How Portland, Oregon's Protest Frog Renewed My Interest In "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Rhymes

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - October 25, 2025

This pancocojams post is part of my ongoing study of the children's recreational rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" and similar titles.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, socio-cultural, and recreational 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
This is a hodgepodge of my thoughts about the children's recreational rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky". (I decided to use the abbreviation dbb hanky panky in this pancocojams post and in some other posts on this rhyme that I've already published today.)

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Since he came on the scene, I've watched video clips and read about the young Portland, Oregon man dressed an inflatable frog costume who was part of the protest against ICE agents in that American city. That protest frog was videoed walking steadily toward the ICE agents dressed in military camouflage uniforms and carrying long guns. When the protest frog approached them those ICE agents moved back while facing forward. The protest frog kept moving toward those ICE agents and stopped when they stopped. And then the protest frog did a humping like dance movement showing his disrespect and "son'd"* them.

*Here's a definition for the African American Vernacular English word "soning" from AI Overview:

"To put someone in their place: This is the core of the meaning.

 Figurative parent-child relationship: The person being "sonned" is treated like a child, while the one doing the "sonning" is like the parent.

Complete overpowering: It implies a total victory or humiliation of the other person.

Context: It's typically used in situations where one person asserts dominance over another, often in a somewhat contemptuous or triumphant way."

This AI Overview result is included in the October 4, 2025 pancocojams post: What Does The African American Vernacular English Word "Son'd" ("Sonned") REALLY Mean? https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/10/what-does-african-american-vernacular.html "What Does The African American Vernacular Word "Son'd" Mean?"

Here's a link to a pancocojams post that I published about that protest frog:
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/10/meet-portland-oregon-protestor-wearing.html "Meet the Portland, Oregon Protestor Wearing An Inflatable Frog Costume Who Energized A Movement Of Whimsical Costumed Protestors Against Trump's ICE Agents (October 15, 2025)

Since that incident, that Portland protest frog's costume and actions have invigorated the United States wide and worldwide custom of some protestors wearing inflatable frog and other animal or fictional creatures costumes during protest rallies and marches.

Also, since that Portland protest frog incident, I've been thinking about and revisiting the "Down By The Panks Of The Hanky Panky" posts I've published on pancocojams.

As to why that protest frog would make me think about "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky"- well, each of those rhymes include a line about a bullfrog "jumping" (or "leaping" if you live in Canada) from bank to banky.

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The Portland, Oregon Protest Frog also led me to google the spiritual significance of frogs. Here's a link to one article that I found: https://sarahmerron.com/the-spiritual-symbolism-of-frogs/  "The Spiritual Symbolism of Frogs", October 20, 2023 by Sarah

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I couldn't think about frogs without touching base with my favorite Muppet character Kermit The Frog and listening to his song "It's Not Easy Being Green" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRZ-IxZ46ng  "Muppets - Kermit - Its not easy being green (original)", JayB7869, August 14, 2011

I did all of this (I'm doing all this) in part to try to cope and take my mind off of the horrendous goings on in the United States and the rest of the world and it partially worked (It's partially working).  

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The first pancocojams post that I published which included examples of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" was https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/song-sources-for-down-by-banks-of-hanky.html Song Sources For Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky (May 21, 2012)

(I began this pancocojams blog in August 2011. So this 2012 post is early in the timeline of this blog. That post about "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" is the first pancocojams post about a specific children's recreational rhyme.)  

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/10/hyperlinks-to-pancocojams-posts-on-down.html for a post that presents a hyperlinked list of all of the pancocojams posts about "Down By The Banks of The Hanky Panky".

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Before I began this pancocojams blog in 2011, I started a Mudcat folk music forum discussion thread on "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes in April 2006. That Mudcat discussion thread about ddb hanky panky is still open for comments as of October 20, 2025 when I'm writing this pancocojams post. Page #10 of that Mudcat discussion thread features the earliest comments in that thread, and page #1 features the latest comments.

This means that I've been collecting, studying, and analyzing Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes for almost twenty years.

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Here are the first two comments on that Mudcat discussion thread: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94034&messages=489&page=10&desc=yes#1815693

Subject: Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky

From: Azizi

Date: 21 Aug 06 - 10:12 PM

"This thread provides examples of, commentary about, and a possible song source for the children's rhyme "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky".

