Latest revision- October 11, 2025
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, and recreational purposes.
This particular pancocojams series is created to document some examples of a sub-set of recreational rhymes that include the name of a president of the United States. In addition, these examples can serve as windows into the world of certain populations of children-particularly girls of certain ages-revealing some of their attitudes, opinions, perceptions, concerns, preferences, values, and other socialization/cultural indices.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
This post isn't meant to be a comprehensive collection of English language playground rhymes that include names of politicians. In some cases, I'm only showcasing one version of these rhymes. However, there are often multiple versions of each featured rhyme.
If you know any examples of rhymes in this category that are recited by children please add them in the comment section below. Thanks!
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/playground-rhymes-that-include_87.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "Playground Rhymes That Include Politicians' Names".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/playground-rhymes-that-include-names-of_30.html for Part I of the pancocojams series "Children's Rhymes That Include Names Of Famous People". Part I features children's rhymes whose titles begin with A-L.
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/08/playground-rhymes-that-include-names-of_54.html "Names Of Famous People In Children's Recreational Rhymes (Part II- rhymes whose titles begin with M-Z)"
These posts purposely don't include the names of famous people who are politicians.
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
By "children's rhymes" I mean rhymes that may or may not have been composed by children, but are documented as being chanted by children while jumping rope, playing hand clap games, recited as taunting rhymes, or otherwise. The "children's recreational rhymes" category doesn't include "nursery rhymes". ("Nursery rhymes" are also known as "Mother Goose rhymes").
In each rhyme, the United States president's name is given in italics the first time it is mentioned.
Brief information about that President is given underneath that rhyme. If that rhyme includes a name of another famous person and/or the name of a fictitious person, brief information about that person is also given underneath that rhyme.
No performance activity is specified for most of these rhymes. However, I believe that most of these examples are either hand clap rhymes or jump rope rhymes.
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FEATURED EXAMPLES
Numbers
10-20-30-40-50 or more
Ronald Reagan (or whoever, but if there was nobody around to sing to, we would say Ronald Reagan) let a fart in the grocery store.
Fifty men died trying to hold their breath
but Ronald Regan let another one and killed the rest.
-jennyb, https://ask.metafilter.com/122487/Teddy-Bear-Teddy-Bear-turn-aroundand-then-what, May 19, 2009
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"Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era."..
.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
Bill & Monica sittin
in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes Ken Starr
Then comes Hillary
Oops!
There goes the Presidency!
-Butirfli, http://www.streetplay.com/discus/ Streetplay.com Discussion: Girl Games: Singing: Silly songs, theme songs, etc.: Archive through November 27, 2000, May 26, 1999
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"William Jefferson Clinton ...served as the 42nd president of the United States from January 20, 1993, to January 20, 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
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"Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and the first lady of the United States as the wife of Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2016 presidential election...However, she lost the electoral college to Republican Party nominee Donald Trump. She is the only first lady of the United States to have run for elected office" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton
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President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky while she was a White House intern sometime between 1995 and 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Lewinsky
C, D
Chiti chiti bang bang I know karate
Chiti chiti bang bang
oops im sorry!
chiti chiti bang bang
I want my mommy!
chiti chiti bang bang
I gotta go potty!
chiti chiti bang bang...
abraham lincoln sittin on a fence
try to make a dollar outta twenty five cents
twist twist! Twist like this!
-missingAcastle, http://www.dance.net/topic/5144224/2/Humor/HAND-GAMES-yaaaaaaaay.html&replies=28 "re: HAND GAMES!!! yaaaa!",On Sat Sep 16, 2006
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[from Wikipedia]"Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War"...
DOWN BY THE BANKS WITH A HANKY PANK
I heard at camp
Down by the bank with a hanky pank
where the bullfrogs jump from bank to bank
say E I O U
Listen to the words song (probably misheard)
I pledge allegiance to the flag
Michael Jackson is my dad
Pepsi cola burned him up
now he's drinking gasoline
gasoline is meant for cars
Now he's shootin up to mars
there's a place on Mars
where the women smoke cigars
and the men wear bikinis
and the babies drink martinis
every step you take is enough to kill a snake
when the snake is dead
you put mustard in its eyes
when the mustard dries
It is 1948
Mickey mouse builds a house
Donald trump messes up
Mirror mirror on the wall
Who the fairest of them all
Y O U
-GUEST, yui, May 16, 2021, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94034&page=9, Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky
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Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and 47th president of the United States.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
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DOWN IN THE VALLEY WHERE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS
Down in the valley where the green grass grows,
There sits Kennedy as sweet as a rose.
