The customs related to telling on someone are many and varied. As if you didn't know that.
Rather than dwelling on the many ways that tattle-tales are disparaged, let's have a look at some of the customs assosciated with actually telling.
At my school, when someone got in trouble, one would say "um mum mum mum." Sometimes this was done in a sing-song voice (each note getting higher before dropping off at the end), and sometimes it was a hastily spoken "um um um." I've no idea where this came from, whether it was just a local thing, or what. It's a tough one to look up!
Another popular custom in my town was to announce that you were going to tell on someone. When asked why, you would reply
Because you put ants in my pants
and made me do the boogie dance
If you were really pushing it, you might add:
all the way to France
This certainly wasn't unique to my town, and surely pre-dates my time, though I can't really trace it very well. The oldest book I could find it in was from 1986, which is roughly when I would have heard it. I have a theory that most people hear the initial couplet, and the third line just sort of writes itself, roughly the same way, all over the place, but maybe I'm just going out on a limb.
Where and when did YOU hear this one?
And did people say "um mum mum" when someone was getting in trouble in your town?
Hahaha. We did this when I was in Kindergarten too. I dunno where it started either though.
ReplyDeleteummmm (biting bottom lip) im telling on you
ReplyDeleteMy fiancee just used some of my dad's posh coffee, I said "Ummmma, I'm telling on you" and she didn't understand why I said ummmma (nor do I tbh). She's from South Africa so I guess the custom isn't used over there. I'm from UK, grew up in Scotland where I must have picked up the umma variation. Both grew up in 1980s.
ReplyDeleteI dont know about the um um ums but I definitely would sing the ants in the pants song, sometimes even adding a fourth couplet:
ReplyDeleteI've got ants in my pants
Made me do the bogey dance
All the way to france
Without my underpants!
Looking back on it I realise just how unnecessary the last couplet was, and actually that it makes no sense. I think we always realised that a little bit, but it was too much fun.
That would have been in Los Angeles in the late 1980s.
Good luck with the book.
Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, mid-1980s to early 1990s:
ReplyDeleteThe local variant in my neck of the woods was a long "Ammmmmmmmmmmmm" (rising then falling in tone) followed by "I'm telling of you" or "I'm gonna tell of you" (yep, we said "of" instead of "on"; no idea why).
By the way, in France, where I now live, they have a similar reaction, which is usually spelt "Hannnnnnnnnnn" (essentially one long nasal "ah" sound; the H, though written, is not pronounced) and followed by "Je vais le dire !" – literally, "I'm going to tell it", i.e. I'm going to tell (the teacher, a parent, etc.) what you did. This goes back to at least the 1980s.
ohio early 90s:
ReplyDeleteWe used a drawn-out rising 'awwwwww', often done as a chorus. (kind of interesting musically, if you get enough voices making random rising notes, you end up with a chord that is constantly rising, but not actually getting any higher, as individuals run out of breath and restart at the bottom) Sometimes making the noise in a group turned into a more interesting game than whatever the culprit had done.
It's hard to communicate these sounds in type, but I suspect it's similar to your 'um um um' or Herb's 'ammmm', except ours never fell at the end as far as I can remember.
Dun da dah dun daaaahh. We did that all my life as I was growing up, Mainly in my family, but sometimes we would bring it to school. It always went to the little ditty from the show Dragnet.
ReplyDeleteI'm growing up in Florida and we usually say, "Oooooooooooooo I'm telling on you" or just "I'm gonna tell"
ReplyDeleteTangentially related: on the Indian reservation in NE Montana where I grew up in the 70s and 80s, if someone did something naughty, the expression of surprise / scandal / alarm one might utter (perhaps while considering whether he might go tell) was, oddly, "Vrrrrrrrrr!" and sometimes, "Ho, vrrrrrrrr!" I haven't the foggiest guess as to the origins of this.
ReplyDeleteA: I'm telling on you?
ReplyDeleteB: Why?
A: 'Cause you kicked me off the bus and made me cuss!
Oh the memories lol!
The "umm umm umm" bit sounds like it might derive from Jackie Gleason's routine as Ralph Kramden when caught in such circumstances, although his response is more accurately rendered "Humminah humminah humminah. . . " Conceded, his delivery was usually more monotone and not with any rising inflection.
ReplyDeleteYou put rocks in my socks and made me get the chicken pox.
ReplyDelete