Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Update- April 29, 2025
This pancocojams post was originally published on January 24, 2024.That post showcased a November 4, 2018 YouTube vlog entitled "90s hand gamesIII" that was hosted by two young African American (Geneas and Aliyah) women from Newark, New Jersey. The two women demonstrated eleven hand clap rhymes that they remembered from their childhood, In that video they also provided some commentary about those rhymes.
That January 24, 2024 pancocojams post also featured selected comments from that vlog's discussion thread that I believe addressed the question "Do Kids Still Play Hand Clapping Games Since The 1990s?". That question was the title for that January 2024 post.
On April 26, 2025 while I was searching YouTube for examples of contemporary English language hand clap rhymes for a pancocojams post that I was working on, I was surprised to learn that Part I of Geneas' and Aliyah's 90's hand clap vlog (published on November 2018) and Part II of their 90s hand clap vlog (published on March 28, 2020) were no longer available to the public as they had been re-classified as "private". That re-classification means that the discussion threads for these videos are also no longer available. :o(
Since these vlogs are no longer available, I have searched my files and the published examples of handclap rhymes on pancocojams and on my companion blog cocojams2
https://cocojams2.blogspot.com/ for any additional examples and comments that I might have retrieved from those discussion threads. The few additional comments that I found are given in the Addendum to this post. As such, the content of this post combines the original version of this January 2024 post and comments/examples that I added on April 27, 2025.
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Geneas and Atiyah for their videos about 1990s English language United States hand clap rhymes. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE [with additional comments as of April 27, 2025]
The statistics for the November 4, 2019 vlog, as of January 24, 2024 at 5:38 PM EDT were:
total number of views -
Here are the time stamps for these hand clap games (from a commenter in that video's discussion thread)
@CramSkyy, 2022
"Thank you so much for these, like I love hand games lmao
And:
0:41 Shame, shame, shame
1:18 Mama mama (can't you see)
2:15 Boom boom/tap tap (double double/this this)
2:34 Ms. mary mack
2:56 Slide
3:23 Swing, swing, swing
4:23 Swing, swing, swing #2
4:48 Hands up 2005
6:12 Slide #2
6:39 That's the way"
7:05 Milkshake
-snip-
Updated note added: April 29, 2025
Although I refer to African Americans using these names (titles) for these rhymes, it's possible that other Americans also have used (or still use) those names since they echo/ed how African Americans perform/ed these hand games and what they call/ed those games.
Among African Americans "Shame Shame Shame" is a widely used name for "I Don't Want To Go To Mexico", However, "Shame" can also be used as a name for "That's The Way I Like It" and "Shame" can also refer to the rhyme "ABC It's easy as Do Re Me".
"That's The Way" is also less often known as "ABC Hit It" , "Brick Wall Waterfall", "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train", "Shame", and other names.
"Swing Swing Swing" is a name that is used among some African Americans for the widely known rhyme entitled "Rockin Robin" ("Twee lee lee" or various other spellings), The name "Swing Swing Swing" comes from one of many introductory lines for that rhyme: "Swing swing swing on a summer day/Hit it!). "Hit it!" means the same thing as "Let's go!" ("Let's start chanting the rhyme's verses and at the same time, let's start doing the actual hand clapping routine for this rhyme.)
"Swing swing swing" may also refer to the introductory lines that some people chant before the actual verses of "I'm A Little First Grader" rhyme.
"I Am A Little First Grader" [or substitute your grade in school for "First Grader"] is a title for the hand clap rhymes that are variant forms of "I'm A [Pretty] Little Dutch Girl".
Also, depending on where you live, the hand game (that actually doesn't have any rhyming verses) that was referred to in this video as "Slide" is known by various other names/titles including "Slide Slide Slippery Slide", "Slide Baby", or "Numbers".
"Hands Up 2005" is known by other names including "Concentration", or "Hands up to 85",
A lot of comments in the discussion thread for Part I of that 2018 YouTube vlog were about city, state, and/or regional differences between the names that are/were used particularly among African Americans for some of the rhymes that are listed above. I recall that more comments regarding the differences in names were about the hand game known as "Slide" or "Numbers" than any other hand clap game/rhyme. The comment exchanges about "Slide"/"Numbers" and about other hand games were friendly and didn't focus on which name was the right one for a certain hand game/rhyme. Instead, the discussion was "This is the name we use/d for that rhyme in ___."
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I didn't retrieve the statistics for Part II of that vlog and I didn't retrieve the list of rhymes that were featured in that vlog.
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In the introduction to this showcase video, Atiyah, one of the two young African American vloggers who co-host this video on 90s hand clap games, said that people may not be playing hand clap games anymore. A number of adults in that video's discussion thread agreed with her, but many children and teens shared that they still played hand clap games at home, at school, and elsewhere.
This pancocojams post is similar to the Mudcat folk music discussion thread entitled Folklore: Do kids still do clapping rhymes? https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=63097 . That discussion thread began on Sept. 20, 2003 and mostly addressed whether English speaking children in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia still played hand clapping games since the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
That Mudcat post was closed by Oct 4, 2014 by that forum's lead curator Joe Offer because it "was a magnet for spam". I was very active on that discussion thread from 2006 through part of 2011. During that period of time I wrote comments that included examples of certain rhymes and I served as an unofficial hostess/moderator for the large number of "guests" (non-members) who published examples and other comments on that thread. I stopped posting on that discussion thread partly because I decided to devote my time and energy to this pancocojams blog that I started in August 2011.
This pancocojams post doesn't include any comments from that Mudcat discussion thread.
Although that Mudcat thread didn't give any "official" answer to the question "Do kids still do clapping rhymes?", from reading that discussion thread, my sense is that the answer to that question was "Yes, children/teens in those English speaking countries that I listed still play hand clapping games, but probably fewer children/teens in those countries did so than those age groups did in the 1990s and before.
Most of the comments in that Mudcat discussion thread that affirmed that kids still played hand clapping games were written by children and teenager "guest" (non-members to that forum). Those commenters used present tense when they wrote about the hand clapping games.
I agree with that answer and base my agreement on my real life experiences (mostly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and some of its surrounding communities) and from reading online comments about this subject from this showcased discussion thread and, mostly from discussion threads of other YouTube videos of children's hand clap rhymes.
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD FROM THE "90s hand games!!!" VLOG
All of these comments are from the YouTube vlog (video) "90’s hands games published by Geneas on Nov 4, 2018. In this video, two young African American women from Newark, New Jersey, Geneas and Atiyah, demonstrate a number of hand clap rhymes that they remember playing in the 1990s. Geneas and Atiyah also demonstrate "My Milkshake", a new hand clap rhyme that is based on the lyrics of the 2003 R & B song By Kelis.
That video begins with Geneas saying "Y'all don't probably don't play hand games no more"
Almost all of this video's discussion thread comments that lamented that children no longer play hand clap games are from adults. In contrast, most of the comments that affirm that children still play hand clap games are from children, pre-teens, and teenagers.
These selected comments are a very small sample of the comments from that particular discussion thread. Many of the comments from that discussion thread that aren't included in this post provide the words to a specific hand clap rhyme and aren't limited to the specific rhymes that were chanted and demonstrated in that video.
Similar comments that lament that children aren't playing hand clap games or that affirm that children are still playing these and other hand games can be found elsewhere online.
Read my comment in the comment section below about how to find some pancocojams posts that provide the words and/or videos of specific hand clap rhymes.
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COMMENTS
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zEcsIfe6lU "90's Hand Games" "90’s hands games !!!!!", published Geneas, Nov 4, 2018
1. @irislove5853, 2019
"Brang back memories ! Kids these days will never understand what we had to do to have fun outside 😂 ❤️"
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2. @bridgetkohl137, 2019
"Amen to that!"
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3. @aishaally3351, 2019
"You do realize kids still go for recess and we do these hand games...'
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4. @ramonablue2464, 2019
"Iris Love I’m 13 and I still do that Lmaooo"
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5. @danfran5771, 2019
"Ok boomer"
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6. @myleeanderson4762, 2020
"Well me and my sister are still doing these but I really wish I grew up in the 90s it would've been so much fun"
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7.@sonnyshufflebottom, 2020
"im 14 and i played all these games when i was younger lol"
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8. @there.9254, 2021
"my younger cousin who at the time is in grade 5 always came back and showed me these games their friends taught them. many kids love these still, which is fun"
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9. @diamondcaves6969,2021
"I still play these since I always found them fun lol 😃"
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10. @sierrajohnson2393, 2021
"i’m 14 now & i still play these games"
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11. @miguelpadeiro762, 2021
"What? Kids played these games 10 years ago....you deny that and you deny my existance...and they also play it nowadays, just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't happen"
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12. @muitoalemdorj3277, 2019
"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"
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13. @astr00cats15, 2019
"Omg I’m 9 years old and my school does all of these handshakes"
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14. @user_alicia444, 2019
"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"
-snip-
In this video, the two co-hosts demonstrate a new way of playing two of these hand clap rhymes They also demonstrate the new hand clap rhyme "My Milkshake" that is based on Kelis' R&B song with that title.
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15. @wolfiie6599, 2019
"Alicia same here"
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16. @myleeanderson4762, 2020
"Lol same I'm 12 my sister is 11 and we still always do these"
17. @mrs.massey2391, 2019
"Hey guys thanks for this video. I was just telling my daughters about hand games. This really brings back soooo many memories. Thanks 🙏"
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18. @kyliebartley8834, 2020
"I remember all of these. I still play slide with my friends (I'm 15)"
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19. @arivids1342, 2019
"I'm 10 and I know these in old version and not the new vesion"
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20. @a.shiaaa, 2019
"For Mama Mama at the end we say dont stop clapping til your hands get red"
-snip-
This comment refers to the hand clap game whose title is "Mama Mama Can't You See".
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21. @bracefacezai5402, 2020
"We say if u stop u will get popped"
-snip-
"Popped" here means "hit" or "slap". This refers to the action one of the partners does to the other partner who stops doing that hand clap routine because she made a mistake and/or because the palms of her hands got red because of all that clapping.
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22, @naturalforme, 2020
"PERIOD! 😂 “Play this game to your hands get red” "
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23. @tiarabattiste8910, 2020
"And it get faster and faster until your hands is burning"
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24. @nnekachidoka4996, 2021
"@bracefacezai5402 no they say if you stop you get a knock"
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25. @fayabner7478,2021
"We say eating cornbread under my bed"
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26. @yoursmartstudent7358, 2020
"I was born in 2011 and im nine so i know all of these hand Stuff whatever"
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27. @itsniya6608, 2020
"I’m only 12 I know most of these😂"
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28. @markerriacolbert9282, 2020
"We say that’s the way Uh-huh I like it , boy uh-hu school mh-hm,parties uh-hu,cake uh-hm I like it
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29. @markerriacolbert9282, 2020
"Naw we say swing swing swing at the bottom of the sea hey hey I’m a little first grader pretty as can be be"
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30. @justjohnnay6990, 2020
"I’m 12 and I do all the old school ones💓shame shame shame is one of my favorites! I’ve never even seen the new version!"
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31. @mezoey3, 2020
"am seven7 7 and i play shame shame and mama cant you see i only heard played it on 2nd grade since i was kinda new then and beucause i never heard of it even tho am a 2000's i play on my brother acount lol mama cant you see is really funny you should have come to my school ps 68 x 11
Edit 🤣between the lol and this 😅
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32. @quen_cutieortiz7367, 2020
"We still play this game still but different then how you guys play"
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33. @kevianajohnson4272, 2020
"now in our generation 6:46 is called brick wall water fall... it goes .... that’s the way uh huh uh huh... I like it uh huh uh huh.. you got the way.. I got the way... so peach punch in yo face...brick wall water fall girl you think you know it all but you don’t.. I do.. so walk away with that attitude.. wait.. come back.. I think you need a tictac.. not one.. not two.. but the whole six pack...... Or twelve pack however many it comes lol"
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34. @beatriceottley1311, 2020
"Born in the early 70's and played these hand games at recess, and when I got home from school, along with double dutch, hopscotch and many more. My 10 year old daughter wants to learn them so bad. Ms. Mary Mack and Shame Shame Shame was just a few of my favorites. Memories, Memories.:
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35. @chelsealoyd4472,2020, 2020
"I new version of mama mama can’t you see is momma momma can’t you see what the arm done to me took away my favorite jeans know I’m wearing arm jeans."
