The Messed Up Origins™ of Little Bo Peep | Nursery Rhymes Explained - Jon Solo

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▼ Timestamps ▼
» 0:00 - The Girl Who Lost Her Sheep
» 2:39 - The Rhyme
» 7:25 - Bo-Peep
» 9:25 - The Royal Family
» 11:36 - Rant

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▼ Credits ▼
» Researched by: Jon Solo & Jack Daly
» Written by: Jon Solo

▼ Resources ▼
» English Industries of the Middle Age

▼ Music Sources ▼
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[crumblemuffin]

Sometimes I like to imagine a council made of animated characters and Greek mythology characters discussing on how to get Jon to stop gossiping about them

[sagejungwirth]

If little bo peep did have a secret meaning, i bet it would be something like this:

A little girl plays a game where she pretends to shepherd her father's sheep.

While playing she gets too tired to keep up so lies down for an afternoon nap in the field.

When she wakes up the sheep are back but there tails have been docked (this is a legit thing we do to sheep for health reasons) but being young she doesn't fully understand.

She does find the docked tails and, still playing her game, wants to be a good shepherd, so she tries to fix their tails.

[purplebec]

I agree with you Jon, I like to get the main point. Not every fairytale or song has to have a dark background. I always been a fan of the morals or life lessons the story or song has to offer. I appreciate your honesty. Also I'm happy to tell you everytime i watch yours videos, I snap my fingers when the intro ends. So everyone knows Im watching one of my favorite things in life, fairytales and also you.

[JonSolo]

CORRECTION: Apparently I used the wrong portrait of Queen Mary when discussing her feud with Queen Elizabeth. The Mary shown in the thumbnail and earlier in the video, the Queen of Scots, is the correct one. Thanks for the heads up! I’ve learned a valuable lesson.

I’m going to use this mistake as a sign that I need to take a break from discussing the royal family for the time being. Not only do I find them incredibly boring, but my lack of interest in those inbred pompous dickheads’ lives is clearly affecting my ability to accurately research. It’s only a small mistake and my counter-arguments to the theory still completely hold up, but I’ll take any excuse to avoid having to think about them.

[lisaheisey]

Mary and Elizabeth I were half sisters, not cousins. They had the same father Henry VIII, but different mothers. Mary's was Catherine Of Aragon and Elizabeth's was Anne Boleyn.

[hannahlarge]

i grew up in a rural part of britain in the 80s.
we were told that this was a list of hints and tips for young shepherdess. she wasn't watching the sheep (hence she's bo-peep) and she lost them.
if your sheep wander off they will usually return home on their own by evening, they are creatures of habit, hence "leave them alone and they'll come home"
the part about the tails being cut off is a reference to a common agricultural practice of docking lambs tails by constriction.
a very tight rubber band is put on the tail of the newborn lamb (way back when, this was done with string) as the lamb grows the tail becomes constricted and drops off.
not going to touch the ethics of this, it's done to help the adult sheep avoid nerfs leading to maggots.
yes, nerf as in "scruffy looking nerfherder" means a poop-dreadlock on a sheep.

[angeleyes]

As someone who has been watching Jon's videos since he first started, I can honestly say that NOW he is less of an entertainer and more of a professor. He is seriously an expert on this stuff now.

[Druklet]

I've loved this channel for ages so how has it only just occurred to me to show it to my students as, not only awesome content, but a great example of being skeptical and finding primary resources!

[moonprincesst.s.h.ever]

"First, you need to get a baby, preferably without breaking any laws." 👶🏼😂🤣
I never knew that Little Bo Peep had so many words! Great job on this video, Jon and of course, Penny is as cute as ever! 💖🐶

[pamelamays]

As a child, I learned a variant to the first verse:
Leave them alone and they'll come home.
Wagging their tails behind them.

[pablobratcat]

Right, as a person who lives near a LOT of sheep, here's my theory.
When lambs are little they have long tails and are very friendly. As they get older, farmers will dock the tails (and testicles, sorry!). A child's sense of time is so skewed that it would seem that her pet lambs mysteriously disappeared, and then came back with various appendages missing. She probably would have been asleep as farmers get up really early to get on with their business.
But that's Just A Theory
A Sheep Theory

[ashikat]

honestly the lullaby just sounds like a lesson that waiting for your problems to solve themselves will only make them worse, and nothing more

[estherbrink]

I don't think that every story, fable or rhyme has to have an underlining theory (using the rhymes as codes to talk about royalty for example). Sometimes, a story is just a story, or has a moral included to make the story more effective to the audience. Suffice to say, this one appeared to be more straightforward. Thank you for taking the time to research these stories, fables and rhymes!

[alessapine]

A time machine gets developed.

Everyone: I'm going to go punch Hitler in the face.

Jon Solo: *Puts on hazmat suit and spies on Victorian peasants for lore*

[rubyambler]

Sometimes things are just plain & simple! And your Bo-Peep is just too sweet!

[SoranotRoxas]

Has to be atleast one Toy Story reference in this video. Would be disappointed if it wasn't one...besides the thumbnail of course

[LativiaP]

“It’s like I don’t even have to read the book now” 😂😂

[Eastpinehome]

You explaining playing peek a boo literally made my awful day better. Thanks for the laugh, I really needed it.

[i]

The tails line could also be reference to the fact that sheep are born with long tails. Farmers cut them off ( modern day we use rubber bands) so as to avoid contraction of various diseases and parasites that are passed through fecal matter of sheep.

Source - former sheep farmer

[Dingomush]

You never disappoint, Jon. You always seem to entertain us while teaching us a thing or two about our childhood memories! Thank you.