# In the old Kids' Song... How Do you Play "Knicknack"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 5, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657 "2005-11-05T15:21:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/1 "2005-11-05T15:21:20Z")

</div>

I heard the song “This Old Man” a thousand times as a little kid, and now that I have a 2 year old, I hear it constantly again. But it never occurred to me to ask when I was little…

What is “Knickknack,” and how do you play it?

And could you really play it on a drum, a gate, your knee, or a hive?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/2 "2005-11-05T15:41:02Z")

</div>

It’s the children as musical instruments:

> [@Oxford English Dictionary](#):
>
> 1. An alternation of knacking sounds; an instrument that produces such, as the bones.  
> 1650 H. MORE Observ. Anima Magica (1655) 144 Some idle boy playing on a pair of Knick-knacks. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 56. 3/1 Death-Watches perplex, With repeated knick-knacks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/3 "2005-11-05T19:57:21Z")

</div>

> [@alterego](#):
>
> It’s the children as musical instruments:

So you just whack their heads together and have them open and close their mouths to change the pitch of the sound? 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/4 "2005-11-05T20:40:55Z")

</div>

In Dublin, kinck-knack was the Irish version of ding-dong-ditch.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/5 "2005-11-05T22:02:51Z")

</div>

> [@Lochdale](#):
>
> In Dublin, kinck-knack was the Irish version of ding-dong-ditch.

What’s a ding-dong-ditch, then?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/6 "2005-11-05T22:19:08Z")

</div>

> [@Sage Rat](#):
>
> What’s a ding-dong-ditch, then?

> [@Wikipedia](#):
>
> Ding-Dong-Ditching is a prank where a prankster or group of pranksters will ring a doorbell and then run away with the intent of leaving the person answering the door confused - at the least. In Britain and Ireland this form of prank is known as knick-knocking.

In the US i’ve heard this called “nigger knocking.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-old-kids-song-how-do-you-play-knicknack/329657/7 "2005-11-05T22:48:11Z")

</div>

I dimly recall a silly, mindless game related to this rhyme. It was a kind of pattycake except you kept your hands closed into fists as you touched them together, against your partner’s fists, etc. Darned if I can recall the exact sequence, though.