Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"—which can be spelled a number of ways—is a children's counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is chosen. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820^[1] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. Some versions use a racial epithet, which has made the rhyme controversial at times.

Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin.

Current versions

A common modern version is:^[2]

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers, let him go,

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as "... O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea"^[3] or "My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it";^[3] while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U."^[4] "Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme.^[5]^[6]

Origins

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

Hana, man, mona, mike;

Barcelona, bona, strike;

Hare, ware, frown, vanac;

Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.^[3]

Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.^[3] Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:

Ene, tene, mone, mei,

Pastor, lone, bone, strei,

Ene, fune, herke, berke,

Wer? Wie? Wo? Was?^[3]

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this one, which includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version:

Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe;

Olla bolla Domino,

Okka, Pokka dominocha,

Hy! Pon! Tush!

This was one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888.^[7]

A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:

Ena, mena, mona, mite,

Bascalora, bora, bite,

Hugga, bucca, bau,

Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.

Stick, stock, stone dead – OUT.^[8]

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, mena, mona, mite".^[3]

Another possibility is that British colonials returning from India introduced a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:

baji neki baji thou,

elim tilim latim gou.^[9]

Another possible origin is from a Swahili poem brought to the Americas by enslaved Africans: Iino ya mmiini maiini mo.^[10]

A possible origin is a centuries-old, possibly Old Saxon, divination rhyme, argued for in 1957 by the Dutch philologists Jan Naarding and Klaas Heeroma of the Nedersaksisch Instituut [nds; nds-nl] (Low Saxon Institute) at the University of Groningen.^[11] The rhyme was recorded in 1904 by Nynke van Hichtum in Goor in the eastern Netherlands.

Anne manne miene mukke,

Ikke tikke takke tukke,

Eere vrouwe grieze knech,

Ikke wikke wakke weg.

American and British versions

Some versions of this rhyme used the racial slur "nigger" instead of "tiger". Iona and Peter Opie (1951) quote the following version:

Eena, meena, mina, mo,

Catch a nigger by his toe;

If he squeals let him go,

Eena, meena, mina, mo.^[3]

This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888.^[12] It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo,

Catch a nigger by the 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.^[13]

"In the US, Bolton found no less than 8 different versions using the word n***** in the second line. Following by different variations of “if he squeals/screams/hollers” and then “let him go/make him pay/send him hum”. These were, Bolton adds, the most favorite versions with American children and found in almost every state. The explanations for the American versions are varied. Some experts claim that “catch a n****** by the toe” refers to a method of punishment by white owners to slaves who tried to run away. In other online discussions, I found a theory that this line refers to a common way for slave traders to examine a prospect slave. The traders would pinch or twist the slave’s toe. If then the slave would scream, the trader would decline to purchase him." - https://aninjusticemag.com/the-racist-origin-of-eeny-meeny-miny-moe-411e2d4815ac

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.^[14] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.^[3]

Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) that the word "nigger" was common in American folklore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.^[3]

Variations

There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from the 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.^[3]

During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported: "Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme:

Eenie, meenie, minie, moe,

Catch the emperor by his toe.

If he hollers make him say:

'I surrender to the USA.'"^[15]

A distinct version of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 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.^[16] (Alternatively: Shove the paper up the lum)^[17]

In Australia and the United States, children sang variations of:

Eeny meeny miny moe,

catch a nigger by the toe,

when he squeals, let him go,

eeny eeeny einy moe ^[18]

From New Zealand:

Eeny, meeny, miny moe,

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he squeals, let him go,

Eeny, meeny, miny moe.

Pig snout you're out.^[4]

Controversies

In 1993, a high school teacher in Mequon, Wisconsin, provoked a student walkout when she said, in reference to poor test performance, "What did you do? Just go eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a nigger by the toe?" The school's district superintendent recommended the teacher "lose three days of pay, undergo racial sensitivity training, and have a memorandum detailing the incident placed in her personnel file".^[19]
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 because of what they called the "racist history" of the rhyme. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Southwest and the plaintiffs' appeal was denied.^[20]
In May 2014, an unbroadcast outtake of BBC motoring show Top Gear showed presenter Jeremy Clarkson reciting the rhyme and deliberately mumbling a line which some took to be "catch a nigger by his toe".^[21] In response to accusations of racism, Clarkson apologised to viewers that his attempts to obscure the line "weren't quite good enough".^[22]
In 2017, the retailer Primark pulled a T-shirt from its stores that featured the first line of the rhyme as spoken by The Walking Dead character Negan, overlaid with an image of his baseball bat. A customer, minister Ian Lucraft, complained the T-shirt was "fantastically offensive" and claimed the imagery "relates directly to the practice of assaulting black people in America."^[23]

Cultural significance

There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny ..." is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,^[24]^[25] the 2003 film Elephant,^[26] and the sixth-season finale of the AMC television series The Walking Dead.

In Let the Tiger Go, a documentary on tiger conservation released on YouTube in 2017, the poem is read by Alan Rabinowitz in advocacy for ending the poaching of tigers for their body parts.^[27] The very title of the documentary is implied to be an allusion to the poem.

Music

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.^[28]

Eenie Meenie Records is a Los Angeles-based music record label.

