Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents some online comments that confirm that English language hand clapping games are still played by children and teens in 2019, 2020, & 2021.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES
Here are links to two forums which have asked the question"Do kids still play hand clapping games?"
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes? [discussion started Sept. 2003 to Oct, 2014 and continued to Oct. 2014 when that thread was closed because of spam]
and https://www.reddit.com/r/AskParents/comments/qduela/do_kids_today_still_play_hand_clapping_games/ Do kids today still play hand clapping games? [discussion started Oct. 2021.]
A number of people (including children and teens) wrote on those discussion threads and confirmed that they still played hand clap games or they had observed those hand games being played during those years (and earlier). The question about whether children still play hand clapping games also has been asked and answered in a number of other mudcat forum discussion threads on children's rhymes. That question has also been asked and answered in a number of YouTube discussion threads for children's rhyme videos. Unfortunately, most of those discussion threads were deleted in 2019 in accordance with that website's ban on discussion threads for children centered videos. (A few YouTube discussion threads for children's rhymes weren't deleted and remain open as of the publishing date for this pancocojams post because they feature adults or for some other reason/s I can't discern.)
Multiple commenters on those YouTube discussion threads (and, to a much lesser extent, commenters on the above cited mudcat threads and on other mudcat threads on children's recreational rhymes) emphatically state that children no longer play hand clap rhymes. These statements are made even when other commenters before them have written that they still play these clapping games or they have observed these games being played.
This pancocojams post presents some affirmative answers to this question that I have gleaned from searching the Internet.
The Covid-19 pandemic and its resultant quarantine and virtual school experiences have certainly negatively impacted whether children can play hand clap games. Since they aren't supposed to touch other people besides their immediate family members and since they are supposed to stand at least six feet away from other people according to social distancing guidelines. children aren't supposed to be playing hand games in which they either stand in front of one or more people and clap their hands while they chant rhymes such as "Brickwall Waterfall", "Down Down Baby" and "Lemonade". Children also aren't supposed to be standing in close circles and slapping the hands of people during hand slap games such as "Stella Ella Ola". "Quack Diddley Oso" and some versions of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Pank*.
On a personal note, I stopped directly collecting hand clap rhymes and other children's recreational material such as foot stomping cheers and singing games around 2007. I live in a neighborhood with very few children and have very little opportunities to observe whether children before the Covid-19 pandemic or during this pandemic still play hand clapping games. As a result of my online research, my position is that the answer to the question "Do kids still play hand clap games? is "Yes" some children (mostly girls) still play clapping games, but these hand games aren't as widely played as they were inthe 1980s, 1990s, and in the early 2000s.
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SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT WHETHER CHILDREN STILL PLAY ENGLISH HAND CLAPPING GAMES IN 2019, 2020, AND 2021
Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zEcsIfe6lU&t=4s&ab_channel=Geneas
90’s hands games!!!! , Geneas, Nov. 4, 2018
1. Kylie Bartley, 2019
"I remember all of these. I still play slide with my friends
(I'm 15)"
**
2. Iris Love, 2019
"Brang back memories ! Kids these days will never understand
what we had to do to have fun outside 😂 ❤"
*️*
Reply
3. Bridget Kohl, 2020
"Amen to that!"
**
Reply
4. Aisha Ally, 2020
"You do realize kids still go for recess and we do these hand
games..."
**
Reply
5. Ramona Blue, 2020
"Iris Love I’m 13 and I still do that Lmaooo"
**
Reply
"I still play these since I always found them fun
lol 😃"
7. MUITO ALÉM DO RJ, 2020
"Hi, I'm 18 years old and I'm from in California - USA, I
playing a Slide hand with my brother today, He is 16 years old, And my sister
loves playing too, she is 15 years old and she is a Study at School at morning"
**
8. I See You Lol, 2020
"I’m 10 years old and almost all of these hand games I know
how to do the same way like in the 90’s 😂 I never knew about the
new ones"
**
Reply
9. wolfiie, 2020
"Alicia same here"
**
Reply
10. Mylee Anderson, 2020
"Lol same I'm 12 my sister is 11 and we still always do these"
**
11. Lilo Stitch, 2020
"Omg
I’m 9 years old and my school does all of these handshakes"
12. Shenia Edwards, 2021
"i love shame shame shame, and mama mama,
swing swing,hands up, that's the way and milkshake i still play it i'm 13 btw"
****
EXCERPT #2
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-NKrzvqz_I&t=3s&ab_channel=Geneas "90s hand games (part 2), Geneas,
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This YouTube video's discussion thread is still active as of the publishing date for this pancocojams post. Although most commenters in that discussion thread use past tense when they wrote about hand clap rhymes, several commenters used present tense. Here are some examples of these comments.]