"Down By The Banks/Hanky Panky" [for this thread known as "Hanky Panky"] appears to be a relatively widely known contemporary handclap rhyme in the United States. {At least it appears from my observations and the comments of various Internet informants that at least currently "Hanky Panky" is chanted while doing partner handclap rhymes. I can't say whether it has always been so, or is always so now}.

I'm wondering if this rhyme is known in Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere. Any examples and/or thoughts on this rhyme would be greatly appreciated.

Azizi"

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Subject: RE: Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky

From: Azizi

Date: 21 Aug 06 - 10:20 PM

"Here's a couple of examples of "Hanky Panky" from a great resource for contemporary children's rhymes: http://blog.oftheoctopuses.com/000518.php [Pancocojams Editor's Note on 2025- This website is no longer available]:

 DOWN BY THE BANKS WITH THE HANKITY PANKS

Down by the banks

with the hankity panks

where the bull frog

jumped from

bank to bank

with an

eep

ip

oop

op

hes got on the lilly with a big

ker-plop!

 

::at ker-plop the players would try to a) freeze b) clap hands or c) hit each other on the head (depending on the version)"

Source: Octoblog; posted by contortme at September 16, 2003

 -snip-

 DOWN BY THE LAKE WITH THE HANKY PANKY

"ok. thats not how it goes.* it goes

down by the lake with the hanky panky

where the bullfrogs jumop from bank to bank

singing fee fi fo fum

ure momma looks like king kong

didley dong i went to school with nothing on

i asked the teacher what to wear

polka dotted underwear

not too big not too small

just the size of dadeland mall (or w/e mall u choose)

 

Source: Octoblog; posted by at September 18, 2003 08:34 PM

*this comment refers to the version posted above"

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THE HANKY PANK SONG

I remember the hanky panky song

down by the river and the hanky panky

the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky

with the eips ips ops oops

sock-a-dilly and a ping pong pow

 

Source: Octoblog; posted by Mis at July 7, 2004 02:23 PM"

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On October 19, 2025, when that Portland protest frog got me to thinking about the "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhymes-among other things- I published a re-worked post entitled "Names Of Famous People In "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" Children's Recreational Rhymes." https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/10/names-of-famous-people-in-down-by-banks.html

At that time, I began to wonder why it was that I have been so focused on these dbb hanky panky rhymes on Mudcat and on this pancocojams blog. Interspersed with my other activities, I began googling and reading other online discussion threads about "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky".

I assumed that "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" had been and still was a children's recreational rhyme that was widely known in the United States and somewhat known in some other English speaking nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.  

However, on October 19, 2025 I came across this reddit.com discussion thread that began in May 2025 in which commenters from multiple states in the United States indicated that they had never heard of the "Down By The Hanky Panky" rhyme:  https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/1ksgiuh/how_did_you_sing_down_by_the_banks"How Did You Sing Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky?"

 That discussion began in May 2025 and all of the comments as of October 20, 2025 are from the month of May. Most of the commenters include their geographical location (city or state/ city and state within the USA).

While there are some commenters who remember a version of "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky", these commenters did not: 
(Numbers added for referencing purposes)

1. SpacemanSpears
"I didn't. Never heard this before."

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2. microcozmchris
"Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Ohio kid here. Almost 50 and I have to ask: dafuq is this guy talking about?"

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3. Ellecram
"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania & Virginia

Same from this 67 yer old Pennsylvania and Virginia kid. Never heard of this game."

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4. RemonterLeTemps
"Same, from a 65-year-old, 4th generation Chicagoan"

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5. Pristine-Pen-9885
"Chicago, IL

I’ve never heard of it either."

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6. BradleyFerdBerfel
"Ohio kid here as well, 65 and I have to ask: dafuq is this guy talking about?"

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7. Leading-Summer-4724
"Also from Florida, and the “bull frog jump from bank to bank” sounds like I’ve heard just that phrase in a fever dream, but the rest is just NOPE. My parents are both from the northeast, so maybe I’m remembering them saying it?? Or from tv. But definitely not something I played with other kids at school."

