Here’s an odd little bit of rhyme I found on a web page, probably English in origin.
Is this from a fairy tale? A Children’s book? A cartoon? A tradition bit of folklore?
Help please.
My guess is that it’s an advertising jingle.
I concur - probably North American to boot.
Use of word “corncob” (not an English staple food) and the North American grammar (“he don’t want…”) pretty much rules it out as English in origin I would say.
Certainly I never heard of it as a childrens rhyme when growing up in the UK.
I agree with notquitekarpov - it’s not a rhyme I’ve ever heard in the UK.
I’ve never heard it in the U.S. or Canada.
And google’s never heard of “cheeky little corncob”, “cheeky little corn”, or “offer him a pea”.
Sounds like someone recent just made it up.
It’s on a Usenet message in alt.roundtable (see Google / Groups search). Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, why not ask the message author where it comes from?
Just butting in to say I have never heard of it in Britain. Thing is, I would doubt whether it could be an advertising jingle either, jsut because it ends up by mentioning “fat”. I can’t imagine an adertiser choosing to do that.
I regret to say that, although I am not lieu, that jingle reminded me of the great American tradition of corncobs in the outhouse.
.
Sorry.
I grew up in North America and I have never heard it. This doesn’t mean it isn’t from the USA, but as evidence it is as valid as those who haven’t heard it in the UK.
But there’s an interesting contradiction here: “Cheeky” is a purely British term (meaning “naughty” or similar). It is a word that simply doesnt exist in American English.
So this rhyme looks like it’s been adapted by users on both sides of the ocean
Cheeky isn’t a common term in the USA. The wording and cadence seems to be Caribbean - maybe Jamaican. I tried searching for the wording and can’t find it, even mangling the pronouns (he=him).
Don’t be; I’m relieved to see that I’m not the only one to read double entendre into it.
Is it possible that ‘cheeky’ was still in use in the Americas many years ago? I’m thinking it sounds like something that Civil War soldiers or maybe American slaves might have made up. Just a general impression.
That is besides the OP, perhaps Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor could tell us his source. That may help.
I’ve e-mailed the Usenet poster to ask.
You’re thinking too modern. A hundred years ago, newspapers had advertisements about how to put on weight, not take it off. Slenderness was considered unattractive, if not a sign of illness. Then there were those two Campbell’s Soup kids, plump as could be.
It figured in a recent comic strip. the onlune comic is called Scary Go Round
I’m having trouble getting the context of the poem/jingle. 
Bosda. Try laying off weird comic strips. Methinks it’s merely poor doggerel from the author.
Not weird–English.
Seriuosly, since it’s a UK comic strip. I thought it might be an aspect of British culture I was unfamiliar with.
It doesn’t ring any bells with me either, but then the whole site is full of non-standard content for a British audience such as using “lame” as a put-down, “dumb” for “stupid” and rhyming “scary” with “merry”. So that pulls the rug from under any attempts to check the Britishness of “corncob” etc.
It’s very likely to be something made up for the strip or copied from some other recently made up reference.