Ban those killer nursery songs

No matter how much I drink, I am unable to find much humour in the ET murder. Perhaps it is because bludgeoning, by its very nature, is the antithesis of satire.

Too heavy-handed. Too blunt. The problem is, nothing else strikes me as being particularly funny right now. I suppose we all have our crosses to bear.

So, crippled by boredom, I was unaware that I had been singing dubul' ibhunu while picking ticks off the dog. Brenda said she would have me arrested if I didn't stop. I was outraged. Since when was tick-picking illegal? Not that, she said. The inciting of people to go out and kill God-fearing men of the soil.

Oh, please. That old struggle chestnut is nothing compared with the violent, homophobic, racist, sexist songs we were made to sing as children. There are mothers out there - mine included - who should be rounded up and made to answer for what they did to us.

Here are just a few examples of the dangerous filth we whities grew up with. No wonder we're so full of hatred, confusion and cheap brandy. And that's just the English-speakers.

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?/Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full./One for the master, one for the dame,/and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

This led us to believe that black sheep were not the same as normal sheep, not merely because they could talk, but because they were black. The subservient tone and alacrity with which the sheep responds to demands for its wool suggest that it has been oppressed for some time. Furthermore, no effort is made to ascertain the sheep's name. It is unlikely that its parents called it "Baa Baa" at home. This dehumanises the animal. Must be banned immediately.

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie/kissed the girls and made them cry./When the boys came out to play,/Georgie Porgie ran away.

This taught boys that running away was a better option than sticking around to face the consequences, and today I still have difficulty in taking responsibility for my actions. This nasty piece of work incites gender violence and must be banned.

Goosey Goosey Gander, where shall I wander?/upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber./There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers/I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.

Osama bin Laden's attitude towards religious tolerance was formed at an early age when his mother read this to him. As soon as he could walk, Osama would visit nearby homes to check that people were saying their prayers. After spending his youth throwing old men down flights of stairs, he rounded up a few friends to fly planes into the World Trade Centre, which was full of old men who weren't saying their prayers and, even if they were, they were the wrong kind of prayers, so the men deserved to die. This misanthropic jingle promotes religious superiority and must be banned in a secular state.

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,/the cow jumped over the moon./The little dog laughed to see such fun,/and the dish ran away with the spoon.

Popular in the '60s among people of all ages, particularly those who were partial to a cap or two of lysergic acid diethylamide in their afternoon tea. Promotes drug use and needs to be banned.

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.

Couldn't or wouldn't? This is hate speech directed squarely at fat people. For all we know, genetics were to blame for Humpty's size. But even if his obesity was caused by fried chicken and beer, this is no reason not to at least attempt to put him back together again. It undermines human dignity and deserves to be banned.

Jack and Jill went up the hill /to fetch a pail of water/Jack fell down and broke his crown/and Jill came tumbling after./Up got Jack and home did trot/as fast as he could caper./He went to bed and bound his head/with vinegar and brown paper."

Children have no business climbing hills to fetch water. This is a clear endorsement of child labour and must be banned. Jack's unique method of treating a gaping head wound gave former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang the idea that garlic, lemons and beetroot could cure Aids.

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner,/eating his Christmas pie./He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum/and said: "What a good boy am I!"

This has poisoned young minds by creating an unwarranted sense of entitlement. South Africa is full of indolent youngsters expecting to be praised for nothing more than using their opposable digits to thumb a free ride to the trough. Must be banned if only to encourage genuine entrepreneurship.

Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow/and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.

Aside from the gynaecological impossibility of Mary having a little lamb, the entire premise of this racist diatribe is based on the lamb having a white fleece. One is compelled to ask whether the lamb would have been treated any differently if it had had black fleece or, indeed, if Mary herself had been black. The answer is yes. The lamb would have been eaten chop-chop. Ban it on the grounds of racial discrimination.

Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's man;/bake me a cake as fast as you can;/pat it and prick it and mark it with a B;/ and put it in the oven for baby and me."