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36. @essiebray7710, 2020
"Double double this this??? We call it double double ice ice double double cream cream where I’m from"
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37. @2facedvampfairy272, 2020
"I remeber these form when I was younger and in only 12 but me and my sis forgot them and we just got in from doing a bunch on out front porch watching the sunset so we're trying to fine more"
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38. @shakeralynch149, 2020
"I'm 13 and ik all these,"
-snip-
"ik"= "i know"
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39. @jordandouglas7558, 2020
"I was born in 2009 and I do not know there was a new shame shame cuz the new shame shame shame sounds like ABC and looks like ABC it's like ABC easy as 123 my mama says do re mi with the abc baby you and me now
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40. @avacouzens9093, 2020
"I was born in 2009 and I know swing swing and all of these"
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41. @datballabrie1783, 2020
"I miss schools now there’s corona virus 10 and I remember these"
42.
"Adorable!! Haha hours of fun playing these games! Kids don’t play these anymore it’s weird! Thanks for bringing it back 🤩"
43. @ayakdeng3040, 2021
"i am 9 and i played all of these"
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44. @sonjalott309, 2021
"Since of COVID, I’m doing online/virtual school so when you brought up ‘Miss Mary Mack’ it made me remember when me and my friend Avery would do that handshake at brick and mortar school 😢 🏫 😯"
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ADDENDUM [Published April 27, 2025] - ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREADS FOR PART I AND PART ii OF THAT 90s HAND CLAP VLOG
Here are a few additional comments that I retrieved from Geneas and Aliyah's November 2018 vlog that was Part I of that two part vlog entitled "90s Hand Games!!!":
The comments that refer to the hand clap rhyme entitled "My Milkshake" are included in the November 2020 pancocojams post about that rhyme: https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/11/milkshake-my-milkshake-brings-all-boys.html
Numbers are given for referencing purposes only.
1. The "My Milkshake" rhyme that Geneas and Aliyah demonstrated in this vlog:
"MY MILKSHAKE
5, 6, 7, 8
My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right it's better than yours
I can teach you, but I have to charge"
-Geneas &Aliyah (African American women from Newark, New Jersey) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zEcsIfe6lU , Nov. 4, 2018
-snip-
With the exception of the introductory numbers, these are the same lyrics as the chorus of Kelis' 2003 "Milkshake" R&B song
In response to a commenter's question, Geneas shared that she and Aliyah lived in Newark, New Jersey when they learned these rhymes. If I recall correctly, that commenter was Dr. Kyra Gaunt, the author of the well respected and popular 2006 book "The Games Black Girls Play".
Another commenter then wrote something to the effect that "I knew you were from Newark because I remember the same rhymes the same way you did them".
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2. Angel Hill, 2020
"I never heard of milkshake hand game"
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3. Geneas, 2020
"Angel Hill lol wow I thought everybody played that game that’s my favorite one"
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4. Big Boi, 2020
"I thought Kalis made Milkshake up by herself..."
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5. Taylor Carroll, 2020
"You two are awesome! I have never heard several of these! I especially love the milkshake one at the end."
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6. Taylor Carroll, 2020
"Also, what are the words to that one? I heard,
"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. My (something?) is better
than yours, my (something else) is better than yours, I can seat you but I have
to charge." I'm not sure if I'm hearing it right, but I want to learn
it!"
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7. . Shenia Edwards, 2020
"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"
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8. Aseena Irving, 2021
"I’m sitting here tryna figure out when milkshake was
turned into a hand game and why nobody told me 😩🤣"
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9. 27 CoolFriends, 2020
"Did anybody else when they were one the was like “batman, batman, batman on a train watching girls do the thing, they can do the pomm poom, they can do the twist, but what they cant so is the splits” or was that just my school making uo rando things"
-snip-
This is a version of the hand clap rhyme “Popcorn On A Train”.
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10.
