Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words, such as "O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea"[3] or "My mother [told me/says to] pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it";[3] while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U.

The first record of a similar rhyme, called the "Hana, man," is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:[3] Hana, man, mona, mike; Barcelona, bona, strike; Hare, ware, frown, vanac; Harrico, warico, we wo, wac.

Mario Arellano de Santiago discovered that this version was in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century.

This is one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888:[7] Eenie, Meenie, Tipsy, toe; Olla bolla Domino, Okka, Pokka dominocha, Hy!

A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:[8] Ena, mena, mona, mite, Bascalora, bora, bite, Hugga, bucca, bau, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread.

[3] There are considerable variations in the words of the rhyme, including from the early twentieth century in the United States of America:[3] Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe.

Distinct versions of the rhyme in the United Kingdom, collected in the 1950s & 1960s, include:[16][17] Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.

Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers,[24][25] the 2003 film Elephant,[26] and the 100th issue of the comic book series The Walking Dead, which was adapted for the sixth-season finale of the television series.

The lyrics to "Loose Booty", the sole a-side single from Funkadelic's 1972 album "America Eats Its Young" (1972), opens with this verse: Eeny meeny miney moe, Catch a junkie by the toe, If he holler let him go, If he don't, do the loose booty The vinyl release of Radiohead's album OK Computer (1997) uses the words "eeny meeny miny moe" (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.

[28] Rex Stout wrote a 1962 Nero Wolfe novella titled Eeny Meeny Murder Mo.

[citation needed] The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets.