Bang Bang You're Dead

There were two variations of this chant at my school:

Bang Bang you're dead
brush your teeth and go to bed

and

Bang Bang you're dead
fifty bullets in your head

Googling around shows that both (or a combination of the two) are fairly well known, though I can't quite find anything that might indicate how far back they go. I can't find either of them in print, though "bang bang you're dead" by itself was a common cry by the middle of the 20th century in war games all over the country. No telling where the rest of it came from, though I imagine that it's been around a while.

There are plenty of variations after the "fifty bullets" line, including "some are red, some are blue / some are made of chicken poo" and "another one / up your bum"

Where and when did YOU hear this one?


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13 comments:

  1. Philadelphia, early 70s. "Brush your teeth and go to bed" version only.
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  2. When I was a kid in Michigan 1980s we said:
    "50 bullets in your head
    One here, one there
    and the rest in your underwear"

    I think the "here" was pointing at the head and the "there" was your heart.

    I don't think we specified that the subtraction of one here and one there would leave 48 for your underwear. Maybe math wasn't our strong point.
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  3. Bang bang, you're dead, 50 bullets in your head.
    Now brush you're teeth and go to bed, and don't wake up until you're dead!!

    My sisters and I used to chant this back in the early 80's up here in Maine. I can't for the life of me remember where we got it but it stuck in my head like all silly chants do :)
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  4. I remember both versions from the 1960's in the Bronx, NY.
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  5. My sisters and brother only said bang, bang, your dead, brush your teeth and go to bed. I've never heard the part about bullets. This was in Fort Worth, Texas in the 70's.
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  6. 1980s, Wisconsin, did "Bang Bang, you're dead / brush your teeth and go to bed."
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  7. Bang bang your dead 50 bullets in your head...one red....one blue .....the rest is made of chicken poo Boston mid 1960's in the school yard lol
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  8. I remember in about 1987 I use to sing with my class mates something like: Bang Bang you're dead, brush your teeth and go to bed, dont forget your teddy bear, stick him in your underwear.
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  9. Bang Bang you're dead, 50 bullets in your head, turn around, touch the ground, Bang Bang you're dead.
    At primary school in England, Yorkshire. It was a skipping rope chant.
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  10. Vestal, New York 1969
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  11. bang bang your dead 50 bullets tyhrough your head turn around touch the ground bang bang your dead is the one everyone uses now as the school chants for the skipping rope
    england birmingham 2004
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  12. My mother was just telling me this from her childhood - northern Wisconsin in the 1940s.
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  13. bang bang your dead, fifty bullets in your head. brush your teeth and go to bed, in the morning you'll be dead!
    Metro-Detroit, Early 90's.
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PLEASE tell us where and when you heard your version (ie, "Chicago, early 1950s). And please be aware that the information may end up in a book sooner or later.

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