The Batmobile lost a wheel, and .... ?

Cafe Society
1

A companion to the thread about different mutations of altered children’s lyrics to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”: the variations on “Jingle Bells”.

As I recall from childhood,
*
Jingle Bells, Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg
The Batmobile lost a wheel,
and the Joker got away!*

I’ve read of different versions where instead of the Joker getting away, “the Commissioner broke his leg” (which seems awfully dark).

My own kids, in elementary school right now, have inexplicably picked up this variation which MAKES NO SENSE:
*
Jingle Bells, Batman smells,
Robin laid a gun
Shot a bee and made it pee
in 1981!

*Laid a gun? The whole point was that “robin” is the name of a kind of bird, ha ha, that lays eggs. And of course, the Joker always seems to get away. And made a bee pee in 1981? Bees do not now and never have “peed”, and listen missy, I could tell you about 1981, and it never happened like that! Why, back in 1981, gasoline was so expensive, it cost a dollar a gallon! I mean, that’s not a lot at all now, I’d kill for a dollar a gallon for gas, but back then it was like ridiculous! And there was this guy named Reagan who got elected partly because the previous President admitted to being attacked by a swimming rabbit! There used to be a phone booth on the corner of our block, too - you ever see a phone booth? Like where Superman changes clothes? Oh, you don’t know about that do you. Well you see, — snore

2

Dark? - when I was a boy, it was “And the Commissioner is Dead”

3

… and now they can-not peel! (as in “peel away”)

4

For us, it was …“and the Commissioner broke his leg.”

5

“Joker got away” for me. No bee pee.

6

Which I only now just realized after all these years, actually rhymes with Robin laying an egg. Huh.

7

“Commissioner broke his leg” was the variant when I first heard it, circa 1977. I don’t think I heard “Joker got away” until the first Simpsons episode, which was originally broadcast in 1989, but which I probably first saw in '91 or '92.

But bees don’t pee? Really?

8

“Joker got away” is the version I’m familiar with, pre-Simpsons. I would estimate having first heard it circa 1984. ETA: I have never heard any of the other variants.

9

and I should provide a date - let’s say 1974… both the Commissioner version and the “Joker got away” version were in common use.

10

Well, putting on my thinking cap for a second - they surely secrete waste, and probably some kind of liquid is involved, but “peeing” as we know it involves expelling a stream of liquid and it seems to me that insects lack the internal pressure to do so.

And OMG, entering “do bees pee?” in Google yields the fact that this is on a list of pollinator related FAQs. See Question 12…

The given answer:

[/FONT]
So no, no peeing for bees.

11

“Joker got away” is what I heard when I was child of the 60’s.

Seems like Alfred breaking his leg (less syllables than “The Commissioner”) makes more since.

12

“Joker got away” for me, however my son has been hearing from school “Joker did ballet”.

13

Also rhymes, and frankly a pleasantly disturbing image :slight_smile:

14

ballet for me, as a child of the 90’s.

15

Oh, and my daughter has just “corrected” me and said it’s not a bee that gets shot and pees, it’s a TREE. Which if possible makes even less sense.

16

“The Joker got away.” I had no idea this parody was Dadaist, but it seems to be getting weirder and weirder over the decades.

17

Robin laid an egg
Joker got away- Hey!

Was how we sang it, mid 1970s.

18

Circa 1967, I heard “the Commisioner’s eating hay”–which made no sense to me.

19

“Joker got away,” in my neighbourhood back in the 60s.

20

In the 70s, the first version I heard had and the commissioner ran away.