Simple Simon (nursery rhyme)

"Simple Simon" Roud #19777
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Simple Simon, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Written by	Traditional
Published	1764
Written	England
Language	English
Form	Nursery rhyme

"Simple Simon" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19777.

1 Lyrics
2 Origins
3 In popular culture
4 Notes
5 External links

Lyrics

The rhyme is as follows;

Simple Simon met a pieman,

Going to the fair;

Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

Let me taste your ware.

Says the pieman to Simple Simon,

Show me first your penny;

Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

Indeed I have not any.

Simple Simon went a-fishing,

For to catch a whale;

All the water he had got,

Was in his mother's pail.

Simple Simon went to look

If plums grew on a thistle;

He pricked his fingers very much,

Which made poor Simon whistle.^[1]

Origins

The verses used today are the first of a longer chapbook history first published in 1764.^[1] The character of Simple Simon may have been in circulation much longer, possibly appearing in an Elizabethan chapbook and in a ballad, Simple Simon's Misfortunes and his Wife Margery's Cruelty, from about 1685.^[1]

In popular culture

Rafael Pombo, a Colombian poet, made a translation and adaptation of this nursery rhyme in Spanish language entitled "Simon, el Bobito".

Laurel and Hardy "played", respectively, Simple Simon and the pieman in Walt Disney's animated short, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.

Simple Simon also appeared in the 1933 Disney cartoon Old King Cole.

Simple Simon was played by Charley Rogers in Babes in Toyland (1934 film).

The Three Stooges did a variant version, which began the usual way, and ended:

Said the pieman to Simple Simon,

"Show me first your penny."

Said Simple Simon to the pieman,

"Scram! Ya don't get any!"

(And a pie in the face)

In the film Die Hard with a Vengeance, the antagonist Simon Gruber's, played by Jeremy Irons, first lines in the film are a taunt to the police:

"Said Simple Simon to the pie man going to the fair: Give me your pies... or I'll cave your head in."

Another variant of the nursery rhyme was an animated film on Sesame Street, in which instead of the pieman, Simple Simon meets three weird looking animals; a wingless duck with boots, a sheep with two small legs, and a snake with wings and boots. He presumes that something is wrong, and while he's thinking, the animals correct themselves until they have their correct parts. Then, somewhat late, Simple Simon has figured out what's wrong: "Sheep don't wear boots!"

In a season 15 episode of The Simpsons entitled Simple Simpson, Homer becomes a pie throwing super hero and leaves the following note after pieing Comic Book Guy:

"Evildoers beware! Signed, Simple Simon your friendly neighborhood Pieman".

In a Bullwinkle's Corner segment of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, while performing Simple Simon, Bullwinkle and Boris Badenov transition into a version of Abbot and Costello's Who's on First sketch.

In the 2007 film American Gangster New York mob boss Frank Lucas, played by Denzel Washington frustratingly remarks twice with the insult:

"Simple Simon ass mother****ers...."

When making references to members of his house staff during a fit of rage.

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), pp. 333-4.

External links

A page containing the full text of the rhyme