If you’ve heard this rhyme in the last fifty years, you probably heard it as something like this:
Gene, gene, made a machine
Joe, Joe, made it go
Frank, Frank, turned the crank
Art, Art, let a fart
blew the whole damned thing apart!
It’s been fairly common in roughly this form since at least the early 1960s, but it’s a variation on an older one:
Gene, Gene, made a machine
Joe, Joe, made it go
Frank, Frank, turned the crank
His mother came and gave him a spank
Sent him over the river bank
That one was published — in The Clinique: a monthly abstract of the clinics and of the proceedings of the Clinical Society of the Hahnemann Hospital of Chicago of all places - in 1923. The last three lines were listed as a common taunt to be leveled at boys named Frank in a book of “New England Sayings” from 1894.
The “original” kept showing up in print through the 1970s, but some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s, the crew seems to have ditch Frank’s spank-happy mother and replaced her with Art, who brought even more trouble. Poor guys.
The above is a new entry written for the new ebook:
As told by my dad and my aunt from Toronto, Canada, as early as 1950's, this version has a better rhythm and is more sing-songy than other versions I've heard:
ReplyDeleteGene, Gene,
made a machine.
Gene, Gene,
a washing machine.
Gene, Gene,
made a machine.
Joe, Joe,
made it go.
Gene, Gene,
made a machine.
Art, Art,
lit a fart and blew the whole damn thing apart!