"Playmate" Rhymes & "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" Rhymes That End With "Shut The Door"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post is Part II of a two part series on the end line "Shut the door" that is found in some examples of the hand game "Say Say My Playmate" and, to a lesser extent, is also found in some examples of the hand game "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico". This post showcases one video example and several text examples of these rhymes.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/larry-grayson-source-for-shut-door.html for Part I of this series. That post presents the theory that the source of that ending line and its closely related form "lock the door" is an adaptation of the catch phrase "shut that door" that was popularized by the British comedian and television host Larry Grayson.

A video example of a "Say Say My Playmate" rhyme that ends with "shut the door" is also showcased in Part I of this series, along with the words to that example.

The content of this post is provided for folkloric, recreational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those featured in this video. Thanks also to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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EDITOR'S NOTE
As presented in Part I of this series, I think that the probable source of the "shut the door" endings for some "Playmate" hand games and for "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico" hand games is the catchphrase "shut that door" which was popularized by British comedian and television host Larry Grayson. In those hand clap examples the end word "door" rhymes with the end word "more" that is found in the previous line.

For what it's worth, I've not found any examples of that "shut the door" ending before the 1970s, the decade that Larry Grayson began popularizing his catch prhase "shut that door".

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FEATURED EXAMPLE OF "SAY SAY MY PLAYMATE" HAND GAMES WITH THE "SHUT THE DOOR" ENDING
Say say oh playmate



norface5 Published on Jul 3, 2013

Say say oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more more
Shut the door

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ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF "SAY SAY MY PLAYMATE" HAND GAMES WITH THE "SHUT THE DOOR" ENDING
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting date on the Internet (or the date that I retrieved these examples from the Internet with the examples with the oldest dates posted first.)

Notice that some of these examples include demographical information, including when and where they were first chanted.

Example #1, #2, #3
Black girls, Denver, Colorado - late 70's/early 80's 3 Say-Say Songs:

(Say-Say Happy Song - sung upbeat)

Say-say oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies-three
Climb up my apple tree
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more, more - shut the door

(Say-Say Sad Song - Sung slowly, imitating crying)
Say say oh playmate
I cannot play with you
My dolly has the flu
She spit up in my shoe
Ain't got no rainbow
Ain't got no cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more, more - shut the door

(Say-Say Angry Song)
Say say oh enemy
Come out and fight with me
And bring your pistols-three
Climb up my poison tree
Slide down my spider web
Into my dungeon door
And we'll be jolly enemies
Forever more more,
shut the door
-Jeanae; http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes-26/14/2008

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Example #4:
These are from TX & CA in the early 80s.

Say say oh playmate,
come out and play with me
and bring your dollies three
climb up my apple tree
slide down my rainbow
into the cellar door
and we'll be jolly friends
forever more, more, shut the door!

We also had a variation I can't completely remember:
Say say oh enemy,
come out and fight with me
and bring your soldiers three
????
slide down my drainpole
into the cellar door
and we'll be enemies
forever more, more, shut the door!
-posted by belladonna, http://ask.metafilter.com/122487/Teddy-Bear-Teddy-Bear-turn-aroundand-then-what, May 19, 2009

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Example #5:
Ceecee, my playmate,
Come out and play with me.
And bring your dollies three,
Climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rainbow
Into my cellar door.
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more, more, [I suppose ad infinitum is assumed]
Shut the door.

[collected from kids aged 9 and 13 in 1994 in Ontario, Canada]

Found in "Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts: The Subversive Folklore of Childhood" (1995), by Josepha Sherman and T.K.F. Weisskopf, pp 99-100
-posted by Victoria Simmons in http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=11136 "Slide down my cellar door"
March 16, 2014, Filed by Geoff Nunberg (hereafter given as "Language Log")

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Example #6
I don't remember exactly where I learned these, but I sang them in the early 90s:

Say, say, oh playmate,
come out and play with me
and bring your dollies three,
climb up my apple tree.
Slide down my rainbow
and through my cellar door,
and we'll be the best of friends,
forever more, more, shut the door.
Say, say, archenemy,
come out and fight with me
and bring your warriors three,
climb up my sycamore* tree.
Slide down my sidewalk
and through my dungeon door,
and we'll be archenemies
forever more, more, lock the door.

