[HN Gopher] Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): An incomplete festive ...
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       Jingle Bells (Batman Smells): An incomplete festive folk-rhyme
       taxonomy
        
       Author : helsinkiandrew
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2025-12-21 11:38 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (loreandordure.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (loreandordure.com)
        
       | ItsBob wrote:
       | My wife and I had a good chuckle at these. The one we both
       | remember is the one about Penguin losing his lollipop and buying
       | a Milky Way.
       | 
       | However, we both agreed that when comparing the UK(ish) and
       | US(ish) variants, the UK ones are much more fun and colourful:
       | The US ones seem a little, erm, boring!
        
       | baobun wrote:
       | Someone should tell the author that Robin laying an egg is the
       | source of Batman's smell.
        
       | Sophira wrote:
       | Tom Scott did a video in 2020 on the exact same subject and
       | premise[0], and it's _super_ interesting. I 'd recommend it to
       | anybody who enjoyed this article, honestly.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5u9JSnAAU4 - Tom Scott, 'I
       | Asked 64,182 People About "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells". Here's
       | What I Found Out.'
        
       | adzm wrote:
       | I saw something similar on Reddit r/FoundPaper where a parody of
       | twinkle twinkle little star had a hilarious divergence at the
       | end. Not all mutations have reproductive fitness but it is
       | fascinating to see in the wild.
       | 
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/FoundPaper/comments/1p7bvtz/found_n...
        
       | nephihaha wrote:
       | Does "While Shepherds Washed their Socks by Night" count?
        
       | mxmilkiib wrote:
       | fwiw, from North East Fife (Scotland), it has been ('89/'90) "the
       | Batmobile lost a wheel, and landed in the Tay", the Tay being the
       | big volume river between Fife (the Scottie dog shaped bit on the
       | East) n Dundee/Tayside (with the Tay having come via Perth etc)
        
       | philiplu wrote:
       | Huh, my childhood version was almost the standard US one, but the
       | ending was "and Alfred saved the day", not shown in the article's
       | diagram. This would have been learned in the Midwest US (St.
       | Louis vicinity), late 1960s.
        
       | LorenDB wrote:
       | The redneck version goes something like "Jingle Bells, shotgun
       | shells, Santa Claus is dead. Grandma got her .44 and shot him in
       | the head."
       | 
       | Don't ask, it's not original with me.
        
       | hecanjog wrote:
       | "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg. The Batmobile
       | lost its wheel and the Joker ran away." is the version I heard as
       | a kid in the American midwest. It's fascinating to me that this
       | rhyme was international at a time in my life before I'd ever
       | heard about the internet. (80s)
        
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       (page generated 2025-12-24 23:00 UTC)