Hinky Dinky

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Phil.  Another new one.  Reminds me of a stanza printed in the '20s:

            The 77th went over the top,
            A sous-lieutenant, a Jew and a Wop.

The US 77th Division, presumably alluded to here, was organized almost entirely from New York City, hence the ethnic refernces.

Why the French term "sous-lieutenant," I don't know.  Most unusual in AEF.

Allegedly the best known "over the top" stanza during WWI was,

            The little Marine went over the top
            To circumcise the Kaiser's cock.

           ("Kick the Kaiser off the pot" was another possibility.)

These exx., from Melbert B. Carey's privately printed collection (1930s) almost miraculously survived the bowdlerizations of the period.

The "little Marine" properly belongs to the extended version of the original bawdy song.

JL

"Philip E. Cleary" <philip.cleary at VERIZON.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Philip E. Cleary"

Subject: Re: Hinky Dinky
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My uncle told me of this WWI version:

The Jew and the Wop went over the top, parlez-vous.
The Jew and the Wop went over the top, parlez-vous.
The Jew and the Wop went over the top.
The Jew fell down, and the Wop got shot.
Hinky dinky parlez-vous.

Phil Cleary

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