digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at cracked.com

The Disturbing Origins of 5 Common Nursery Rhymes

cracked.com — We grew up memorizing these seemingly nonsense lines of verse from Mother Goose, which seem to exist for no other reason than to keep toddlers entertained. There couldn't possibly be some kind of weird, twisted history to them, could there?

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 30, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

44 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • shutupdangit, on 08/30/2008, -2/+36Whoa, déjà vu

    http://digg.com/comedy/The_Disturbing_Origins_of_5 ...
  • Iluvator, on 08/29/2008, -4/+29I was under the impression that goosebumps were named as such because of their resemblance to the bumps on freshly plucked geese, and apparently wikipedia agrees.
  • SpectralSounds, on 08/29/2008, -4/+17Probably the worst cracked article I have read. Usually I find their articles rather entertaining... This one, not so much.
  • Vimmy, on 08/29/2008, -2/+11I thought that Mary Mary Quite Contrary was going to turn out to be about a brothel.
  • oblique63, on 08/29/2008, -8/+17ok cracked, here's the deal, if I go through the trouble of ignoring your inability to post content on a single page, you sure as hell better provide me with something more worth my while than ***** "cockleshells", capiche?
  • rossbren, on 08/29/2008, -2/+10I'll never eat pudding again after reading about that Georgie Porgy deal.
  • Schooley02, on 08/29/2008, -7/+15They teach this crap in pre-school? LOL
  • thegreatgazoo, on 08/30/2008, -3/+11Better than Ring Around the Rosie, which is where kids would get around taunt people who had the plague. They had poseys because it was supposed to ward off the plague.

    'And they all fall down' is when they died.
  • artofficial, on 08/30/2008, -1/+7LOL.
  • dagr8tim, on 08/30/2008, -0/+5Dupe
  • paranoidgoat, on 08/30/2008, -0/+5From the wiki article on "Pop Goes the Weasel"
    "The original theme seems to have been a darkly humorous vignette of the cycle of poverty among workers in the environs of London. The "weasel" may refer to a spinner's weasel, a mechanical yarn measuring device consisting of a spoked wheel with an internal ratcheting mechanism that clicks every two revolutions and makes a "pop" sound after the desired length of yarn is measured. "Pop goes the weasel", in this meaning, describes the repetitive sound of a machine governing the tedious work of textile workers toiling for subsistence wages. In the context of the rhyme then the first three lines of each verse describe various ways of spending one's meager wages, with "pop goes the weasel" indicating a return to unpleasant labour."
    This is the version or ones based on textile creation I was taught and the one my sister who has a master degree in public history says is the most trust worthy and the has the most facts to back it up
  • TheWorm, on 08/30/2008, -1/+5I thought it was pretty interesting.
  • gelato822, on 08/30/2008, -0/+4didn't i look at this earlier today?
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -1/+4Way to submit an article that is already in the Top 10. Buried.
  • katjas, on 08/29/2008, -3/+6No Jack and Jill?
  • benroy, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3There once was a man from Nantucket...
    Or
    There once was a woman from Venus who's head was shaped like a....
  • Haecceity, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3This whole article is highly suspect. It claims for example that the guillotine (from the late 1700's, although similar devices date to the 11th century) was newly invented at the time of Bloody Mary (died 1558). Great piece of research, that is! The rest is mainly cribbed from Wikipedia articles, which themselves are often lacking in reliable sources.
  • goblindegook, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3That one's not actually related to the plague, as many people believe:

    http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp
  • gl77, on 08/30/2008, -0/+3that is one stunning image.
  • goblindegook, on 08/30/2008, -1/+3Well, clearly Digg doesn't care what you think. Digg loves this article so much it was frontpaged twice.
  • inactive, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2Goosebumps and VD? Things I wish I never knew.
  • funkytommyman, on 08/30/2008, -1/+3The Disturbing use of Two Pages
  • burden555, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2No Ring around the rosie?
  • graphictype, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2How about the origins of Yankee doodle dandy. So sounded patriotic til I actually listened to what it says.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Doodle
  • gl77, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2*citation needed*
  • benroy, on 08/30/2008, -0/+2I was just thinking that. Twice in ONE day?
    But then there's diggers all over the world. Time zones may be a factor in people commenting on a duplicate thread before they go back a few pages and find the original.
  • Utopian, on 08/30/2008, -1/+2http://images.officedog.co.uk/size600/product/75/7 ...
  • halobliq, on 08/31/2008, -0/+1Perhaps. But then perhaps that's why a hooker was nicknamed "goose" because of the symptoms of the disease resembling goose bumps. Or, entirely likely, both references came about independently or simultaneously.
  • goldfishey, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1if it is about torture devices, i would have thought maiden could refer to the iron maiden. Although this is just speculation on my part.
  • yz101, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1As long as I sleep good, who gives a *****.
  • zeppo, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1But us Yanks took it to be our own sort of like another group of people did with a certain word that starts with N.
  • Suprfire, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1Goddamn, buried for repost . ughhhh
  • thealsir, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1I'm getting a bad impression of cracked.
  • ferrell, on 08/30/2008, -0/+1And the most disturbing of all...

    Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub!
  • gl77, on 08/30/2008, -1/+2the "atishoo, atishoo, all fall down" part referred to death. it was said that right before someone with bubonic plague died, they sneezed, hence the "atishoo, atishoo"
  • SnowStorms, on 08/30/2008, -1/+1Must of really sucked growing up during the Medieval times.
  • DigSomeMore, on 08/29/2008, -4/+4Our poor kids...
  • fr3nch, on 08/30/2008, -0/+0I was so excited to post the ring around the rosie, but everyone all ready knows about it. Damn all you smart diggers.
  • halobliq, on 08/31/2008, -0/+0I was wondering about that one. Thanks!
  • skintigh, on 08/30/2008, -1/+1So much gruesome torture in those things. Thank God we live in a more civilized society that doesn't torture innocent people for alleged crimes or on whims. Wait, what?
  • Avaseal, on 08/30/2008, -1/+1They missed one!

    http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm
  • PereGoriot1, on 12/20/2008, -0/+0Have we all forgotten about Kipling's famous rhyme? Well, anyway, if you find yourself very disturbed, you should consider taking a look at some beautiful Polish girls: http://www.sexypolishgirls.com
  • Haecceity, on 08/30/2008, -2/+1There's no historical link between the plague and that nursery rhyme. The link wasn't made until after WWII.
  • benroy, on 08/30/2008, -4/+2No offense, but when did 'LOL' become some sort of punctuation? Do you or anyone else actually laugh out loud after typing a comment? Anymome it just seems immature and a half-assed way of ending a thought.

    Please stop the LOL.

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.