Yeah, I grew up with the tiger version, so when I saw that I thought Zed used “nigger” in place of “tiger” because he was trying to belittle Marcellus Wallace. I was 18 when I saw Pulp Fiction for the first time, too. And the stewardess is 22? Christ, she’s barely a year older than me!
…so how DOES the “one potato, two potato” thing go, anyway?
Data point: I’m 22 years old and from the upper Midwest. While I learned and exclusively used the “tiger” version, I was certainly aware of the “nigger” version.
Czechmaster:
One potato, two potato, three potato, four
Five potato six potato, seven potato, more.
All of the kids stand in a circle and put their fists in the “pot.” One of the kids starts the rhyme, tapping a fist with each “potato.” The kid who gets tapped on “more” takes his fist out and the process is repeated until there are two kids left. Then the chant changes to:
My mother told me to pick the best one, you dirty old dish rag…you.
And the kid tapped on “you” is it.
Each person puts out both fists. One person counts off fists while reciting “One potato, two potato, three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato more.” The fist tapped on “more” is out and the counter goes on. Last fist in is the winner/first at bat/whatever.
Which I suppose could be construed as discrimninatory toward the one-handed among us. Personally I think the plaintiffs ought to be awarded a giant bag of brazil nuts.
FTR, I never heard the racist version either. I always heard the tiger one.
As a side note, from my many travels on Southwest airlines, I think they encourage this sort of cutesy behavior and bad puns. Here’s some examples:
We love you
You love us
We’re much faster than the bus
We hope you enjoyed our hospitality
Marry one of us, you’ll fly for free
If anything, they should be sued for bad humor, not racism.
I grew up in Australia, and the version i remeber from my youth is the “nigger” version. I can only guess that this was somehow considered acceptable because:
a) Australia has (or at least had) very few African and African-American immigrants
b) the term was only very rarely used to describe Australian Aborigines (and is never used nowdays). There were a bunch of other derogatory terms, which are thankfully falling out of use, that people would use to insult Australia’s first inhabitants.
Thus, the term didn’t carry the immense historical weight that it does in the United States, with all the oppression and discrimination that went with it.
What i can’t remember, however, is exactly where i learned the verse - at school? at home? (i can’t imagine my mother ever using such a word). It’s a mystery to me.
Very sneaky, Otto. I figured that too was a southern thing, but judging from your location, it must be a little more wide spread than that.
Max: I heard that usage from my mom’s relatives in southwest Indiana, so I think it’s used by dipshits everywhere.
Can you be sued for bringing a copy of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians on the plane (bearing in mind the original title)?
::raises hand:: I can honestly say I had never remebered hearing the “n” version in my life until I read this in the news. I had forgotten about Pulp Fiction version until I read this thread - I just assumed they were being deliberately racist in that scene.
I’m just waiting for the update that says the flight attendant lost her job over this bullshit.
Perhaps this can all be settled with a friendly game of billiards. Defensive style. ::d&r::
I also learned the “monkey” version in the late 50’s - early 60’s, just outside of Philadelphia, PA. I wasn’t aware of the racist version until adulthood.
How many of you learned “Ching ching Chinee-man sittin’ on a fence, tryin’ to make a dollar out of fifteen cents”? There’s no denying the racism in that one. But, I’m ashamed to say, as a (white) child I was completely oblivious to it even though I was aware of and hated racism against blacks.
Memo to Southwest Airlines - when you want passengers to sit down, use a version of Jambalaya instead:
Goodbye Joe,
Me (we) gotta go,
Me oh my oh,
Me gotta go
Pole the pirogue (fly the jet)
Down the bayou
My Yvonne,
The sweetest one, (sit your ass down)
Me oh my oh,
Son of a gun,
We’ll have big fun
On the bayou (that’ll be $7 for the sandwich)
Oddly, the judge agreed with the plaintiffs that it could be viewed as racist.
That, IMHO, is a bit over the line, esp. considering the context. I do, however, think that if it truly offends people, Southwest should instruct its employees to stop using the rhyme.
In this day and age I wouldn’t be surprised.
The racial overtone comes from the idea that there is something wrong with being black. The pot is black, the kettle is black. Why would one call the other black if there wasn’t something wrong with being black?
I think my version shows just how silly this is. What’s wrong with being a cooking utensil? Nothing. Just as there’s nothing wrong with being black. Its something that you are.
So, yeah, I think ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ really is insulting. I also think changing the offensive term points this out in a lighthearted way. Perhaps I’m wrong. Anyone else offended by this phrase?
Also, I wish to apologize to any ‘Jimmys’ I may have offended. 
Yes you were to fucking dumb to find a seat. How hard is it? That and I really really don’t think anyone was snickering at you because you are black but it’s because you’re fucking stupid. Next time learn to find the damn seat and sit the hell down. I think I’m gonna cry now.
I learned it as “Eenie, meenie, miney, moe
catch a heterosexually challenged drill sergeant with a lisp
by the toe.”
The meter works better with tiger.
What? You’ve got to be kidding.
As you’re pointing out, there’s no difference if the pot had called the kettle black, a cooking utensil, iron, or Shirley. I think focusing on “black” is an attempt at creating racial overtones where they don’t exist. It just so happens that the descriptive term “black” rolls off the tongue easier than either of the others (although personally I’d lobby to change the word to “Shirley” just for the humor factor).
The point of the phrase isn’t to imply that there’s something wrong with being black; it’s that the pot is being either disengenuous or wilfully ignorant. It’s a bastardized version of the Biblical injunction to “remove the beam from thine own eye before criticizing the mote in thy neighbor’s eye.”
Olentzero: It’s entirely possible the utensils were blackened from their use in the fire. The cast-iron skillets and other cookware I’ve seen recently are black straight from the manufacturer, but that could be an effort to recapture that “well-used” look of earlier ironmongery.
Crud. I forgot to preview.
I’m assuming that they’ll find a more palatable refrain such as:
“Fee Fi Fo Fum,
Find a place for your bum.”
Of course, this will only be used after it’s been ascertained that there are no giants, Englishmen, men named Jack (or women named Jackie), people with a highly pronounced sense of smell, and no hemophiliacs aboard.
In regards to the subthread, I flew Southwest once and probably won’t again. This was due to one of the boarding attendants joking over the intercom about one of their flights arriving successfully without crashing into the tarmac. I’m a fan of humor, but joking about plane crashes to people about to board and people about to meet those arriving just didn’t seem all that humorous.
Nope, not at all. Perhaps, however, we should use “the rose calling the carnation red” (assuming both were red). Seasoned cast-iron cookware is naturally black. I’ve never heard any inferiority infered.