Are Bunny Foo Foo and Bad Brian one in the same? (03/05/07)

Little Bunny Foo Foo, hopping through the forest; catchin' all the field mice, bop 'em on the head.

Thanks to a co-worker, that little ditty has been running through my mind most of the day. I suppose it could be worse. It could be a Patsy Cline song instead of a bouncy little tune about a misbehaving rabbit.

Since I wasn't having any luck turning off my internal radio I went in search of the origins of the rhyme. I found my information on the internet. There were approximately 700,000 entries. Can you imagine that? 700,000.

I chose Wikipedia so take the following with however many grains of salt that you want.

It seems that the Bunny Foo Foo story is similar to a poem by A.A. Milne. Is this the same A.A. Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame? It didn't say.

The poem is called "Bad Sir Brian Botany." It starts out like this, "Sir Brian had a battle ax with great big knobs on. He went among the villagers and blipped them on the head. On Wednesday and on Saturday, especially on the latter day, he called on all the cottages and this is what he said: "I am Sir Brian!" (Ting-ling!) "I am Sir Brian!" (Rat-tat!) "I am Sir Brian, as bold as a lion. Take that, and that, and that!"

It goes on to tell that Bad Sir Brian didn't stop at blipping people on the head, he also threw them in the local pond. Just like little Bunny Foo Foo, Bad Sir Brian got his comeuppance in the end. The villagers ganged up on him and threw him in the pond. When he had had enough they drug him out and bopped him on the head a few times for good measure. Sir Brian learned his lesson, broke his battle ax, and they all lived happily ever after.

I have no idea how Bad Sir Brian managed to turn into Bunny Foo Foo. Maybe the good fairy cast a spell on him.

I have found versions of the rhyme that have Bunny Foo Foo smacking or bashing the field mice instead of bopping them. What must be a newer, more wholesome story, has the bunny kissing the field mice on the head. Why on earth would the fairy object to that? Does she think the bunny is committing some kind of inter-species sexual harassment?

Apparently in England Bunny Foo Foo doesn't even mess with field mice. He prefers to creep up on hedgehogs and bop them on the nose. I suppose he is afraid of getting stuck with the quills if he bops them on their heads.

Little Bunny Foo Foo had such a wonderful time bopping the field mice or whatever, that I'm not sure he gave up this mischief even after he was turned into a hairy goon. At least he didn't throw the poor rodents into a pond like Bad Sir Brian did to the villagers.

Most nursery rhymes have some sort of moral and this one seems to be "what goes around, comes around," or maybe, "be nice to field mice." Turning Bunny Foo Foo into a hairy goon was probably much more effective than giving him a time out. The field mice would have time to run and hide if they spied a hairy goon lumbering through the forest instead of an innocent-looking rabbit hopping along.

I wonder what the field mice did to the bunny to provoke all this mischief? Did one of them tweak his tail while he slept? Did they surround his nest with field mouse debris? Maybe they were just easy targets. We may never find out.

Here's a bit of trivia I bet you don't know. Apparently the melody is the same as part of the Messa Da Requiem by Guiseppe Verdi. Not being familiar with this particular piece of music I can't verify this. But that is what the Wikipedia site says. So maybe good old Guiseppi Verdi started the Bunny Foo Foo song.

There are worse things that bunnies can do besides bopping field mice. I had a friend who kept a pet rabbit. The rabbit liked to gnaw and gnawed through her wooden bed slats. After that, the rabbit stayed in its cage when she wasn't home

Now that I know more than I ever wanted to about Little Bunny Foo Foo would someone please tell me how to get the melody out of my head?[[In-content Ad]]