Saturday, February 03, 2007

I chased a bug around a tree.

When my wife was a little girl, her father used to say the above phrase to her, to his great amusement, and her mother's annoyance. It wasn't until she was a lot older that she understood what her father meant with this phrase.
When she told me, I knew there had to be more to it, so here, in its entirety is the song. I would sing it, but I'm unable at this time to embed an audio file in this blog.
The Bug
I chased a bug around a tree,
The biggest bug you'll ever see.
I bagged that bug, 'cause he bugged me,
That bug around a tree.
A bug... a bug... a bug... a bug...
A bug around a tree.
o0o
I caught that bug and asked, "Tell me,
O bug, why do you pester me?"
He said, in all sincerity,
"For curiosity!"
For cu... for cu... for cu... for cu...
For curiosity.
Now go and sing this song to any children you know who are bugging you, and require some bugging in return.

6 comments:

Interrobang said...

I don't get it. Is this some peculiar UK English thing that doesn't work in a North American accent or something? I suspect so, and I'd further wager it hangs on a postvocalic R. Speakers of most dialects of North American English actually pronounce those, you know... *grin*

Incidentally, your pun on Spocko's blog was beyond painful. Just so you know.

Anonymous said...

This is an English thing, as 'interrobang' points out. Although the version I was told as a child was different it centered on the same 'gag':

I chased a bug around a tree,
I'll have his blood, he knows I will.

Said quickly, with an English accent, sounds like:

I chased a bugger round a tree,
I'll have his bloody nose I will.

Unknown said...

Thinking of writing a post on my blog about the inspirational things written in my autograph book when I was a child, I remembered what my father had written, and got great amusement from to the consternation of my mother ... now it seems that this is not a unique situation. It was the second version in the comment above, that he wrote. Makes me wonder what your wife's experience was generally of her father and whether he was at all like mine...

Anonymous said...

Hi

I once had a scifi book that had the second version in it. Someone borrowed it and never returned it. Does anyone know which novel it was that featured it?

The story involved some menacing presence in the basement of an apartment building.

Anonymous said...

me i just love experiments. i had a brother once. haaa!. nobody is as sane as me. wel mabey the vicker. mabey his wife and clink and brian. ok lots of people are far saner than me. baaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaah tuesday.

Anonymous said...

i was watching a wonderful show the other night about things turning inside out when my phone spat at me. so i had a very deep conversation with the toaster and fed the fish. when i awoke i was amased to discover that the week end wasnt reel and just a confidence trick devised by coco cola along with glassware,tacos,hitler and lots of other things. but dont worry for what its worth they are all south of you. i am in comon with most men my age 41. yours tearfully the sidewinder