Earliest example of a song that subverts the expectation of a bawdy rhyme (better explained in OP)

HeyHomie
Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:36:52 +0000
Cafe Society

I watched a tv show recently where a character sang a bawdy song. The joke was, each stanza set you up for a ribald rhyme, but doesn’t deliver. Kind of like this (making it up in my head) :

My daughter has a suitor

A scrawny little runt

He likes to take her dancing

Then lick her hairy c…

…andy’s made from sugar

And sometimes made with rum

I took a big fat handful

And stuffed it up my b…

…arley grows in Wiltshire

(And so on)

Do we know the earliest example of this (in English)? I would imagine it would predate Chaucer.

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