Are "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes Still Being Chanted In The United States & Elsewhere?

by Azizi Powell, Pancocojams Editor

Latest upsdat- February 7, 2026

Since 2006 I've collected a lot of online examples of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" (with that title or with similar titles) and I've showcased many of those examples in various pancocojams posts.

In addition, a number of readers of those pancocojams posts have shared their examples of the "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes in the comment sections of those posts. The links to two of those pancocojams posts are given in Addendum #1 of this post and Addendum #2 present my question  about another possible contemporary use of "Down by The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes.

Most if not all of the examples of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" that I've come across are from the early 2000s to around 2015. 

For the folkloric record, I'm interested in answering the questions "Were "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes chanted in the United States & elsewhere after 2015? And are "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" still being chanted in the United States and elsewhere now ?

Please share examples of and information about "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" that were chanted since 2015 in this pancocojams post's comment section.

I'm interested in documenting the words to those rhymes and I'm also interested in documenting demographic information about those rhymes.

By "demographic information" I mean
- when (year or decade that you chanted an example of this rhyme)

-where (city/state -or nation if outside of the USA- where this rhyme was chanted)

and

-who (race/ethnicity, ages, and gender/s of people chanting this rhyme),

I'm also interested in documenting how these rhymes were performed (for instance, if that rhyme is/was chanted while doing a partner hand clap routine or a group elimination hand slap routine.

Please add to the folkloric record by sharing the example of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" that you chanted after 2015 in the comment section of this pancocojams post.

Please remember to include your demographic information with the words for that rhyme.

Thanks!

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ADDENDUM #1- TWO LINKS TO PANCOCOJAMS POSTS ABOUT "DOWN BY THE BANKS OF THE HANKY PANKY" RHYMES 
Part I of Some Examples Of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes With Geographic Locations:Mudcat (A - J) 
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/part-i-of-some-examples-of-down-by_22.html

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Part II of Some "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes" With Geographic Locations (K - Z)
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/03/part-ii-of-some-down-by-banks-of-hanky.html

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ADDENDUM #2 [added Feb 6, 2025]
I just looked up pancocojams posts for the children's recreational rhymes "Brick wall Waterfall" and "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train". These rhymes were very widely chanted in the USA in the early to mid 2000s and were often combined together.

This May 2025 pancocojams post "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train" / "Brick Wall Waterfall (Documenting Dates For Some Examples Of These Rhymes: from 2011 to 2023)  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/bang-bang-choo-choo-train-documenting.html features some examples of those rhymes in 2023 that were used as girls softball cheers. 

Are words from "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes being included in girls softball cheers?

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ADDENDUM #3[Added February 7, 2026]
Full disclosure- I published this pancocojams post assuming that it would probably have very few if any responses.

I thought that because not that many people publish comments on this pancocojams blog and very few -if any- of the people who comment in this blog's discussion threads are teens and children.

In contrast, most of the examples of children's recreational rhymes, singing games, and cheers that were featured on my cultural website cocojams (which was online from 2001 to 2014) were from children and pre-teens. That was partly because cocojams had an easy to use content submission page that didn't require an email and somehow that population learned about that website and got into the habit of using it. Neither of these conditions are the case with this pancocojams blog. Besides that, I believe that it's very likely that fewer children and pre-teens in the United States perform recreational rhymes now (in 2026) than those populations did when my cocojams website was online between 2001 and 2014.  

That said, a few pancocojams posts on children's recreational rhymes have a number of reader's comments that include rhyme examples. One example is "I Believe I Can Fly" https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/10/childrens-parodies-of-i-believe-i-can_2.html. That post was published in October 2013 and has 78 reader responses (including my "thank you" responses) as of February 7, 2026.  

It'll be interesting to see if any readers share any examples of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" that was chanted after 2015, and also if those examples come from parents or the chanters themselves, but if no examples are shared in the discussion thread for this post, that doesn't necessarily mean that no one is still chanting that rhyme.      

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