268 - The Dark History of Nursery Rhymes

Who put the rock-a-bye-baby up in the tree branch, and why? Seems irresponsible. When it was raining and pouring, why didn't the old man get out of bed after bumping his head? Did he die? What is Ring Around the Rosie really about? The bubonic plague? Why are we singing to small children about cutting the tails off of three blind mice? Who wrote all the strange, often dark, mostly weird old nursery rhymes kids have been memorizing for centuries? We look into all of this and more today. Such a fun topic! We examine why nursery rhymes often appear dark and why that may have helped keep them popular. We look into the lore that surrounds a lot of popular old rhymes to try to separate origin fact from origin fiction. Comedic theory, mnemonic devices such as acoustic encoding, and more - all explored as I get both scientific and silly today, finally getting to know many classic nursery rhymes many of us have memorized but few actually understand.

If you like to donate to the Bad Magic Giving Tree this year, please to amazon.com, purchase a gift card, and when you fill in the box for "To", enter the following email address: givingtree@badmagicproductions.com If you'd like to be the recipient of a donation, please email us why you could use a helping hand to get presents for your children this holiday season. You can ask to remain anonymous. Email us at givingtree@badmagicproductions.com Hail Nimrod!

Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0faNktF19vA

Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/

Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v

Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)

For all merch related questions/problems: store@badmagicproductions.com (copy and paste)

Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast

Wanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast

Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.