(*I was unreliably informed by the friend who taught me the latter version that sycamore trees have very scratchy bark. However, 'slide down my sidewalk' is sufficiently brutal. We did know what cellar doors were, if only from movies like The Wizard of Oz.)
-A; March 2014, "Language Log"

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Example #7
Mine (in Edinburgh) went something like:

Cee cee oh play me
Come out and play with me
And bring your dolly too
And baby kangaroo
Slide down the drainpipe
And through the cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
For ever more more SHUT THAT DOOR

I'm intrigued to find out that it has words that make sense!
-Jen, March 17, 2014, "Language Log"

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Example #8
In 1970's Manchester (England) it was a clapping song, only different by:
See see my playmate,
and
Climb down the drain pipe, and to the cellar door.
And then there was an extra hand pat and chant of 'Shut that door!' which can only be from a TV presenter's catchphrase of the day.
I had no idea it was such an old song though!
-Rhoda, March 17, 2014, "Language Log"
-snip-
Here's a follow-up comment that was published on that same discussion thread:
mollymooly said,
March 18, 2014 @ 5:02 am
"which can only be from a TV presenter's catchphrase of the day."

To supplement Rhoda's comment for those who can't Google: Larry Grayson presented "Shut That Door!" and retained the catchphrase when he took over "The Generation Game" from Bruce Forsyth."

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Example #9:
Yeah, what Victoria Simmons posted was how I learned it, other than the first line was "Say say oh playmate." Our alternative version was

Say say oh enemy
Come out and fight with me
And bring your monsters three
Fall outta my apple tree
Slide down my razorblade
Into my cellar door
And I will lock you in
Forevermore, more
Lock the door
-Martha, March 17, 2014 @ 8:58 pm

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Example #10:
See, See my enemy, come out and play with me I'll bring my garden hose and shove it up your nose I'll turn it on and watch your head explode and we'll be jolly enemies for ever more more shut the door don't came back till your 94
-http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml, retrieved July 3, 2014

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TWO EXAMPLES OF "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO MEXICO" WITH THE "SHUT THE DOOR" ENDING
Example #1:
Shame Shame Shame.
I don't want to go to Mexico
no more, more, more.
There's a big fat policeman
at door, door, door.
He'll grab you by the collar
and make you pay a dollar.
I don't want to go to Mexico
no more, more, more.
Shut the door!
-Bree'ana W. & Tonoya W. (African American girls; Philadelphia, PA); collected in 2001 by Azizi Powell, posted on my cultural page Cocojams 5/12/2004 http://www.cocojams.com/content/handclap-jump-rope-and-elastics-rhymes [Read my notes about that example that are found on that page.]

Example #2
I do [still play hand games.]

Shame,shame,shame,
I dont wanna go to mexico,
no more more more,theres
a big fat policeman,
at the door door door,if you
grab him by the collar boy you better
hollar if you grab him by the pants,
boy you betta dance,i dont wanna go to mexico
no more more more shut the door

Im 13 and i still play that
-Guest Brittany, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=6309704 "Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes?", June 4, 2011

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MORE COMMENTS ABOUT THE LINE "SHUT THE DOOR" & ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ITS "LOCK THE DOOR" FORM
This is a slightly revised version of an example that I wrote on Mudcat 07 Jan 07 - 08:51 AM in the "Playmates 'slide down my cellar door' discussion thread whose link given above:
"With regards to the ending line "shut the door" ..., I've seen handclap partners try to be the first one to flick [lightly slap] their partner on the forehead or pinch their handclap partner on the arm while saying these words...

Both girls would quickly try to do this and also lean backwards so they wouldn't be flicked [or pinched].

I'm curious if anyone else remembers or have currently seen these action being done while saying the end line "shut the door" in Playmate or another children's rhyme."
-snip-
There's been no response to that comment to date on that discussion thread. However, one example of this rhyme with the similar ending “lock the door” was later posted by Guest Devon (April 4, 2004)
"I have a slightly different version of "Ci-Ci My Playmate":

Ci-Ci my playmate,
come out and play with me
and bring your dollies three,
climb up my apple tree,
slide down my rainbow
into my cellar door
and we'll be jolly friends
forever more, more
lock the door."
-snip-
I also think that the "shut the door" end line may serve the same lightly competitive function in hand clap rhymes as the end word "Freeze! or the end word "Shame" - hand clap partners may just compete to see who is the first one to say those words or that word. The person who says those words or that word first is considered "the winner".

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