Along came Nixon and hissed him on the cheek.
How many kisses did he receive?
1 2 3 4 5 6 etc.
-John Langstaff and Carol Langstaff, Shimmy Shimmy Coke-Ca-Pop!: A Collection of City Children's Street Games & Rhymes (published in 1973), The children's street games and rhymes in this book were collected in Massachusetts and in New York from children ages 5- 11 of various ethnic and racial backgrounds.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy: "John Fitzgerald Kennedy .... commonly referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963."...
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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon
"Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal"...
G. H
never told a lie.
'till he ran around the corner
(Drag out while singing. The jumper runs out and run around a turner then jumps back in and the song continues)
stole a cherry pie.
How many cherries were in that pie?
1.2.3.4....(count until the jumper messes up)
-Solana Reed,
http://www.gameskidsplay.net/jump_rope_ryhmes/jump_george_washington.htm
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"George Washington .... was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of the Nation for his role in bringing about American independence."...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington
I remember when Bush was elected in running in 2000( i think i was in 5th grade) we made up a song to "Mystikal's shake it fast" lol
it went something like
"now listen all you ladies in gents the booth is the place to be
and if you go and vote for Gore, Bush cant mess with me
now shake it fast, go to the pole, shake it fast go to the pole
pull the lever down and see Gore win"
Imagine our disappointment when he lost lol
-iGotSunshine, Aug 09 2012, http://forum.blackhairmedia.com/i-went-downtown-to-get-a-stick-of-butter_topic345408_page4.html
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"Go To The Pole" is my suggested title for this song. "Pole" here means "poll" i.e. a location where you go to vote.
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"George Walker Bush...is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party and the eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, he served as the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
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"George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. The final outcome was not decided until a Supreme Court decision was issued on December 12, 2000. The election was one of the closest and most controversial in U.S. history and involved weeks of recounts and legal challenges, primarily over votes in Florida'... [AI Overview September 15, 2025]
I, J
JINGLE BELLS
Jingle bells,
Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg,
Barack Obama killed Osama in the USA
or it can end with: Barack Obama taught his grandma how to suck an egg
I’m sorry, I really loved Obama as president but I didn’t grow up in America, and we were insensitive seven year olds when we came up with this one.
--Miranda Carter, 2018, https://www.quora.com/What-s-the-last-line-of-the-song-Jingle-Bells-Batman-smells "What’s the last line of the song, “Jingle Bells, Batman smells”?"
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The sentences after the second version was written in bold font in that discussion thread.
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Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017.[from Wikipedia] "A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004"... .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi-born militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden****
JOHN F KENNEDY WENT TO HAWAII
John F Kennedey went to Hawaii
And went down to the sea.
And the waves got highere and higher(swing rope higher up off the ground)
And faster and faster! (Swing rope faster. Jumper is out when they can't jump over the rope or can't jump fast enough.)
-http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/famous-people-rhymes.html, Jan 28 2006
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K, L
Landon in the White House
Waiting to be elected.
Rosevelt in the garbage can,
Waiting to be collected.
-http://www.homeschool.co.uk/resource/jump-rope/jump-rope-rhymes.html
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Landon
Marijuana, Marijuana
PCP, PCP
Betty Crocker makes it,
Ronald Reagan takes it,
Why can't we? Why can't we?
-http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml, retrieved by Azizi Powell, 10/15/2008
Ronald Reagan [Read information above]
**
"Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The character was created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 to give a personalized response to consumer product questions"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Crocker
****
ON TOP OF OLD SMOKEY
On top of a white roof, all covered with blood
Regan shot Khadafi, with a 44 stud.
He went to his funeral, he went to his grave
Instead of red roses, he threw a granade.
He read in the papers, that he wasn't dead
So he bought a bazooka and blew off his head.
-http://www.inthe80s.com/rhymes.shtml
-snip-
"Regan" = Ronald Reagan [Read information above].
Khadafi = misspelling of the name "Gaddafi", the former leader of Libya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi
Q, R
S,T
U,V
Ah, and in my Republican white collar suburb of Detroit, in the 50's we sang:
Whistle while you work
Stevenson's a jerk
Eisenhower has the power
Whistle while you work.
-Barbara, http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=81350&messages=243 "I'm Rubber . You're Glue: Children's Rhymes", 22 May 05
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"Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (...) who served one term as governor of Illinois and ran, unsuccessfully, for president against Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson_II
Y, Z
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