English Dance, as performed at Her Majesty's & The Nobilities Balls, with the Original Music'. It had a tune very similar to that used today and only the words "Pop Goes the Weasle".[1] There is evidence that several people tried to add lyrics to the popular tune. The following verse had been written by 1855 when it quoted in a performance at the Theatre Royal:

Up and down the city road
In and out the Eagle
That's the way the money goes
Pop goes the weasel.

[edit] American versions

The song seems to have crossed the Atlantic in the 1850s when the lyrics were still unstable in Britain and was printed in Boston in 1858 with the lyric:

All around the cobbler's house,
The monkey chased the people.
And after them in double haste,
Pop goes the weasel.[2]

In 1901 in New York the opening lyric was:

All around the chicken coop,
The possum chased the weasel.[2]

The most common recent version was not recorded until 1914. In addition to the three verses above, American versions often include some of the following:

All around the Mulberry Bush,
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey stopped to pull up his sock, (or The monkey stopped to scratch his nose)
Pop! goes the weasel.
All around the Mulberry Bush.
The warthog chased the weasel.
The warthog pulled out his elephant gun.
Pop goes the Weasel.
Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Up and down the City Road, (also seen as Up and down the King's Highway)
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
For you may try to sew and sew,
But you'll never make anything regal,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
The monkey and the weasel fought,
The weasel's really feeble,
The monkey punched him in the face,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Every time when I come home
The monkey's on the table,
Cracking nuts and eating spice
Pop! goes the weasel.
Every time when I come home
The monkey's on the table,
Take a stick and knock it off
Pop! goes the weasel.

Contemporary verses in the United States include these:

All around the mulberry bush (or cobbler's bench)
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun, (or "'twas all in good sport") (or "that it was a joke")
Pop! goes the weasel.
A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle—
That's the way the money goes,
Pop! goes the weasel.
Jimmy's got the whooping cough
And Timmy's got the measles
That's the way the story goes
Pop! goes the weasel.
All around the vinegar jug
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey pulled the stopper out,
Pop! goes the weasel.
I've got no time to wait aside,
No time to sit and bide my time,
I'm off for now. Hello, Goodbye!
Pop! goes the weasel.
Mixer Masker Doodley Doo
This is what the turtles doo!
Mixer Masker Doofey Fong
This is the good old Turtley song!

British versions tend to be a combination of American and British lyrics.[3]

[edit] As a singing game

In Britain the rhyme has been played as a children's game since at least the late nineteenth century. The game is played to the "first" verse quoted above. Several rings are formed and they dance around as the verse is sung. One more players than the number of rings are designated as "weasels", all but one standing in the rings. When the "Pop goes the weasel" line is reached they have to rush to a new ring before anyone else can. The one that fails is eliminated and the number of circles is reduced by one until there is only one weasel left.[1]

[edit] Meaning and interpretations

The Eagle pub in City Road, with the rhyme on the wall

Perhaps because of the obscure nature of the lyrics there have been many suggestions for their significance, particularly over the meaning of the phrase 'Pop goes the weasel', including: that it is a tailor's flat iron, a hatter's tool, a clock reel used for measuring in spinning,[4] a piece of silver plate, or that 'weasel and stoat' is rhyming slang for 'coat', which is 'popped or pawned' to visit the Eagle pub, that it is a mishearing of weevil or vaisselle, that it was a nickname of James I, and that 'rice' and 'treacle' are slang terms for potassium nitrate and charcoal and that therefore the rhyme refers to the gunpowder plot. Other than correspondences none of these theories has any additional evidence to support it, and some can be discounted because of the known history of the song.[1] Iona and Pete Opie observed that, even at the height of the dance craze in the 1850s no-one seemed to know what the phrase meant.[1]

It is possible that the "eagle" mentioned in the song's third verse refers to The Eagle freehold pub along Shepherdess Walk in London, which was established as a music hall in 1825 and was rebuilt as a public house in 1901. This public house bears a plaque with this interpretation of the nursery rhyme and the pub's history. Shepherdess Walk is just off the City Road mentioned in the same verse.[5]

[edit] In popular culture

In literature:

In film:

In music:

In comedy:

  • Andy Kaufman (1949-84) used "Pop Goes the Weasel" as a karaoke 'stage prop'.

In T.V.:

  • "Pop Goes the Weasel" is prominently featured in the 1960s television series The Prisoner. An instrumental version is part of the soundtrack of several episodes (most notably the premiere episode "Arrival"), and in "Once Upon a Time" the lead character Number Six, whose mind has been reverted to childhood, begins singing the song, but is goaded by his nemesis, Number Two, who turns the word "Pop" into an acronym for "Protect Other People", leading the two to yell "Why POP?" at each other.
  • In the Star Trek: The Next Generation pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" (1987), Lt. Commander Data is whistling the song when first encountered by Commander Riker, who supplies the last notes. The event is referenced again in the film Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).
  • The theme song "You Don't Need Pants for the Victory Dance" from the American animated cartoon television series I Am Weasel is based on "Pop Goes the Weasel" lyrics and song.
  • In Alias, Episode 14 in Season 2. A CIA Agent is singing the song shortly before she is being killed by an explosion (2003).
  • In The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson The episode name for the skit "Murder, She Wrote" 2008 is "Pop Goes The Weasel... OF DEATH!".
  • In the Disney Channel Original Series Sonny with a Chance, the a jingly version of the song is played on a stereo during a game of Musical Chairs that was set up so that the cast of "So Random!" could win back their belongings.

In children's toys

  • The song was used for the popular series of Jack-in-the-boxes manufactured by Mattel. When a crank on the side of the box was turned, the tune would be heard instrumentally, and when the music arrived at the word Pop the lid would fly open and a clown figure would pop out. This Jack-in-the-box, together with the tune, was featured in the opening credits of the popular Romper Room TV series.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f I. Opie and P. Opie, The Singing Game (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 216-18.
  2. ^ a b W. E. Studwell, The Americana Song Reader (Haworth Press, 1997), pp. 135-6.
  3. ^ James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (1966, 5th edn., Dover, 2000), pp. 440-1.
  4. ^ D. D. Volo, Family Life in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century America (Greenwood, 2006), p. 264.
  5. ^ P. Zwart, Islington; a History and Guide (London: Taylor & Francis, 1973), p. 42.
  6. ^ Awdry, Rev. W. (1958). Duck and the Diesel Engine. Edmund Ward. pp. 32. ISBN 0 7182 1050 6. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Goes_the_Weasel"
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