What kind of spider climbed up the water spout?

By virtue of the fact that we have a copy of the book “The NOT So Itsy Bitsy Spider,” I’d say it’s canonically itsy bitsy.

It appears that Amazon.com is neutral; it offers exactly 48 product hits for each version.

That would make for a rather boring series of comic books.

That’s not exactly an independently collected result.

Count me in with those who have always heard it as *itsy bitsy. *

Well, clearly there’s some natural selection at work here: Itsy-bitsy spiders seem to be achieving a dominant position in the waterspouts of the world, but pockets of eensy-weensy spiders are surviving. In the remote and isolated land of Ennzedd, home of the kiwi and the tuatara, there exists yet another living fossil: the incy-wincy spider. :wink:

Another itsy bitsy here. When my kids were young we used to sing a second verse. With a very VERY sad voice, you sing “The poor little spider, it had NO place to go,” then pause and at a much faster tempo sing “So it climbed all over <child’s name> from her head down to her toe” while tickling the child. The contrast of the very sad voice followed by the tickle and laughter was a lot of fun.

Incy Wincy (possible spelling Eeensy Weensy). Itsy Bitsy is an American thing, I think.

Incy-wincy. It’s the only way to go.

Buh?

I get "Results 1 - 10 of about 39,600 for “incy wincy spider”. (0.14 seconds) "

Another itsy-bitsy here.

IIRC, column Dave Barry once had a reader poll exactly like this, and itsy-bitsy won in a landslide. I can’t seem to Google his exact quote, but the archetypal response he claimed to receive was something like “It’s the eensy-skeensy spider! It was always the eensy-skeensy spider when I was growing up in [name of dirtball state], and I am 137 years old.”

Lately my mind has been turning this into:

The * Mitsubishi* Spider

as if the Japanese introduced a new stylish, possibly water-climbing sports car.

Of course, that only really works if you’ve always heard it as “the itsy-bitsy spider”. Which is, I believe, the title of a short-lived animated series, too.

Bart Simpson sang “itsy bitsy.” That’s good enough for me.

I grew up with the understanding that it’s itsy-bitsy. However the only spiders I’ve noticed recently are the fighty-bitey variety.

Smartass. :wink:

Re the OP, I say “itchy bitchy.” :stuck_out_tongue:

Achy breaky, perhaps?

We always said “eentsy-beentsy”. I wonder if anyone else remembers it that way.

I have no idea which one I actually learned first, growing up. and I was familiar with both versions. And I wouldn’t have known which one came to mind first except that the first few times my wife and I were launching into a duet I’d sing “eensy weensy” and she’d sing “itsy bitsy.”

I wonder if it’s regional, or what?

  1. Always itsy bitsy for me.
  2. That Joey Deluxe version of the song linked on the first page is awesome!
  3. I had no idea there was more than one verse to that song.