In the 1930s, a bit of doggerel made the rounds: I come before you to stand behind you to tell you about something I know nothing about. A listener named Patrick sent a longer version that continues Next Tuesday, the day after Friday, there will not be a meeting held at the town hall. Admission is free, so pay at the door, pull up a chair, and sit on the floor. When the meeting starts, exit. What bits of doggerel and nonsense verse were passed down in your family? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Passed-Down 1930s Doggerel: “I Come Before You to Stand Behind You” and “Next Tuesday, the Day After Friday””
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
And ladies and gentlemen, horses and mules, cross eyed mosquitoes and bull legged ants, I am here to tell you something I know absolutely nothing about.
Woah, woah, woah, We’re gonna have zero listeners, Martha.
Well, no, no.
That was the opening bit of doggerel that was making the rounds in The United States during the 1930s.
And there were lots of different versions of this, all of which had to do with this sort of pseudo sophisticated speech.
And we’ve heard a lot of different versions of this over the years as listeners have written and called to share them with us.
A listener named Patrick shared one that continues, get this, I come before you to stand behind you to tell you about something I know nothing about.
Next Tuesday, the day after Friday, there will not be a meeting held at the town hall.
Admission is free, so pay at the door, pull up a chair, and sit on the floor.
When the meeting starts, exit.
It’s just, you know, this I mean, you can just imagine dads, you know, memorizing this and Yeah, trying to memorizing it just and sharing it with every news, new victim.
Absolutely.
All the kids and grandkids and cousins and second cousins and tenth cousins and so forth.
Here’s somebody who hasn’t heard it yet.
We’ll put all the versions we found on our website at waywordradio.org.
But we’d love to hear the bits of nonsense verse and doggerel that have passed along in your family.
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In my family there was a bit of doggerel that my brothers and sisters and I would repeat:
One dark day in the middle of the night
Two dead brother got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other
Got out their swords and shot each other
I can’t recall the rest but it ended with
If you don’t believe my lies are true
Ask the blind man, he saw it too