Talk:Little Bunny Foo Foo

Untitled
How does this have to do with a sadistic, violent rabbit? "Bopping" something on the head is hardly a term to convey torment. It is not violent at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Freakmeeko (talk • contribs) 11 February 2006 Um, hitting someone on the head is not violent? Duh!! Look up "violent"

Interpreted as Satire on feudalism Satire works because it is not obvious, but recognizable, at least by a certain group. This original work (Little Bunny Foo Foo) is recognizable as a negative interpretation of a pattern of a power relationship inherent in feudalism. It is not an issue of original research, and is in fact informative without bias. You cannot have an authoritative figure to tell you what is or isn't satire! This article has good material that is in danger of being censored in the name of providing Citations. Sad. Cuvtixo 18:14, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Anyone who thinks that this is any sort of 'classic folk' song, or poem, has been bopped on the head by a bunny. It's a 20th century invention. As a result, the page reads like a spoof, much like the spoof below on the talk page. It would be interesting to locate some actual evidence of who wrote it, or whether it in fact evolved amongst children. 96.237.181.86 (talk) 13:00, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

What's a goon?
Well, I know anglo-saxon children's rhymes don't make sense at all (well, neither do ours but ours don't make sense in an honest way, for example being total gibberish), but I just keep wondering which meaning of the word "goon" is used in this one.

"Stupid person?" - well, that makes some sense, but "little bunny" seems to be stupid to begin with.

"Muscular henchman?" - erm... I'm not sure how that qualifies as a punishment.

195.38.101.16 10:26, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

According to Sharon, Lois, & Bram's rendition, a goon is a monster. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.57.218.109 (talk) 00:24, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Scouts
I changed the bit about only girl scouts using the song, cause I know that scout groups use it too, its not only girl scouts 118.90.39.231 (talk) 11:47, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

whats up —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.208.235.166 (talk) 16:25, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

A San Francisco variation from the late 1970s
I changed "a rarely used version" to "an alternate version" as there is no source to determine how rare the versions are. The one indicated as rare is actually the one I hear the most on the west coast, though I imagine all versions are widely dispersed, including many not listed here.--75.172.57.180 (talk) 03:01, 20 September 2013 (UTC) In the version my pre-grade school daughter brought home from her San Francisco school (Between 1978 and 1982 approximately), the Good Fairy's words were "Little Bunny Fufu, I don't like your attitude, Scooping up the field mice and bopping them on the head." Further, a moral was appended to the story after the vicious bunny was transformed: "Hare today, Goon tomorrow." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.173.161 (talk) 16:19, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I also grew up, in Mississippi, with the variation ending of "And the moral is - Hare today, Goon tomorrow!" - Happydog1960 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.14.146.21 (talk) 01:59, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Popeye
Goonland (1938) - IMDb www.imdb.com/title/tt0030198/ - Quotes. Popeye: [disguising himself as a goon] Hair today, goon tomorrow. Since Popeye popularized Goon in 1938 and the song usually ends with and the moral is "hare today goon tomorrow" and since it is sung to a song written in the 1940s and since no one seems to have heard it before sometime in the mid 1960s one can safely assume it was written sometime after Popeye cartoons were shown over and over again on TV in the 50s.

OED
From: http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season4/E409secrets.htm

There are definitely two separate literary traditions at work here. According to the OED2, the earliest reference for Bunny/Rabbit Foo Foo is Chaucer's _The Canterbury Tales_, "The Knight's Tale:" "And in the grove, at tyme and place yset, This bunnie Fewfew and this field maus be met. To chaungen gan the colour in hir face;"

The next reference is from Shakespeare, in a sonnet believed to have been written in 1609 (about the time he was hacking the Bible): "Clear wells spring not, sweet birds sing not, Green plants bring not forth their dye. Herd stands weeping, flocks all sleeping, Nymphs back peeping fearfully, For Rabbitt Foofoo hath killed a mouse."

H.L. Mencken's _History of the American Language_, however cites a 1623 manuscript from the Plymouth colony that claims John Alden sang a "lullabye about Bunnie Foofoo" to his children.

From here, the trail disappears for several centuries. The OED2 cites a 1910 draft manuscript by B. Potter titled "Peter, Mopsy, Flopsy, and Foo-Foo Rabbit."

Back on this side of the pond, the OED2 cites a 1925 letter by Zelda Fitzgerald records that "Scott is quite upset because the publisher elided a poem about Bunny Foo-Foo from _This Side of Paradise_. Scott believed it to be essential to the narrative."

In the same year, Ernest Hemingway's journal records on 25 June (cited in Random House Hist. Dic of Amer. Slang): "Had a long argument with Joyce and Stein today. He recited some doggerel about Little Rabbit Foo-Foo. Gertrude and I recalled it as Bunny Foo-Foo. Became quite heated, and Joyce stiffed us by leaving without paying the check. Bastard."

The tentative conclusion must be that "Bunny" is the older, but changed to "Rabbit" quite early on in Britain. In America, the older form seems to have been preserved. So Americans that use Rabbit Foo-Foo are following the British tradition. Gam3 (talk) 00:10, 9 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing Gam3 is aware of this, but just in case anyone was wondering, all of the above is a spoof. For example, the actual lines in Chaucer are "And in the grove, at tyme and place yset, / This Arcite and this Palamon ben met. / To chaungen gan the colour in hir face; ..." Mahousu (talk) 13:28, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Green Fairy
"Also, in some versions the Angel Gabriel is used instead of the Good Fairy, in others the Green Fairy" Are there really versions that say "the Green Fairy"? 76.111.108.53 (talk) 05:10, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

Additional citations
Why and where does this article need additional citations for verification? What references does it need and how should they be added? Hyacinth (talk) 08:07, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * They'd be in places where claims are made about it, like the alternate name/spelling or different versions; they would let people know the info is from accepted academic studies and to go to the cited works to learn more (like where/when it ends with punishment or threat, which versions were most popular in the 1800s, etc). There are some good examples on the nursery rhyme, childlore, and children's song pages of citations, I think.  72.25.89.142 (talk) 11:17, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

I would think the South Park episode would be sufficient evidence for hand gestures. Butters gets the routine basically right, though his animated hands can't really emulate much. I learned the goon version with hand gestures. They're memorable and integral to the bit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.103.135.119 (talk) 10:31, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

Earlier mention
This article currently cites two 1970 mentions, referenced to an article that says that it was the earliest references the author could find.

Here is a newspaper reference to it being performed in 1966.

I am avoiding editing articles where possible at this time... but someone might want to add a "The song has been mentioned at least as far back as 1966." somewhere, using that as a source. --Nat Gertler (talk) 13:57, 21 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Oh, and here is a use in prose from 1968, showing that the full storyline right down to the gooning was in place by that time.


 * And in 1969 an argument broke out in the Wisconsin Senate over :Little Bunny Foo Foo, albeit without the storyline. --Nat Gertler (talk) 14:03, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

"Physical"
An IP editor just switched a bit of phrasing, "to go physical on them" to "to get physical with them", claiming that it was avoiding slanginess. However, not only is it still just as slangy, it effectively changes the meaning from "committing violence upon them" to "having sex with them". I recommend that more appropriate wording be found. That is not how Little Bunny Foo Foo bops. --Nat Gertler (talk) 14:00, 29 March 2023 (UTC)
 * @NatGertler, agreed, neither wording was ideal. I found a book review and revised the description based on that. Schazjmd   (talk)  19:09, 29 March 2023 (UTC)