Earliest example of a song that subverts the expectation of a bawdy rhyme (better explained in OP)

Cafe Society
1

I watched a tv show recently where a character sang a bawdy song. The joke was, each stanza set you up for a ribald rhyme, but doesn’t deliver. Kind of like this (making it up in my head) :

My daughter has a suitor

A scrawny little runt

He likes to take her dancing

Then lick her hairy c…

…andy’s made from sugar

And sometimes made with rum

I took a big fat handful

And stuffed it up my b…

…arley grows in Wiltshire

(And so on)

Do we know the earliest example of this (in English)? I would imagine it would predate Chaucer.

Subverted Rhymes!
2

I don’t know about the oldest example of the song, but this one is my favorite of the genre.

3

As starting point, “Shaving Cream” was recorded in 1946. I’ve thought about starting a thread game where we take turns writing verses. Probably already been done.

4

There is, of course, a trope for that.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion

5

This thread immediately brought to mind two examples. Neither is old enough to qualify as an answer to the OP.

  1. Chidren’s song: Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell. Miss Lucy went to heaven, the steamboat went to … HELLO OPERATOR, give me number nine.

  2. Julie Brown, “I Like ‘em Big and Stupid”: I met a man, he had a truck. He couldn’t tell time, but he sure could … DRIVE.

6

A mild version of this shows up in Dublin and Warren’s “Shuffle off to Buffalo” from 42nd Street in 1932.

“He did right by little Nellie

With a shotgun in his b-… Tummy”

“Belly” seems to have been more risque back then than it is now.

7

From “Ain’t We Got Fun” (1921), essentially a very mild example of the opposite trope:

There’s nothing surer

The rich get richer and the poor get children

8

From the Killers’ Mr. Brightside, which isn’t the earliest example by far, but is a great example of the style;

Now they’re going to bed
And my stomach is sick
And it’s all in my head
But she’s touching his
Chest

The Doors also had a good’n in L’America;

C’mon people, don’t you look so down
You know the rainman’s comin’ to town
He’ll change your weather, change your luck
And then he’ll teach you how to…
…Find yourself

9

TvTropes informs me that there’s an example in Hamlet.

Hamlet: (singing) For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very—pajock.

Horatio: You might have rhymed.

(It notes that the word “was” was, at the time, pronounced such that it rhymed with “glass”. I will allow you to fill in the subverted rhyme.)

10

To the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”

It was Christmas Day in the cookhouse,
the happiest day of the year
Mens hearts were full of gladness,
and their bellies full of beer
When up popped Private Shorty,
his face as bold as brass
He said “you can take your Christmas pudding
And stick it up your…”
Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O, tidings of comfort and joy

It was Christmas day in the harem,
the eunuchs were standing round
While hundreds of beautiful women
lay stretched out on the ground
When in strolled the bold bad Sultan,
and gazed at his marble halls
He asked “what do you want for Christmas, boys?”
And the eunuchs answered:
Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy
O, tidings of comfort and joy

Billy Bennet, 1930.

11

There’s a song which I used to hear performed when I attended Renaissance Faires, called the “Clean Song.” The meter is such that you expect each naughty word that completes a rhyme, but the singer pauses for a moment instead of saying the bawdy word, before moving to the next couplet.

The first few lines (link to the whole lyrics is below):

12

I heard one a long time ago. I’m not sure when it originated. I did a search and found a discussion here about it.

13

My father would sing “Sweet Violets”:

There one was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs,
And told her that she had such beautiful
Manners…

14

Something similar on Family Guy: Brian sings

I love the work of Alan Funt

I love a freshly-shaven

Leg

15

Just was, thanks for the idea:

16

Reminds me of my Dad’s favourite limerick:

There once was a girl from Madras
Who had a magnificent ass
Not rosy and pink
As you probably think
But grey, with long ears, that ate grass

17

Martin Mull had a pretty good one.

18

Not the earliest by any means, but this made me recall one of the verses in Rastabilly by The Dead Milkmen:

My baby drives a truck
My baby sure is good luck
My baby has a pet duck
And my baby is a heck of a ffff-riend

19

Didn’t every kid sing the the Shaving Cream one and Miss Lucy or was that just a North East thing?

20

I remember singing “Miss Lucy” back in the day, I was an adult before I heard the “Shaving Cream” song.