The Messed Up Origins of Humpty Dumpty | Fables Explained - Jon Solo

[Music] what is going on solo fam my name is John solo and you might want to sit down for this one because today I'm coming at you with our first messed up origin story that doesn't have its own Disney adaptation Humpty Dumpty do you remember Humpty Dumpty right you sat on a wall he fell off it he might have been an egg of course you remember him and I bet you could have recite that poem off the top of your head without even really thinking about it it's just one of those things where you hear it so often while growing up it gets ingrained in your brain to a point where you don't even remember where or when you heard it for the first time like the Empire jingle so that's what I wanted to explore today who is Humpty Dumpty where did his sad little story come from why does everyone think he's an egg even though he's never explicitly described as such before we dive headfirst into history I gotta ask the solo fan to do what you guys do best and smash that like button with all your heart if we get at least 7,000 likes on this episode I'll take it as a sign from you guys that you want more content like this in addition to the Disney style you've all been shattering the 5000 like all I've been setting for the past few weeks so I've got to set the bar extra high for this one also make sure to subscribe if you haven't already and ring that Bell to be notified about new messed up content coming to your sub box every week as you might expect there are several versions of the classic Humpty Dumpty story we all know and love which speaking of goes like this Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again that sounds like the one you knew as a kid right more or less according to the oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes this is the most commonly known version of the rhyme for today's english speakers but it wasn't the first the first version on record came from Samuel Arnold 1797 children's book juvenile amusements in that book the rhyme was actually posed as a riddle where the reader was supposed to guess what Humpty Dumpty was Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall forescore men and fourscore more cannot make Humpty Dumpty where he was before did he guess what the answer is if you said egg you're probably right but we can't say for sure because Samuel Arnold decided not to include the answer with the riddle don't ask me why apparently more logic was put into Laffy Taffy than his book as it turns out there may have actually been a reason why Samuel Arnold didn't include the answer and that's because at that time everyone already knew it similar to the Three Little Pigs story we talked about last week which had always been told orally before James Halliwell Phillips included it in the nursery rhymes of England collection before being put into writing Humpty Dumpty was a popular playground rhyme that kids would often say to each other remember doing that stuff when you were a kid one of your friends would come up to you and say spell Ike up and you would say I see you pee and everyone would be like EU he watches people pee and start laughing like chimpanzees that's the kind of thing Humpty Dumpty was but it wasn't as me or here's a better example one time in first grade my friend Lucas came up to me and was like how many fingers am i holding up I answered five and he said nope thumbs not a finger aren't kids the worst you see back in the 17 and 1800's the term Humpty Dumpty had a few different meanings it referred to a popular alcoholic beverage consisting of brandy boiled with ale and it was also used as slang to refer to a short clumsy person so these two definitions may have served as misdirection for whoever heard the riddle it's kind of strange for us to think about but back then it was actually possible to know what Humpty Dumpty was slang for before knowing the rhyme so you might instinctively guess he was either a person or a mixed drink and then you find out he's an egg and you're like well while most people have come to accept Humpty Dumpty is an unfertilized organic vessel that normally contains the zygote in which an animal embryo develops an egg there are some experts who believe that Humpty Dumpty was inspired by a real-life person or thing in the real personages of mother Goose Catherine AL West Thomas suggested that Humpty was inspired by the real-life King Richard the third of England who was defeated at Bosworth Field in 1485 and was known for being hunchbacked and having fragile limbs now the actual severity of his deformities are still exaggerated to this day probably thanks to Shakespeare's play the tragedy of King Richard the third which portrays him is having a severe hunchback a limp and a withered arm real first-hand accounts say that he had one shoulder slightly higher than the other which affected his posture and overall shape thus the comparisons to an egg there's also been several theories that have since been debunked to suggest humpty-dumpty was the nickname for an old piece of military weaponry the first theory of this type was posited by professor David Dobbs of spoof nursery rhyme histories for oxford magazine in 1956 emphasis on spook he claimed humpty dumpty was a siege engine used in 1643 during the English Civil War to breach the walls of the city of Gloucester and took some comically massive leaps in logic to prove his point even though his theory was never supposed to be taken seriously the joke may have been a little too subtle for the average person and before long it became a local legend in the city that some residents still believe to this day what's fascinating is that Dobbs theory inspired a series of copycats where cities from all around England took credit for being the home of the Humpty Dumpty cannon and then in 1996 another awfully similar explanation was posted on the official website for the city of Colchester England they said the rhyme was inspired by a massive cannon that was placed on a church wall and used by the Royalists to defend themselves from the rebelling