After singing the regular version of the hen list song for several years, a new staff member introduced me to a different version. From what I have read on the net, this one appears to have originated with a Jerry Lewis sketch.
Step 1) Speak each verse in turn, encouraging the audience to repeat it back to you before moving on to the next.
Step 2) Enjoy their looks of amused confusion as they stumble through the later verses and finally give up on verse ten.
- One hen.
- One hen; two ducks.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises; six pairs of Don Alversos tweezers.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises; six pairs of Don Alversos tweezers; 7,000 Macedonians in full battle array.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises; six pairs of Don Alversos tweezers; 7,000 Macedonians in full battle array; eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises; six pairs of Don Alversos tweezers; 7,000 Macedonians in full battle array; eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt; nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth.
- One hen; two ducks; three squawking geese; four Limerick oysters; five corpulent porpoises; six pairs of Don Alversos tweezers; 7,000 Macedonians in full battle array; eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt; nine apathetic, sympathetic, diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth; 10 lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who hall stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all at the same time!
This one’s going to be hard to believe, but here it is. When I was a teenager I tape recorded Jerry Lewis reciting this on the Mike Douglass Show (it could have been Merv Griffen I get them mixed up sometimes). However I played the tape repeatedly and I memorized it and have not been able to forget it word for word these passed 36 years. When somebody wants to go toe to toe with me on a memory test I just blurt it out. Nobody wants to play after that.
Connie Haynes snyh@aol.com
When I learned this 35+ years ago – It ended with
Eleven lean lamb chops