[Esther Murer]

Isn't the trouble with Lear's that his 5th line tends to be a repetition or variation on the 1st, as was common in the early days? That deprives the form of its punch and surprise.

A favorite family pastime of my youth was writing limericks, everybody writing a first line and passing it to one's neighbor who wrote the second line, and so on. My cousin Bob and I (both Nash fans) would set things up that the hapless fifth person was hard put to provide a rhyme for - openings like

There once was a promising wallaby
who knew all the words to Brahms' Lallaby.

Our collaborative results were rarely deathless - here's a reasonably good example:

There once was a swell operetta
(no relation to Naughty Marietta).
It was called Fliedermaus
and not Fliederlaus,
though it sure had a lousy libretta.

[Raul Puzon]

John, I don't know the author of this one, but I like this very much.


There once was a man from Japan
whose limericks just wouldn't scan.
When asked why this was,
he answered, "Because
I always cram as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can."

[Jerome Betts]

Does this count as clean?

A promising lawyer called Hyde
Once fell in a sewer and died.
His unfortunate brother
Then fell in another
So now they're interred side by side.

[John Whitworth]

My English teacher read us that one when I was twelve, Jerome, and I didn't get it. When I did, I thought it was TERRIBLY rude. Imagine English teachers saying words like that. If your one isn't rude then this one won't be rude either.

There was a young lady of Bude
Who danced on the stage in the nude.
A young fellow said, 'What a m-
Agnificent bottom!'
Just like that. Straight out loud. Bloody rude.

I think that is near the pinnacle of the art.

[Chris O'Carroll]

An amorous couple named Kelly
Is now forced to walk belly-to-belly
Because, in their haste,
They used library paste
Instead of petroleum jelly.

What I love about that one is that it's hilariously dirty without using any of the words you can't say on TV.

I think Esther's right about the trouble with Lear's limericks. He wrote some wonderful nonsense verse in other forms, but the lack of a third rhyme to "button" his limericks seriously diminishes them. I seem to recall that mystery novelist Edmund Crispin has his professor-sleuth Gervase Fen say something in praise of Lear's limericks, but I remain unconvinced.

[Raul Puzon]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

My English teacher read us that one when I was twelve, Jerome, and I didn't get it. When I did, I thought it was TERRIBLY rude. Imagine English teachers saying words like that. If your one isn't rude then this one won't be rude either.

There was a young lady of Bude
Who danced on the stage in the nude.
A young fellow said, 'What a m-
Agnificent bottom!'
Just like that. Straight out loud. Bloody rude.

I think that is near the pinnacle of the art.

hahahahaha. That's it. I already got my laugh of the day. Thanks for posting.

Raul

[Roger Slater]

Lear's limericks were more like captions to his drawings. He didn't even break them into lines. And in that context, in their books, they had more charm than you'd imagine. They were also somewhat pathbreaking in kidlit, and immensely popular.

The Washington Post had a contest once to write limericks using the first two lines of a Lear limerick, but with three new lines to finish. I guess we can't post our own stuff on this thread, but I bet people here could have fun with that concept over at D&A.

[Brian Allgar]

If Roger is right, and we can't post our own stuff here, then I suggest that we adopt his suggestion, and move it to D & A. What's the point of a limerick thread if Those-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed won't let you post your own?

Is there a benevolent moderator in the house?

[Orwn Acra]

A mosquito was heard to complain
That a chemist had poisoned his brain
The cause of his sorrow
Was paradichloro-
diphenyltrichloroethane.

Not mine of course. One can find it attributed to Dr. D. D. Perrin.

[Mary Moore]

Stephen Fry in his "The Ode Less Travelled" cites an anonymous limerick that addresses the basic question raised by this thread:

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Mary