This clearly perpetuates systemic disadvantage, encourages the exploitation of the working class and is a violation of the democratic values of social justice. Since the instruction is directed at the baker's man, one can only surmise that the baker himself is off spending the profits in the Seychelles, instead of giving his assistant a wage increase. Even though he is alone in the bakery, the baker's man is instructed to bake a cake as fast as he can. Why the hurry? Are there starving people waiting out in the street? Probably. But, in this instance, the cake is for "baby and me". Nobody else will get any. This song has no business still being sung, and Cosatu will back me when I say it needs to be banned at once.

Peter Peter pumpkin eater,/had a wife and couldn't keep her./He put her in a pumpkin shell,/and there he kept her very well.

As far as domestic violence goes, this takes some beating. In South Africa, abuse of this nature is not widespread, since few men have wives small enough to fit into pumpkin shells. Most men find divorce to be less complicated. Others find that dismemberment works if the pumpkin is unusually large.

This exhortation to commit uxoricide, posing as a nursery rhyme, must be banned on the grounds that women do not belong in pumpkins. As our constitution clearly stipulates, they belong in the kitchen. Ban the song. Or whatever the hell it is.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,/half a pound of treacle./That's the way the money goes,/Pop! goes the weasel.

This anti-weasel propaganda falls into the category of hate speech and must be banned immediately. Weasels are people too.

Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair;/Said Simple Simon to the pieman, "Let me taste your ware."/Said the pieman to Simple Simon, "Show me first your penny."/Said Simple Simon to the pieman ... and so on.

This so-called rhyme goes on to make Simon look like a complete retard, which he undoubtedly was. Having said that, however, there is no good reason to mock the mentally challenged. Thanks to our bill of rights, simple people are no longer discriminated against. In fact, some of them hold powerful positions in the government. This evil chant must be banned immediately.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,/see how they run, see how they run,/they all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife.

This is not only blatantly anti-rodent, but it has a clear bias against disabled rodents. It also incites harm by encouraging pro-rodent militant groups to take revenge on farmers' wives who labour under the misapprehension that it is somehow acceptable to mutilate sight-impaired mice. Rodents have rights too. Ban it.

The owl and the pussycat went to sea/in a beautiful pea-green boat./They took some honey and plenty of money,/wrapped up in a five pound note./The owl looked up to the stars above,/and sang to a small guitar,/"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy my love, what a beautiful Pussy you are ..." and so on.

This sick animal porn thinly disguised as poetry degenerates quickly, with the cat and the owl being married by a turkey in a land where the Bong tree grows. Many young lives have been ruined by this pro-marijuana interspecies malarkey, and it must be banned at once.

There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,/he found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile./He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse./And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

These words send an unequivocal message to the youth that being crooked is no hindrance to success in later life. The fact that the cat and the mouse coexisted seems to suggest a solidarity among the crooked. Countless children have deviated from the straight and narrow in the misguided hope of achieving happiness without having to suffer first. Must be banned right away.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe;/she had so many children she didn't know what to do./So she gave them some broth without any bread,/and she whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.

This vile piece of pro-life propaganda fails to inform girls that Marie Stopes provides them with a viable choice should they find themselves repeatedly falling pregnant. Ban forthwith.

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?/Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, etc, etc.

This is possibly the most subversive of them all. It suggests that stars might be something other than fiery balls of gas. Who, besides children raised by wolves, wonders what stars are? Clearly propagated by organised religion, this nursery rhyme encourages children to question science and start believing that some kind of omnipotent being created the universe. Ban it before they turn to Scientology.

What are little boys made of?/Snips and snails and puppy dog tails./What are little girls made of?/Sugar and spice and all things nice.

The only point of reference I have here is Clive, my increasingly eccentric loinfruit. When he was smaller and more malleable, I asked him what little girls were made of. He said: "Meat and bones." I didn't know how to react, so I bought him an ice-cream and then beat him soundly. The point is that this piece of feminist propaganda must be banned on the grounds that it portrays boys as being full of terrible things, which they are, but it is better that girls find this out for themselves.

Remember remember the fifth of November./Gunpowder, treason and plot./I see no reason why the gunpowder treason,/should ever be forgot.

This is quite obviously an incitement to blow up parliament, and South Africans have once again failed dismally to rise to the occasion. Does not need to be banned.