What "Whipper Whopper" Means In "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs") Songs/Rhymes

Edited by Azizi Powell This is Part I of a pancocojams series on the "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs") songs. That sub-set includes the words "Eenie meenie miney moe/catch a whipper whopper by his toes" (or similarly spelled words). This post presents the results of my online research about that sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning"(Roaches & Bedbugs") songs/rhymes. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/08/examples-of-whipper-whopper-forms-of-i.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents examples of a sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs") songs/rhymes that include the words "Eenie Meenie miney moe/catch a whipper whopper by his toes" (or similarly spelled words). The content of this post is presented for folkloric, socio-cultural, recreational, and linguistic purposes. All copyrights belongs with their owners. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. -snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/05/versions-of-eenie-meenie-miney-mo.html for the 2021 pancocojams post entitled "Examples Of "Eenie Meenie Miney Mo" Counting Out Rhymes In The United States".
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2023/08/i-woke-up-sunday-morning-roaches-and.html for the 2023 pancocojams post entitled "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches and Bedbugs") Rhymes With Demographic Information".
**** PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE Although the pancocojams blog focuses on Black cultures in the United States and elsewhere around the world, all of the examples of children's rhymes, songs, and cheers may not have originated with Black people. I focus on children's recreational rhymes, songs, and cheers because I enjoy those compositions and I want to document, share, and study those compositions. **** MY FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND SPECULATIONS ABOUT THESE SONGS
Here are my findings and conclusions about these songs:

1. "I Woke Of Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bed Bugs") songs/rhymes/songs are a relatively large family of folk compositions that have been found in the United States since at least the early 1900s. ** 2. A small sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bed Bugs")songs/rhymes include the words "I'm singing eenie meenie miney moe/catch a whipper whopper by the toe/if he hollers let him go (or "don't let him go")/eenie meenie miney moe".

** 3. "Whipper whopper" is by far the most often used form of this compound noun (referent). Other forms that I have come across are "wiffer woffer","wiffer waffer", and whifferwhaffer". I also have come across one example of that song that includes the line "catch a whippersnapper by his toes". Smarky Marlarky (Indiana), Oct. 2, 2012, http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=286551

"Eenie meenie miney moe Miney moe, catch a whippersnapper by the toe And if he, if he hollers, hollers, let him go Singing eenie meenie meenie, miney moe" -end of quote-

That commenter shares a version of the "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" counting out rhyme that he or she remembers from the 1950s (which includes the n word). However, no date was given in that comment for that version of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning"..
** 4. The examples of this sub-set that I found online of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" all have this same or very similar wording and structure that serves as the chorus (refrain) for those compositions: "I'm singin' eenie meenie and a miney moh
Catch a wiffer woffer by the toe
And if it hollers, hollers, hollers,
Let it go, I'm singin' Eenie meenie and a miney moh" ** 5. A number of the examples in this sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs") songs have the words "eener meener" as a sub-title and/or as a preface to the "eenie meenie miney moe" refrain. I haven't come across the words "eener meener" elsewhere. ** 6.The "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe"/Whipper Whopper" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (Roaches & Bedbugs) has the same verse structure and floating verses as the much larger portion of that song/rhyme. Those floating verses can be found in certain other children's recreational rhymes, particularly in extended versions of "Miss Susie Had A Steamboat". Some versions of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (with or without the "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe"/Whipper Whopper" chorus has the same verses as the children's recreational rhyme "Miss Lucy Had A Baby".  

** 7. I haven't found any online definition for the terms "whipper whopper" or "wiffer woffer" etc.

** 8. I haven't found any other forms of "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" in "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bed Bugs") songs/rhymes. For instance, there are no examples of "Catch a tiger by its toes" or "catch a piggy by its toes" in these "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" forms of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bed Bugs") songs/rhymes.

** 9. I haven't found any definitive date that the "Eenie Meenie Miney Mo" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" was first chanted or sung, which means that I haven't found a definitive source for those songs/rhymes.

By "definitive source" I mean a particular record, or a television episode, newspaper article etc that introduced that wording into earlier versions of those rhymes/songs. I also haven't come across any definitions about what "whipper whopper" or "wiffer woffer" means.

** 10. Most examples of this sub-set of songs use the pronoun "his" instead of "its" for references to "Whipper Whopper" ("wiffer woffer" etc.), for instance, "catch a whipper whopper by his toes" instead of "by its toes". Therefore, in the examples of the songs that use the pronoun "his", the term "whipper whopper" (or a similarly spelled compound noun) refers to a man.

****

Here are other speculations (guesses) I've made about this sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches &Bed Bugs") songs/rhymes: 1. My guess is what I call the "Whipper Whopper" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs" songs was first sung/chanted in the United States in the 1950s. The 1950s was the decade when some people in the United States began to substitute a word like "tiger", "monkey", "piggy" as a replacement for the "n word". That word had been sung in "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" songs/rhymes since the late 19th century, but some White people finally began to acknowledge that it was pejorative. I believe that the intention of these replacement words in "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" songs/rhymes wasn't to replace the "n word" with a socially acceptable way of saying the same thing, but to (at least publicly) move away from the use of that word that they acknowledged was pejorative. In the same way that the word "tiger", or "piggy", or "monkey" aren't usually perceived as a hidden way of saying "the n word" in "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe" songs/rhymes, I don't think that the referent "whipper whopper" ("wiffer woffer") are a hidden or euphemistic way of "saying the n word". ** 2. My guess is that the word "whippersnapper" (meaning an impertinent young person) was used first and was later changed by folk processing to those other forms ("wiffer woffer", wiffer waffer" etc,) After the popularity of the Burger King "Whopper" menu item, those "wiffer woffer etc. were later changed by the folk process to "whipper whopper".

**
3. My guess is that the word "whipper whopper" is the most often used form of the referent in the "Eenie Meeney Miney Moe" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches & Bedbugs") songs/rhymes because of peoples' familiarity to the word "whopper" as a result of the Burger King fast food restaurant's "Whopper" hamburger. That menu item was introduced in 1957.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whopper "The Whopper is the signature hamburger and an associated product line sold by the international fast food restaurant chain Burger King and its Australian franchise Hungry Jack's. Introduced in 1957, the hamburger has undergone several reformulations, including changes to portion size and bread used. The hamburger is well known in the fast food industry, with Burger King advertising itself as "the Home of the Whopper" and naming itskiosk stores the BK Whopper Bar. In response to the Whopper, Burger King's competitors have developed similar products designed to compete against it."...

From https://www.britannica.com/topic/Burger-King-Corporation "A large hamburger called the Whopper is Burger King’s signature product. The Whopper was introduced in 1957, at a time when its competitor McDonald’s was still selling only small hamburgers."

** 4. My guess is that few people who sing or chant examples of these "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe" sub-set of "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" consider or care about what the words "whipper whopper" or other forms of those words mean. **** This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series. Thanks for visiting pancocojams. Visitor comments are welcome.