BBC defends Humpty Dumpty decision

There was much hilarity in our primary school classroom to discover that Jack, of Jack and Jill fame, not only broke his crown carrying the pail of water down the hill, he also broke his "nob" too in the second verse.

Poor Jack. I wonder if the BBC can fix him too ?

reply to post by Ulala


Well I just picked these modern alternatives to some traditional rhymes from comments on the BBC.

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To get a mobile top-up,
Jill fell down and broke her crown,
And Jack was left to mop up.

Mary Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
It doesn't at all because you see, I thought,
It'd more useful paved over as a car port.

Hey diddle diddle,
MPs on the fiddle,
Their pay is as high as the moon,
The ministers laughed to see such fun,
Knowing they wouldn't pay back anytime soon.

Wee Willie Winkie,
Runs through the town,
Upstairs, downstairs,
In his night shirt.
His case comes up next week.

reply to post by Merriman Weir


Thanks for posting this. I keep a list of stupid stuff to help me teach my kids that the world has gone mad.

Thanks again!

I think that messing with Humpty is grounds for a Revolution!


Oh wait....your Brits....

Oceania is at war with Eastasia, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Poor saps.

I'm surprised they didn't change it to "all the King's horses and all the King's men of the NHS refused treatment due to Humpty's reckless lifestyle choices".

Originally posted by Laurauk
This is what our Licence Fee pays for, cuckoo idiots making decisions like this.

Anyone that has worked at the bbc knows what humpty dumpty means lol. I wonder how many work at the bbc and should sue for sexual haressment. They think everyone working there needs to be a rabbit, lol.

Where does the rhyme ever refer to Humpty as an Egg? it never did originally, because it wasn't, only as time went on was it ever depicted as an Egg, I think I remember it actually being a drink or referring to a clumsy person.

So the BBC haven't really altered anything from the original, seems they just altered it as has been done before.

But what would I know eh?

Originally posted by bismarcksea
I think that messing with Humpty is grounds for a Revolution!


Oh wait....your Brits....

Oceania is at war with Eastasia, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Poor saps.

You'd start a revolution over two lines of a nursery rhyme?

What a curous individual.

So the BBC are now actively encouraging our children to go and sit on high walls with the promise that if they were by chance to "have a great fall" they would be made to feel better again by "all the kings horses and all the kings men" ( shouldn't KINGS be substituted for QUEENS while we are at it ). Has this decision been risk assesed and the Worksafe Proccedure passed as acceptable by the Health and Safety Inspectorate

Originally posted by azzllin
Where does the rhyme ever refer to Humpty as an Egg? it never did originally, because it wasn't, only as time went on was it ever depicted as an Egg, I think I remember it actually being a drink or referring to a clumsy person.

The rhyme doesn't but Alice states that he looks like an egg in 'Through the Looking Glass'. Carroll's representation of the actual rhyme makes sense as an egg, whilst not as fragile as often thought, is incredibly difficult to repair!

*WARNING: CONTAINS SOME CHOICE LANGUAGE*





Peace.

Requesting permission to be extremely stupid please, but I must be missing something. I cannot see, genuinely cannot see how a single negative can be taking with how the closing line could be taken.

I'm not saying that to back up my belief of the stupidity, I just genuinely cannot in my mind come up with a single idea of how that one line could be perceived in any negative vein. The only negative from the whole episode being in my mind, "wait a minute, I'm paying these dumpties."

And I agree with the author, I cannot see this being representative or indicative or some grand conspiracy. Who knows, I always try to remain open minded but I can't believe that for a second. Personally I'm surprised at the amount of stars that idea received, but we're all entitled to our opinions I guess. (And no, I'm not a blooming disinfo agent)


S&F for how gobsmacked the thread left me. But you just couldn't make this one up.

Boy this sure is a sad day for the Breaking Alternative News section.

Your second line.

This just in:

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been called in by the British authorities and is investigating the masons that built the wall! It was not built to government specs and was 6 inches to narrow and that supposedly caused the fall. Administration officials said today that fines possible jail time is awaiting the owners of the sub-contractor for using undocumented workers who were non-licensed ! Film at 11:00!

Zindo

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down because he'd neglected to pay attention to the health and safety signs

and couldn't claim anything because he was in breach of contract

leaving Jill to bring up three children on her own.

Humpty Dumpty was originally the name of a cannon used during the English civil war, the siege of Colchester. Humpty Dumpty was the name of a large cannon places on a large wall next to a church.

The rhyme is about the siege of the city, and the cannon falling off of the crumbling wall. The rhyme signifies the surrender of the city, partially due to their main battery of cannons being destroyed.

They are probably changing the phrase because they know this, and would prefer to forget that YET ANOTHER children's rhyme has to do with war or the plague, or whatnot.

reply to post by RestingInPieces


Thank you for that bit of trivia. I never heard that story and find it very interesting.

Zindo

Originally posted by skjalddis
It all sounds rather silly but that simple rhyme conveys an important lesson to children in its original form and that lesson is lost with the change. If you smash an egg then no amount of power in the world is going to put that egg back together, once it is smashed it stays smashed. That rhyme is supposed to teach children that sometimes things just can't be fixed, that once they are broken they stay broken and that is a lesson that small children need to learn.

My first thought too!

Why does our culture need to hide the fact that things really do change - and sometimes, irrevocably?

Do TPTB want us not to notice the sand shifting beneath our feet?

Do they want us not to remember yesterday?

...Why not?

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
reply to post by RestingInPieces

 

Thank you for that bit of trivia. I never heard that story and find it very interesting.

Zindo

The cannon interpretation is actually mentioned on the 1st page of this 2 page thread.

Originally posted by skjalddis
It all sounds rather silly but that simple rhyme conveys an important lesson to children in its original form and that lesson is lost with the change. If you smash an egg then no amount of power in the world is going to put that egg back together, once it is smashed it stays smashed. That rhyme is supposed to teach children that sometimes things just can't be fixed, that once they are broken they stay broken and that is a lesson that small children need to learn.

It is also rather sad that the BBC, with their all-encompassing politically-correct soppy-mindedness have either failed to understand this very simple rhyme and the lesson that it conveys or don't believe that children need to learn such things and will all grow up in a fluffy-bunny world where nothing ever goes wrong.

Yes I agree... So what happen when the kid grows up and goes out into the big wide world and gets a knockback? He/She then has a complete breakdown and and starts self medicating with the drug of choice.

Wait till Aunty gets hold of the original Grimm's fairy tales or even "The Little Match Girl".

Mean while the wars go on and the body bags come back!! And the BBC reports it all