"We used to do the shame one to Baby you can do it take your time do t right. br
Brooklyn 80s kid"
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11.-Rhonda Robinson, 2021
"I remeber in kindergarden i would play this lemonade game that goes like:
lemonade (clap clap clap)
crunchy ice (clap clap clap)
sip it once (clap clap clap)
then sip it twice (clap clap clap)
lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once, sip it twice, turn around, touch the ground, kick your boyfriend outta town, now freeze, and pose,( and for some reason my friends and i would add) like american cheese!
and sometimes it could be different and go like this:
lemonade (clap clap clap)
ice tea (clap clap clap)
coca-cola (clap clap clap)
pepsi (clap clap clap)
lemonade, ice tea, coca-cola, pepsi, turn around, touch the ground, kick your boyfriend outta town, now freeze, and pose, like american cheese!"
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12.*!* anime simp *!*, 2021
"lemonade 3clap crunchy ice 3 clap sip it once 3 clap sip it twice 3 clap (in both concentration and lemonade when you're saying the words you kinda clap/slide your hands on the other persons) after this part it went constant clap and hand sliding lemonade, crunchy ice, sip it once, sip it twice. stop clapping spin around spins touch the ground touches ground and freeze! freezes in whatever pose you're in and whoever moves first loses."
-snip-The bold font was included in this comment.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
In the original version of this pancocojams post, I noted that most of those comments from the discussion thread for that November 2018 vlog provided words for certain hand clap rhymes or asked about the words to certain hand clap rhymes. For what it's worth, the commenters used present tense verbs when speaking about those rhymes in both Part I and Part II of those vlogs i.e they wrote "We say" instead of "We said".
My recollection of the discussion thread for Part II of this vlog is the same as Part I however, I recall that Part I had more comments than the discussion thread for Part II.
Here are the three comments from that 2020 discussion thread that I retrieved for this original pancocojams post that address the subject of this pancocojams post (with numbers added for referencing purposes only):
1. @cristiangomez4537, 2020
"New to the channel had to show my daughter some hand games this new generation man lol
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2. @CodeNameTY, 2020
"Zing zing like a washing machine 🎶😂 OMG this make me feel old kids don’t play anymore"
-snip-
"Zing zing like a washing machine" is one of the introductory phrases that is used for "Twee lee lee' ("Rockin Robin") hand clap games.
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3. @geneas4309
"CodeName T-Y they don’t that’s why we are trying to bring it back 😂😂"
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Here are the two comments that I added to the discussion thread of that original 2024 pancocojams post (I had no idea how those comments would speak to the eventual removal of those vlogs and their discussion threads.)
The words to many of these hand clap rhymes that are featured in that showcased 90s hand game video are also featured on various pancocojams posts.
Using Google Search is the best way of finding those post (for instance typing Mama Mama Can't You See pancocojams into Google Search yields the result "Children's Examples Of The Hand Clap Rhyme "Mama Mama Can't You See" (without mps, cell phones, computers, or HDTV)" https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/08/childrens-examples-of-mama-mama-cant.html .
Another way of using Google Search to find word only examples of English language children's hand clapping rhymes is to use the name of my other blog cocojams2. For instance, typing in "Mama Mama Can't You See cocojams2 yields the result https://cocojams2.blogspot.com/2014/10/hand-clap-jump-rope-rhymes-m-n.html . That particular cocojams2 page has four examples with brief explanatory comments of that rhyme and some other rhymes whose titles begin with the letter "M" or the letter "N".
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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
In February 2019 YouTube disabled the comment feature for almost all of its children's video channels. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18244954/youtube-comments-minor-children-exploitation-monetization-creators .
ReplyDeleteThat action resulted in the automatic deletion of all of the comments that had been published for those videos. While I definitely sympathize with the need to protect children online from exploitation, I very much regret the loss of this treasure trove of folkloric material.
The comment feature is still active for a few children's YouTube video channels. That comment feature is also active for most channels which have adults demonstrating how to do certain handclap rhymes.
Fortunately, I had saved some comments/examples from those deleted discussion threads before I knew that YouTube was going to take that action.
Some of those comments echo the beliefs that many adults in this 90s hand game video discussion thread shared that children weren't playing hand clap games. But, many of those comments were from children who shared the hand clap games that they were still playing.