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8. groucho_barks
"From WI and also never heard it. Our thing was something like, "Zip, zap, zoom. Otchie scrotchi Liberace. I love you. Take a peach, take a plum, take a stick of chewing gum..." I'm missing a bunch of it because I haven't thought of it in so long, lol.

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9. PaisleeClover
"Me neither."

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10. hermitzen
"Me neither."

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11. Patient_Meaning_2751
"It’s a children’s song. I didn’t know it either but found it online."
-end of quote-

These comments made me question if I had been deceiving myself into believing that "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky” was as well known as  I thought it was in the 1980s, 2990s, and the early 2000s. Or could it be that recreational play had changed and left dbb hanky panky behind or was it ever as widely known as I concluded it was.

It's true that I've never seen any children playing "Down ByThe Banks Of The Hanky Panky" in real live - outside of the internet. And I've never collected any examples of dbb hanky panky rhymes during my years of direct collecting rhymes from (mostly) Black American children's recreational rhymes in Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania and some of its nearby communities during the mid 1980s to around 2007.

But I believed dbb hanky panky was widely known based, in part, on the high number of examples of those rhymes that were featured on my no longer available cocojams.com website that was online from 2001 to 2014. Children and teens submitted most of the rhymes, cheers, and singing game examples to that multi-page website by filling out an easy to use internal form that didn't require an email address.

I remember "Down ByThe Banks Of The Hanky Panky" being the hand clap rhyme that had the third highest number of examples of that cocojams hand clap rhyme page. The first and second highest hand clap rhymes on cocojams.com were "Brick Wall Waterfall" and "Bang Bang Choo Choo Train". Of course, those two rhymes were often combined, so maybe dbb hanky panky was actually the second most popular hand clap rhyme on cocojams.com

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Another reason why I believed "Down By The Banks Of The Hanky Panky" rhyme was widely known in the United States is because the online Mudcat folk music discussion thread that I started on that rhyme in 2006 has so many comments that it's now (as of October 20, 2025) ten pages.

The latest comment as of October 20, 2025 is this one:

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=94034&messages=484&page=1&desc=yes#4221363

Subject: RE: Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky

From: GUEST,Unknown

Date: 21 Apr 25 - 12:07 PM

"Down by the banks of the hanky panky

Where the bullfrog jumps from bank to banky

And with a heeps, hops, over the tops

And it lands on a lilypad with a KERPLOP!

-------------ADD THIS IF YOU WANT (WE USUALLY DO)----------------------

I pledge allegiance to the flag

That Justin Beiber makes me gag

Coca Cola has caffeine

And now we're talking Billy Jean

Billy Jeans went out of style

Now lets sit and talk a while

(Fast) Theres a party corner and will you please please come

Bring your own wad of money and your own chewing gum

(something else, but I don't remember)

What. Is. Your. Boyfriends. Name?"

-end of quote-

And here's the comment before that one on that Mudcat thread:

"Subject: RE: Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky

From: GUEST,Anonymous

Date: 08 Apr 25 - 05:26 PM

 

Down by the banks of the hanky panky, where the bull frogs jump from bank to banky, with the eeps, iips, opes, oops, oop daly oop in the oop flop flop, Pepsi Cola, Ginger Ale, Ginger Ale, Ginger Ale, Ginger Ale, Ginger Ale, Pepsi Cola, Ginger Ale, 7 up, 7 up, 7 up, you’re out."

-end of quote-

Unfortunately, those two commenters didn't include where and when they first chanted their version of that rhyme. That would have been interesting to know, particularly whether those examples were recently chanted and the ages of the people chanting them.

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Thanks to the Portland Protest Frog for renewing my interest in my almost twenty year study of these "Down By The Hanky Panky" rhymes.

Stay safe and keep on keeping on!

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For the folkloric record, I'm interested in knowing if "Down By The Banks of The Hanky Panky" rhyme is or was played where you live. Please include demographic information (such as where: city, state, if in the USA and city and country if outside of the USA), and when: year and decade you first chanted this rhyme and how you played it and whether that rhyme is (still?) chanted and played there now. Thanks in advance for your comment. 

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