1968, at a friend’s 8th birthday party in L.A. - Lower Arkansas. It was after sundown and we were all walking next door to another friend’s house when one of the boys sang it. Why do I remember that much detail?
School bus - late 1960’s
Also the first place I heard the word “fart” used. In my house, one could never use a word like that, it wasn’t proper!!
jingle bells
santa smells
charlie’s in the grass
take this merry Christmas
and shove it up your ...
Around the same time I heard another silly spoof /childhood favorite:
MacDonald’s is your kind of place,
Hamburgers in your face,
French fries between your toes
Dill pickles up your nose
And don’t forget those chocolate shakes
Made from polluted lakes
MacDonalds is your kind of place!
Early 1970’s.
June 4th 1967 at 1:32PM CST.
About 1970, in grade school.
Early 60’s in elementary school.
December 1972 in an elementary school in Missouri.
It appeared that it had been making the rounds prior to this for a few years as the older kid in my elementary school were the ones who taught it to us younger kids.
My impression at the time was that it had probably originated during the run of the very popular Batman television show during the 1960’s.
Cheers
Mid 1960’s (I’m 50).
However Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939, so I’m guessing that kids started singing it about December 1939.
Holy useless trivia, Batman!
School bus, Chicagoland, November 1967.
Late ‘60s. Most likely when the show was on TV for the first time.
BTW - I just checked with one of my younger nephews. He informs me that the song has morphed and has more verses now and days. Here is the version the kids in his school are singing:
Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,
the Batmobile lost a wheel and the Joker got away!
Batman’s in the kitchen,
Robin’s in the hall,
Joker’s in the bathroom
peeing on the wall.
Penguin’s on the potty,
His arms too short to wipe,
Catwoman’s in the litter box
And the Riddler smokes a pipe.
O, Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,
the Batmobile lost a wheel and the Joker got away!
Cheers
Walking down the street past our opened window, I heard the singing. It was Fast Freddie Phelps. Now they called him fast Freddie because Freddie was fast, ya see. He was fast no matter what he did. He talked fast, he walked fast, he ate fast, he bathed fast, he drove fast, he wrote fast, he ran fast, went through money fast...etc.
"Jingle bells, Batman smells..." and so on, went FF. But he was repeating it so fast, that Aunt Polly, who was already hard of hearing, thought she heard him say something else about Batman smelling and Robin laying eggs.
Aunt Polly, not always being of even temper, yelled out the window... "You keep that foul mouth shut Freddie!"
Freddie ignored her and continued to repeat the song, belching it out merrily and very, very quickly. He walked so fast that he was out of earshot in mere seconds.
In fact, I believe it was April 20th, 1969. I remember the date because on the next day, the police arrested Aunt Polly for the attempted murder of Fast Freddie Phelps. They had found her lurking outside Freddie's window with a gun, muttering to herself about batman's so and so smelling like something or other and Robin laying whatever...
But really, yeah, I first remember it around the late 60s, early 70s.:-)
What the hell are you blabbering about?
Oh, my best guess would be 66 or 67 in my grade school lunch room. Probably third grade or thereabouts.
1967 at school; 2nd grade
Pretty mild compared to some of the other ditties we sang back in the day.
Joy To The World
The School Burnt Down
The teachers are all dead
We’re looking for the principal
He’s hanging on the flag pole
With a rope around his neck
With a rope around his neck
With a rooo-ooope around his neh-eh-eck