There once was a man from Nantucket

"There once was a man from Nantucket" is the opening line for many limericks, in which the name of the island of Nantucket creates rhymes and puns, often obscene. The protagonist in the obscene versions is typically portrayed as well-endowed and hypersexualized.

The opening line is so well known that it has been used as a stand-alone joke, implying upcoming obscenities.

History

The earliest published version appeared in 1902 in the Princeton Tiger written by Prof. Dayton Voorhees:^[1][2][3]

There once was a man from Nantucket

Who kept all his cash in a bucket.

    But his daughter, named Nan,

    Ran away with a man

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

Other publications seized upon the "Nantucket" motif, spawning many sequels^[4][5]

Among the most well known are:

But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,

The man and the girl with the bucket;

    And he said to the man,

    He was welcome to Nan,

But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.

Followed later by:

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,

Where he still held the cash as an asset,

    But Nan and the man

    Stole the money and ran,

And as for the bucket, Manhasset.

Ribald versions

The many ribald versions of the limerick are the basis for its lasting popularity. Many variations on the theme are possible because of the ease of rhyming Nantucket with certain vulgar phrases. The following example comes from Immortalia: An Anthology of American Ballads, Sailors' Songs, Cowboy Songs, College Songs, Parodies, Limericks, and Other Humorous Verses and Doggerel, published in 1927.^[6]

There was a young man from Nantucket

Whose dick was so long he could suck it.

    He said with a grin

    As he wiped off his chin,

"If my ear was a cunt I would fuck it."

In popular culture

The poem has become a staple of American humor, both as an iconic example of dirty poetry and as a joking example of fine art, whose vulgarity and simple form provide a surprise contrast to an expected refinement. Some examples:

• In Woody Allen's 1966 film What's Up, Tiger Lily?, the protagonist Phil Moskowitz reads the opening line of "ancient erotic poetry": "There once was a man from Nantucket".^[7]
• The animated sitcom The Simpsons makes numerous references to the limerick, such as "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo",^[8] where Homer comments that he "once knew a man from Nantucket" but "the stories about him are greatly exaggerated".
• Garrison Keillor quoted the first line to laughter during his last episode of 42 years of hosting the radio show A Prairie Home Companion.^[9]
• On the Gilmore Girls season 3, episode 8, Lorelai Gilmore jokes about carving something dirty into a bathroom wall on a tour of Yale, saying, "What rhymes with Nantucket?"
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Squidward's School for Grown-Ups", SpongeBob, impersonating an opera singer, begins his act by producing a sheet of paper and reading "There once was a man from Nantucket" before realizing he has the wrong sheet.
• In That 70's Show season 2 episode 24, Hyde begins a joke with "There once was a girl from Nantucket..."

References

External links

• Yesterday's Island "Limerick Challenge"