# When a joke made me a joker:  Who knows this presidential mnemonic?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-who-knows-this-presidential-mnemonic/640018>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 5, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-who-knows-this-presidential-mnemonic/640018 "2012-11-05T23:52:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jebert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ec9cab/32.png) [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-who-knows-this-presidential-mnemonic/640018/1 "2012-11-05T23:52:03Z")

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I once heard a mnemonic for remembering the US presidents - the first letter of each word was also the first letter of the presoident’s name.

It starts like this:

When a joke made me a joker, Van hadto poke the fiery poker, but Lincoln …

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, etc.

That’s all I remember, but it goes on at least up to FDR, maybe more.

Does anyone here know the whole thing?

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**Author:** ![silverfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-who-knows-this-presidential-mnemonic/640018/2 "2012-11-05T23:56:53Z")

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A little googling turns up this:[http://www.mnemonic-device.com/bighistory/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-van-held-the-poker-the-fiery-poker-but-long-john-grant-had-gone-and-chased-his-crazy-mooses-round-the-west-hollering-cant-help-rinse-those-empty-kettles-just-now-friend-cau/](http://www.mnemonic-device.com/bighistory/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-van-held-the-poker-the-fiery-poker-but-long-john-grant-had-gone-and-chased-his-crazy-mooses-round-the-west-hollering-cant-help-rinse-those-empty-kettles-just-now-friend-cau/)

Is that what you’re thinking of?

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-joke-made-me-a-joker-who-knows-this-presidential-mnemonic/640018/3 "2012-11-06T05:18:23Z")

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Without checking the link:

**When a joke made me a joker, Van had to poke the fiery poker but let jokes go. Hastily galloping across country, Harry cleverly made ready to watch his cool horse run to eastern Kansas.** That takes you up to Kennedy. If you don’t know the presidents past Kennedy, **Jack never found Canyon Road; Bob came back over.**