This Little Piggy
| "This Little Piggy" | |
|---|---|
| Roud #19297 | |
 This Little Pig Went to Market by Lilly Martin Spencer, 1857 | |
| Song | |
| Written | England |
| Published | 1760 |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
| Writer | Traditional |
| Language | English |
"This Little Piggy" or "This little pig" is an English language nursery rhyme and fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19297.
Lyrics
The most common modern version is:
| Words | Fingerplay |
|---|---|
This little piggy went to market,
|
Wiggle the "big" toe |
Another version (for the vegans) often cited is:
- This little piggy went to market,
- This little piggy stayed home,
- This little piggy had jam and bread,
- This little piggy had none,
- And this little piggy went crying all the way to town[2]
Another version widely used throughout Ireland and the UK:
- This little piggy went to the market,
- This little piggy stayed at home,
- This little piggy had bread and butter,
- This little piggy had none,
- And this little piggy went wee wee wee, all the way home.
Finger play
The rhyme is usually counted out on an infant or toddler's toes, each line corresponding to a different toe, usually starting with the big toe and ending with the little toe. A foot tickle is usually added during the "Wee...all the way home" section of the last line. The rhyme can also be seen as a counting rhyme, although the number of each toe (from 1 for the big toe to 5 for the little toe) is never stated.
Origins
In 1728, the first line of the rhyme appeared in a medley called "The Nurse's Song". The first known full version was recorded in The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book, published in London about 1760.[3]
The full rhyme continued to appear, with slight variations, in many late 18th and early 19th century collections. Until the mid-20th century, the lines referred to "little pigs".[3]
In today's culture
In 2013, an Australian children's music group, The Wiggles, wrote a song "This Little Piggy Went to Market" with the same lyrics as the original This Little Piggy with different background music. The song is on The Wiggles' 2014 release Apples and Bananas (DVD and CD), and the song is sung with the American journalist Lee Hawkins.
On Tuesday, April 29, 2014, on The Today Show, Matt Lauer played This Little Piggy on Savannah Guthrie's toes.[4]
On Monday, February 23, 2015, singer Christina Aguilera sang the rhyme in the voice of Britney Spears on "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon" in the tune and instrumental of ...Baby One More Time.[5]
In Deadpool (2016), there is a scene where the title character confronts Agent Smith in search for his target Francis Freeman. Deadpool pushes the camera away from the scene where he plays an extremely gruesome version of This Little Piggy with Agent Smith off screen.
See also
- Children's literature portal
References
- ↑ Wentworth, George; Smith, David Eugene (1912). Work and Play with Numbers. Boston: Ginn & Company. p. 14.
- ↑ Rizzo, C. (1995). All the Ways Home: Parenting and Children in the Lesbian and Gay Communities. Norwich VT: New Victoria Publishers. p. 104.
- 1 2 Opie, I.; Opie, P. (1951). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1997 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 349–50.
- ↑ Duerson, Meena (April 29, 2014). "Savannah, Matt play 'This Little Piggy' to teach anchor a lesson". Today. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- ↑ Boardman, Madeline (24 February 2015). "Christina Aguilera Does Incredible Britney Spears Impression on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon". US Weekly. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- Brewster, Paul G. (1976). Children's Games and Rhymes. Ayer Co Pub. ISBN 978-0405079146.
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