"Me and my friends used to do down by the
river like “down by the river with a hanky panky(?😂) and a bull frog
jump from bank to bank I said fe fi fo
fum living in a ding dong yo mama smell like King Kong, listen to the bells go
ring ding dong”
Reply
"We do “down by the banks with the hanky
pankys, where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank saying fe fi fo fum, Mickey
Mouse had a house, Donald Duck blew it up, who shall pay the consequences,
Y-O-U”
And on the “U” you would have to pull
away and if u did it fast enough you were still in the game. The last two
people left in the game makes it confusing so I won’t explain how we do that
but we did this game today at our recess"
**
Reply
3. Jojo’s Vids, 2021
"We do “Down by the river with the hanky-panky where the
bullfrogs jump from bank to banky where the east, ops, cherry pop. Daaaddy Pop.
Old Macdonald had a farm, EIEIO. 12345678910”
**
Reply
4. sierra johnson, 2021
"we had “ sit down sit down sit down down down down down
bulldog bulldog hanky pank say bulldog bulldog hanky pank say fe fi fo fum
listen to the bulldog mickey mouse built a house donald duck messed it up , who
will pay the consequences Y O U spells you are out of this entire game “ ours
was fast & im from chicago😭"
**
5. Sam Hammwich, 2020
"Y'alls hand game words are different
from what I had but this makes me so happy to watch. Still gives me the
memories.😊"
**
6. Life as a fanpage!, 2020
"I was born in 2011 and im nine so i know all of these hand
Stuff whatever"
**
7. CodeName T-Y, 2020
"Zing zing like a washing machine 🎶😂
OMG this make me feel old kids don’t play anymore"
-snip-
"Zing zing zing like a washing machine” is sometimes an
introductory line for the "Rockin Robin" hand clap game (which is also known as "Tweedleelee" or similar sounding titles.)
**
Reply
8. Geneas, 2020
"CodeName T-Y they don’t that’s why we are trying to bring it
back 😂😂"
-snip-
Notice that the vlogger Geneas and the commenter CodeName T-Y both concluded that "kids don't play [clapping games] anymore" inspite of other commenters sharing in that discussion thread that they do indeed still play these games.
#3 - COMPLETE REPRINT TO DATE
1. Do kids today still play hand clapping games?
"We're child free, but we were making ourselves hot cocoa in
my brand new (thrifted) matching hot cocoa mugs and I was commenting on how
childish it was, so while the milk was in the microwave we decided to play a
kids hand clapping game, trying to remember the rhymes that went with them.
Double double this this, Double double that that..."
**
Reply
2. februarytide, Oct. 2021
"My kids (3 and 5) have seen it on Mr Rogers, so they know
what it is. But I doubt many actually do it anymore."
**
Reply
3. bkat3, Oct. 2021
"8 and 10 still do when they are bored (they learned and played a bunch at camp)"
**
Reply
4. fuzzyrobebiscuits, OP, Oct. 2021
"Awesome!"
**
Reply
5. glucosa86, Oct. 2021
"Saw my niece and another girl run up to each other,
squeeeeee, and, without saying a word, they immediately jumped right into one.
They did the whole clap + chant routine, squealed and jumped up and down a
couple times, and then ran to their parents' cars.
So, yes"
**
Reply
6. fuzzyrobebiscuits, OP, Oct. 2021
"Good to hear! It's such a wholesome thing...but
then we started actually remembering the words to the chants and most of them
were kind of..dark"
**
Reply
7. AquasTonic, Oct. 2021
"My daughter and I do. I've been teaching her. She asks
others to play and so far, girls that were is 1-3 grade, have known what it is
and play it with her."
**
Reply
8. SophieCatastrophe, Oct. 2021
"Yeah, my 8 year old daughter & her friends do them.
Drives me mad as I get the rhymes stuck in my head on repeat!"
**
Reply
9. mycatsaremyfriends, Oct. 21, 2021
"Yep, my class do, about 7 turning 8."
**
Reply
10. Binxzaii, Oct. 2021
"Clapping is a milestone in child development.
With that said, my 3 year old son and I play clapping games and I always see the girls at the park playing clapping games."
Reply
11. Dream-str3am, Oct. 2021
"
**
Reply
12. diabetty03, Oct. 2021
"In line at a couple different amusement parks lately I
noticed a lot of teens clapping. Thought it was strange."
**
Reply
13 .m0dera, Oct. 2021
"Nope kids stopped clapping"
**
Reply
14. Halochainx, Oct. 2021
"i’m not a kid, but i’m 14 and i still play them with my
friend 🤣"
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