Jingle Bells, Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg,
The Batmobile lost a wheel,
and The Joker got away,
Hey!
Did anyone every wonder who made that up? I always assumed that it was a local thing (Brooklyn), but my husband grew up outside of Boston and knew the words too. I guess what I want to know is who else knows this song, and where you’re from. Also any information on where it came from would be greatly appreciated
Thanks,
Blue
“I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time…”
My daughters have been singing that for a couple weeks and were shocked to find out that mommy and daddy sang it when they were kids. Their version, however, has a slight variation.
I grew up in a no-hope, industrial, God-forsaken town in the Midwest (Springfield, IL) in the 70’s, and I sang it all the time; irritated my 'rents to no end.
As to where it originated - just a WAG, but this sounds like the handiwork of either a MAD magazine writer, or perhaps Walt Kelly (“Pogo”).
I submit is was written by the same genius who penned:
“Great green gobs of ooey, gooey gopher guts,
marmaladed monkey nuts
and me without my spoon.”
I remember a group of us boys pissed off a scoutmaster back in the early '70s by singing the Jingle Bell parody. He thought it was disrepectful of Christmas and Christ.
This good Christian had five children – one is a former dope fiend who was convicted of child molesting, one is a punk, one is one of the snottiest bitches I have ever met, one is a lazy slut on welfare and the fifth I can’t comment about – haven’t seen or heard of her in a couple of decades.
It just goes to show.
I happened to catch an episode of the animated Batman series once and almost choked when the Joker broke out in song with that little ditty! The emphasis was on the last line, because he did, in fact, “got away” (sic).
In the 70s in Missouri it was “Batmobile BROKE a wheel”. But other than that, pretty much the same. I don’t remember any words after the Joker got away (hey!), though.
And the gopher guts song I learned was “Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts/swimming in a pool of blood.” Other verses had “Mutilated monkey meat” or “paralyzed porpoise pus” doing the same thing.
I heard it in New Brunswick in the mid 70’s just like the op…
and its:
Great big globs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat,
dirty little birdy feet,
deepfried eyeballs,melting in a bowl of pus, and i forgot my spoon!
So I’ll use a straw…<slurp>
Well, the fact that I knew it at my school, and this is a tiny fishing village on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand we’re talking about, says a lot about how widely distributed it got.