The names of many songs include some or all of the phrase, including:

"Eeny meeny miney mo" by Billie Holiday in 1935
The song "Eena Meena Deeka" in the 1957 Bollywood film Aasha.
"Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" by the Dutch group Luv in 1979
"Eenie Meenie" by Jeffrey Osborne on self-titled 1982 album.
"Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo" by Danish pop group Toy-Box in 1999 from their first album "Fantastic."
"Need to Know (Eenie Meenie Miny Moe)" by the Swedish pop group Excellence in 2001.
"Eanie Meany" by British singer-songwriter Jim Noir in 2004.
"Eenie Meenie" by Jamaican-American singer Sean Kingston and Canadian singer Justin Bieber in 2010.
"Eenie Meenie Minie Moe" by Peach Kelli Pop from album "Peach Kelli Pop I" recorded in 2010.
"Eenie Meanie Miny Ho" released by Tech N9ne on June 7, 2011
"Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe" is a song on A Shared Dream, a 2012 album by South Korea group U-KISS.
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe!" by Japanese dance and vocal unit Sandaime J Soul Brothers on 2015 album "Planet Seven".
"Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" is a song by Arizona hip hop trio Injury Reserve on their 2016 album "Floss"
"Eeny Meeny" is a song by Korean soloist U-Know released in 2021

Literature

The title of Chester Himes's novel If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) refers to the rhyme.^[29]

Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.

In Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.^[30]

Film and television

In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series.^[31]

The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis".

The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets. The use of the word nigger was censored for the American market, being replaced by sailor.^[32]

References

^ I. & P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 1952), p. 12.
^ Donna Wood (1971). Move, Sing, Listen, Play. Alfred Music 01101 Publishing. p. 75. ISBN 1-4574-9680-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 156-8.
^ ^a ^b L. and W. Bauer, "Choosing Who's In/It" (PDF). 2002. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
^ "eeny-meeny-miney-mo - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com". www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
^ "Childhood nursery rhymes and other 'classic' songs you probably never knew were racist". Upworthy. 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2021-09-21.
^ H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888)
^ Fred Jago The Glossary of the Cornish Dialect (1882)
^ Nihar Ranjan Mishra, From Kamakhya, a socio-cultural study (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2004), p. 157.
^ Bennett, P.R. (1974). Remarks on a little-known Africanism. Ba Shiru, 6(1), 69-71.
^ J. Naarding en K.H. Heeroma, Een oud wichellied en zijn verwanten, in: Driemaandelijkse Bladen, 1957, p. 37-43. Online at the Twentse Taalbank.
^ H. Bolton, H., The Counting-Out Rhymes of Children: Their Antiquity, Origin and Wide Distribution (1888, Kessinger Publishing, 2006), pp. 46 and 105.
^ B. Fitzgibbon, Words and music, "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" F. B. Haviland Publishing Co (1906).
^ R. Kipling, R. T. Jones, G. Orwell, eds The Works of Rudyard Kipling (Wordsworth Editions, 1994), p. 771.
^ Myrdal, Gunnar (1944). Black and African-American Studies: American Dilemma, the Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412815116.
^ I. Opie and P. Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969), p. 36.
^ Mills, Anne E. (6 December 2012). The Acquisition of Gender: A Study of English and German. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783642713620 – via Google Books.
^ "Missing text can contain the true message". 4 January 2010.
^ Sink, Lisa (1993-01-19). "Longer suspension for teacher urged". Milwaukee Sentinel.
^ "Sawyer v. Southwest Airlines". Ca10.washburnlaw.edu. 2005-08-12. Retrieved 2011-11-15.
^ "Jeremy Clarkson: I didn't mean to use N-word – video| News | The Week UK". Theweek.co.uk. 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
^ Josh Halliday, Nicholas Watt and Kevin Rawlinson. "Jeremy Clarkson 'begs forgiveness' over N-word footage | Media". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
^ Burke, Darren (2017-02-21). "Primark pulls "shocking" and "racist" Walking Dead t-shirt from stores after Sheffield man's angry complaint". The Star. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
^ S. Willis, High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film (Duke University Press, 1997), ISBN 0-8223-2041-X, p. 199.
^ J. Naisbitt, N. Naisbitt and D. Philips, High Tech High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2001), ISBN 1-85788-260-1, p. 85.
^ A. Young, The Scene of Violence: Cinema, Crime, Affect (Routledge, 2009), ISBN 1-134-00872-4, p. 39.
^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Rabinowitz, Alan (December 10, 2017). "Let The Tiger Go - Courtesy of GoPro". YouTube.
^ D. Griffiths, OK Computer (Continuum, 2004), p. 32.
^ G. H. Muller, Chester Himes (Twayne, 1989), ISBN 0-8057-7545-5, p. 23.
^ M. Kimmich, Offspring Fictions: Salman Rushdie's Family Novels (Rodopi, 2008), ISBN 9042024909, p. 209.
^ J. Lenburg Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators (Hal Leonard, 2006), ISBN 1-55783-671-X, p. 197.
^ Slide, Anthony (1998). Banned in the U.S.A..: British Films in the United States and Their Censorship, 1933–1966. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-254-3. Retrieved 2008-10-02. p. 90.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Current versions

Origins

American and British versions

Variations

Controversies

Cultural significance

Music

Literature

Film and television

See also

References

Further reading