Fat, fat the water rat; fifty bullets in your hat."

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Can anyone give me the source of this doggerel?

"Fat, fat, the water rat;
Fifty bullets in your hat?"

My daughter-in-law's mother used to chant the couplet at odd times. Lately the lines have been running through my daughter-in-law's head.
She Googled and found nothing. Can anyone help?

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Okay, I found it's the title (the "Fat, Fat the Water Rat" part, anyway) of the 37th episode of the old series, "Family Affair" - first aired on 10/23/67. Here's a link: http://www.tvtome.com/FamilyAffair/season2.html#ep37

It's also a song by an artist named Eric Von Schmidt (he plays guitar and kazoo!), on his 2nd Right, 3rd Row album, released in 1972. Here's a link: http://www.geocities.jp/hideki_wtnb/eric.html

It's also part of the title of a Dave Barry column, see: http://www.s-t.com/daily/11-96/11-03-96/e02li119.htm

Hmm, I wish some of this stuff was helping, but it was an interesting investigation just the same ...

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I came up with two references to the "fifty bullets in your hat" part, neither were useful.

A "water rat" would have to be a muskrat, and their pelts were used to make hats, I think... I wonder if Setanta might be able to make heads or tails out of this.

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Phonenix, Rick Von Schmidt (a guitar player from up around Harvard University) along with Richard Farina (Joan Baez posthumous brother-in-law) recorded some music with Bob Dylan before he was Dylan and using the name "Blind Boy Grunt"
trivia, I know but interesting.

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I came up with about a dozen recollections on the web of that being used as a playground taunt many years ago.

I lost the window while tinkering with some other stuff but all I'd established is that it predates the songs and tv show mentioned here.

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By the strict iambs, this could be a jump rope rhyme--of course, you'd have to jump to 50 for the bullets.

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Don't know the origin, but it sure is a catchy title for a thread.

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Childhood memory
When I was growing up in NYC, the chant went like this"

Fat, fat, the water rat,
Fifty bullets in his hat;
Bumped his head
When he went to bed,
and couldn't get up in the morning.

However, I have no idea what it means.

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pjnbarb--

Thanks for the update--and welcome to A2K.

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Re: Childhood memory

pjnbarb wrote:

When I was growing up in NYC, the chant went like this"

Fat, fat, the water rat,
Fifty bullets in his hat;
Bumped his head
When he went to bed,
and couldn't get up in the morning.

However, I have no idea what it means.

Well, goodness me - part of that little rhyme is known to me - but without the rat:

It's raining,
It's pouring.
The old man's snoring,
He bumped his head
On the end of the bed
And couldn't get up in the morning!

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In the States our old men are less clumsy--

It's raining, it's pouring,
The Old Man is snoring.
He went to bed and covered his head,
And never got up until morning.

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Re: Fat, fat the water rat; fifty bullets in your hat."

Noddy24 wrote:

Can anyone give me the source of this doggerel?

"Fat, fat, the water rat;
Fifty bullets in your hat?"

My daughter-in-law's mother used to chant the couplet at odd times. Lately the lines have been running through my daughter-in-law's head.
She Googled and found nothing. Can anyone help?

This comes from a Mad Magazine from around 1956 - 1958. There was also a poem called "Fat and Skinny"
Fat and Skinny had a race,
All around the steeplechase,
Fat fell down and broke his face,
Skinny said, "I won the race."
Fat said, "That's not fair."
Skinny said, "I don't care."

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Westonbird--

Welcome to A2K.

I checked with my d-i-l and her mother heard the chant as a child sometime in the 1930's. Oral history is frequently older than the printed record.

"Fat & Skinny" is a new one for me. Thank you.

Hold your dominion.

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@jespah,

I remember hearing the phrase in a 1970's TV movie called "The Girl most likely to", starring Stockard Channing, Ed Asner.

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@bmarte,

and welcome to a2k to you too, bmarte.

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My father, born in 1917, used to chant this during baseball games as a taunt to the umpire:
Fat, fat, the water rat
Fifty bullets in his hat
Couldn't cat an alley cat.

Don't remember the rest.

Tom

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It was used on an episode of Golden Girls too where Blanche's dad dies and Dorothy finds out Blanche was fat as a little girl and uses the line to make fun of her.

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It was also used in an episode of "Get Smart" when 99 was pregnant.
99 (Upset): Go ahead and say it.
Max: Say what?
99: Fat, fat, the water rat.
Max: Fat, fat the water rat?
99: You take that back!

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Fat, fat the water rat; fifty bullets in your hat."

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