Red Riding Hood backwards?

January 25, 2006 10:24 PM

Is anyone familiar with the comedy routine of Little Red Riding Hood told backwards? A teacher I had in jr. high just died and that was one of his trademark stories. I always thought it was an original, but then I heard it years later and now can't remember who did it. It basically involved telling the story straight but mixing up the sentence structure. At least that's what I recall some 22 years later.
posted by DonnieSticks to society & culture (14 comments total)

i'm definitely not familiar but curious! So i googled and found this pdf. I don't really know if it's what you are referring too though.

Is it funny because it's told backwards or is it funny because it's an adaptation somehow?
posted by freudianslipper at 10:54 PM on January 25, 2006

Nope, I looked at that too. I googled this up and down before I posted, which makes me think I've got the wrong story, but I'm so sure of it.

I think the funny comes from the wordplay and delivery and being 13. Probably one of those things that's hi-larious as a kid but the jaded adult just gives it an "eh".
posted by DonnieSticks at 11:05 PM on January 25, 2006

You're not thinking of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, are you?
posted by exceptinsects at 11:12 PM on January 25, 2006

Archie Campbell was a comedian who many will remember from Hee Haw, the show that replaced Laugh In. What a rip! That's him on the right. A popular part of his act was doing "backwards" versions of fairy tales. Favorites are Rindercella, Pee Little Thrigs and Beeping Sleuty. This page makes no mention of a backwards Little Red Riding Hood, but it sure sounds like an Archie Campbell bit.
posted by wsg at 11:19 PM on January 25, 2006

Holy cow... I had a supply teacher (y'all call them 'substitute teachers' in the USA) in middle school who did the same with Cinderella. Called it something like Prindercella and the Muddly Uglers.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:01 AM on January 26, 2006

Yeah, it sounds like something from Hee Haw. My dad subjected us to that show every week.
posted by kindall at 12:11 AM on January 26, 2006

I think it was the Rindercella and the Sisty Uglers, now that you mention it.
posted by wsg at 12:14 AM on January 26, 2006

Extra "the" there...
posted by wsg at 12:15 AM on January 26, 2006

Unhelpful aside: If you like this sort of thing, you might consider checking out Professor Stanley Unwin.

And I looked at the cast list for that Hee Haw thing for anyone I recognised and the only one was Felix Silla, which must be an obscurity record of some kind.

I now return you to the useful people.
posted by Grangousier at 3:30 AM on January 26, 2006

The swapping of syllables is called "spoonerisms". It's a bad habit to get into...I find I can't stop doing them, now that I've started. The story of Sleeping Beauty. Three Little Pigs. And of course, the spoonerism generator.
posted by ashbury at 5:51 AM on January 26, 2006

It was Archie Campbell! Thanks. Boy, is my short term memory bad. I just saw it on a Hee Haw DVD I got from Netflix a few months ago.
posted by DonnieSticks at 8:00 AM on January 26, 2006

A little late to the party, but is what you're thinking about "Little Red Riding Hood" told with words/phrases that are close, but not quite right? Not spoonerisms, pre se, but... Well, the easiest things to do is give an example, and the "translation". We pick up with the wolf, talking to Red:
"Whale, whale, whale. Effervescent laddle rat rotten hut."
("Well, well, well. If it isn't Little Red Riding Hood.")

Is that it?
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:34 AM on January 26, 2006

Hee Haw DVD

*head asplodes*
posted by kindall at 11:32 PM on January 26, 2006

Prinderella and the Since is my favorite. Now isn't that a shirty dame!
posted by KRS at 5:52 PM on January 27, 2006