This Little Piggy

"This Little Piggy" is a nursery rhyme, first published in 1728.cite web |url=http://www.rhymes.org.uk/this_little_piggy.htm |title=This Little Piggy rhyme |accessdate=2007-08-04 |format= |work=rhymes.org.uk ]

:This little piggy went to market.:This little piggy stayed at home.:This little piggy had roast beef,:This little piggy had none.:And this little piggy went "Wee! Wee! Wee!" all the way home

The rhyme is usually counted out on a child's toes, each line corresponding to a different toe, starting with the big toe. A foot tickle is usually added during the "Wee...all the way home" section of the last line.

References to the nursery rhyme

*The game was used repeatedly in Warner Bros. cartoons, such as "A Tale of Two Kitties" and "A Hare Grows In Manhattan", typically when the "bad guy" in the film is hanging onto a line high above ground, and the protagonist peels off the antagonist's fingers one by one to the inevitable conclusion: "What do you know... Ran out of piggies!" This recurring gag is referenced in the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", where Tweety Bird essentially re-enacts his "piggies" scene from "A Tale of Two Kitties", this time with Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) as the victim.

*The last line of the game was referenced by Montana Max in the "Tiny Toon Adventures" episode, "Bacon Stripped": "This little piggy (referring to Hamton) is crying "wee wee wee" all the way home..."without his clothes!!" And Max absconds with Hamton's clothes.

*Among the various television references to the rhyme is "This Little Piggy (Justice League Unlimited episode)", the title of a comedic but significant episode of the Warner Brothers animated television series "Justice League Unlimited", in which Wonder Woman is turned into a pig by the goddess Circe (comics).

*This Little Piggy Wears Cotton is the name of a children's store boutique originating in Santa Barbara, California.

*Both title and plot of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novel "Five Little Pigs" (1942) refer to this nursery rhyme (as so many others).

*Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman depicts an adaptation of the rhyme, sung to the supposed antichrist by his demonic nursemaid.

*Ronald Reagan, in a comic strip by Jules Feiffer, recites the rhyme as a sort of allegory to aspects of modern life: the little piggy who went to market is pictured as a Wall Street tycoon; the piggy who stayed home is a common, poverty stricken or homeless man; the piggy who ate roast beef is a big, muscular army general, the piggy who had none is a little, African-American child, and the piggy who cried "wee-wee-wee" all the way home is a rural couple reminiscent of Grant Wood's American Gothic. It turns out he was addressing the public on TV and two viewers are impressed: "He's the Great Communicator! One More Time!!"

*An episode of "The Simpsons" is titled as "This Little Wiggy"

*Singer-songwriter Andy Gullahorn (of the Square Peg Alliance) builds on this rhyme in his song "Roast Beef" (about losing a toe) on his album "Reinventing the Wheel."

References

Bibliography

*Wentworth, George; Smith, David Eugene. "Work and Play with Numbers". Boston: Ginn & Company (1912).