parliamentarians in the siege of 1648 the Royalists aka all the king's horses and all the king's men tried to put the cannon on another wall but it was so heavy they couldn't put Humpty together again it should be mentioned that author and historian Albert jack claimed to have confirmed this theory in his book pop goes the weasel' the secret meaning of nursery rhymes so you may have heard this story stated his back I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it turns out that Albert Jack left out some pretty important details and seemingly made some up - first off he claims to have found the original poem in a 17th century book in an old dusty library but doesn't give any other information to cite his source on top of that he claims to have found two lost verses that provide the poem with extra contacts in 1648 when England suffered the pains of state the round heads lay siege to Colchester town where the king's men still fought for the crown there one I Thompson stood on the wall a gunner of deadliest aim of all from Saint Mary's tower his cannon he fired Humpty Dumpty was its name Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again do you see the connections to professor dogs joke theory instead of the attackers using the Humpty Dumpty weapon this time the defenders instead of a siege engine it's a cannon manned by one eye Thompson instead of city walls it's a fortified church but there's no mention of the cannon being especially large or called Humpty Dumpty or there being a traditional rhyme about it it's easy to see how Albert Jack could have connected these events to the story as the old saying goes when you have a hammer everything becomes a nail in other words because he was looking for the real-life story that inspired Humpty Dumpty it's not surprising he found a story to fit that bill even though in actuality there was nothing special or unique that would connect that specific story to the Humpty Dumpty rhyme I mean how many soldiers using average sized cannons do you think were killed back that thousands guaranteed so what makes this specific soldier connected to Humpty Dumpty nothing and let's not forget those lost first as he found are not written in the same style as those from the 17th century they use different terminology than existed back then in the cherry on top is the third verse with all the king's horses and all the king's men is not even how the rhyme was written back then remember those original lines were for score man and for score more could not make Humpty Dumpty where he was before the king's horses and king's men line wasn't commonly used until the 1900s so I don't know what dusty old library these verses came from but I'm gonna go ahead and say they're fake so at this point you're probably thinking John I didn't watch this episode to hear three debunked theories about Humpty Dumpty I want to hear the actual origin story trust me when I say I'm right there with you the fact of the matter though was Humpty Dumpty might not have a place in the real world like we thought it sure would be red if he was inspired by a king or a siege engine or a giant cannon but all evidence points to this being a simple playground riddle rhyme from the 1700s about an egg that falls off a wall every other theory I've researched has been either debunked or is inconclusive even though I love a good messed up origin story there's something about Humpty's humble origins that I can't help but appreciate when you think about how well-known this rhyme is in the English language and how prevalent the Humpty Dumpty character has been first appearing in Lewis Carroll's novel through the looking-glass making a very brief cameo in Disney's mother Goose melodies and eventually being featured and he critically acclaimed Puss in Boots imagine going back in time and telling those kids from the 1700s that rhyme they used to trick each other with they end up in a movie they'd be like what's a movie and that will do it for today's episode of messed up origins I hope you enjoyed it because if you didn't I wasted a whole lot of time by the way I've got some exciting news this will be the last video that I film in Illinois I'm filming this episode on Sunday September 23rd planning on making the 18-hour drive down to Florida across Wednesday and Thursday and then I'll edit and upload this on Friday or Saturday after I get there before you head out I want to thank you guys for the patience you've had with me over the past few months it's been a very busy summer for me and there's been a few weeks recently where I haven't been able to get quite as much content out as I like but you guys have been very understanding and right now the channel is doing better than it pretty much ever has so from the bottom of my heart I just want to say thanks I am really excited for what the future has in store for us and I hope you are too if you're a member of the solo fam and you want to support the series in channel make sure to smash that like button so we can reach our goal of 7000 likes and help our family grow also make sure to subscribe and ring that bell to be notified about the new messed up content that I make every week as always the best way to stay updated on solo fam news what projects I'm working on next or if you just want to say what's up is to follow me on social media where I post dope stuff always until next time solo fam my name is John solo and remember John shot first [Music]

Channel: Jon Solo

Views: 552,837

Rating: 4.9433293 out of 5

Keywords: Messed Up Origins of Humpty Dumpty, Fables Explained, Humpty Dumpty, Messed Up Origins, humpty dumpty story, humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty movie, Mother Goose, Disney Explained, Mother Goose Melodies, Jon Solo, Three Little Pigs, Pied Piper, Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty Alice in Wonderland, Puss in Boots, Humpty Dumpty original story, humpty dumpty meaning, meaning behind humpty dumpty, messed up origins of bambi, messed up origins of dumbo

Id: SY6kgDx79IU

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 28 2018