Background

The informant is a freshman at USC and is originally from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. She is the roommate of a fellow informant and offered to be interviewed when I went to their apartment to conduct my interview. She has no specific religious affiliations nor does she identify with any ethnic subgroup within the United States. She is referred to as “BS”.

Context

I asked about any humorous jingles or tunes that the informant was aware of.

Content

“Jingle bells

Batman smells

Robin laid an egg

Batmobile lost its wheel

and the joker played ballet.”

I don’t know if that’s where it ends. Is that where it ends? Cause that’s all I remember- the kids singing it on the school bus. School bus was horrible.

Analysis

This rendition of Jingle Bells, using Batman characters, is fairly ubiquitous among children. The origins of it are unknown, but most kids know some version of it. I personally heard a different version, where the last line is “and the Joker got away”, but that is part of the essence of this tune being folkloric in origin – it doesn’t have one set of lyrics but has options. This tune is also demonstrative of the humor of children; they take things they’re aware of (Jingle Bells and Batman) and make it ridiculous. Jingle Bells is not the only song I’ve heard funny versions of – kids do it to all sorts of songs for fun. Children frequently begin to ridicule or joke about subjects they previously liked as a way to demonstrate their maturity; to show that they are old enough to find those “childish” things ridiculous.