Is "My Mother Told Me Not to Shout" an acronym for something?

May 30, 2006 12:38 PM

Is "My Mother Told Me Not to Shout" an acronym (like "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally") for something?

Some friends and I were sitting around talking about making acronyms (during final exams), and then converting them into memorable phrases a while back (things like, "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" for the orders of operation), when I asked what "My Mother Told Me Not to Shout" was for. No one had any clue what I was talking about, and I can't find any references online. MMTMNTS doesn't seem to mean anything, but I can't believe I just made this up.

posted by fogster to Writing & Language (30 answers total)

The word you're looking for is mnemonic.
posted by fvw at 12:41 PM on May 30, 2006

Response by poster: I thought 'acronym' was the wrong word, but couldn't remember the right one. But that still leaves the question: what is MMTMNTS?
posted by fogster at 12:43 PM on May 30, 2006

Many metafilter theorists might not theorize successfully.
posted by felix at 12:51 PM on May 30, 2006

I think you made it up. However, here's a MetaFilter thread you may enjoy.
posted by ewagoner at 12:54 PM on May 30, 2006

I don't know if this is where you got it from, but this Strong Passwords page lists My Mother Told Me Not To Tell as a mnemonic to remember the password mmtmn2t.
posted by BackwardsCity at 12:54 PM on May 30, 2006

I have a very vague idea that the phrase was used in a skipping rhyme from when I was a kid, or possibly in the sort of game where you have to freeze when the speaker hits the final word?
posted by joannemerriam at 12:54 PM on May 30, 2006

Joannemerriam, that was my first thought too. "My mother told me to pick the very best one and you are not it."
posted by ewagoner at 12:58 PM on May 30, 2006

It reminds me of a cross between "My mother told me to pick the..." and "My mother said I never should play with the gypsies in the wood" (part of a nursery rhyme).
posted by unknowncommand at 1:00 PM on May 30, 2006

My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets?

(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto)
posted by bbuda at 1:04 PM on May 30, 2006

Response by poster: joannemerriam: you might be right. The way I remember it, each word was emphasized, with a bit of spacing between them. I assumed it was because each word stood for something, but it's just as possible it was some sort of playground rhyme. And unknowncommand's theory that I merged two phrases is entirely plausible, given that I also asked what "Every Good Boy Goes to Heaven" stood for. (It was actually, "Every Good Boy Eats Fudge," the music scale, apparently.)
posted by fogster at 1:08 PM on May 30, 2006

My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets?

(Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto)

That'n's not too good, huh?
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:08 PM on May 30, 2006

It was actually, "Every Good Boy Eats Fudge," the music scale, apparently.

It's actually "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge."
posted by cerebus19 at 1:10 PM on May 30, 2006

We used the "my mother says that you are not it" (very sing-song) as an optional ending to the 'eenie meenie mynie moe' method of choosing especially if the chosen was insufficiently choice.
posted by Rumple at 1:30 PM on May 30, 2006

Oh, and this is a great site of skipping rhymes, etc. Maybe something there would jog your memory.
posted by Rumple at 1:31 PM on May 30, 2006

Alright, medical people. Remember--Oh, Oh, Oh, to Touch and Feel a Girl's Vagina. (cranial nerves)
posted by 6:1 at 1:38 PM on May 30, 2006

Mr MoonPie

I learned it as a song at the Vanderbilt Planetarium

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzapies

of course this was circa 1973 and those pesky planets keep altering their orbits just to throw our mnemonics off...
posted by AuntLisa at 1:42 PM on May 30, 2006

In 1987 or '88 I learned it:
"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizza Pies"

Where the second "P" stood for the newly discovered "Planet X." Not sure if that planet is still believed to exist, though.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 1:51 PM on May 30, 2006

Best answer: I've got "My Mother Told Me Not to Swear" in my head, which is the same letters, but I can't remember for the life of me what it's supposed to help you remember. Maybe this one isn't a mnemonic - google gives me nothing useful either spelt out or with just MMTMN(T)S
posted by tiamat at 2:07 PM on May 30, 2006

A girl's vagina?!

The crainal nerves are "On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, a Finn and German Viewed Some Hops!"

I guess the feel of said vagina made you forget there are twelve, not ten, crainal nerves! Apparently that vagina just drove the spinal accessory and hypoglossal right out of your mind!
posted by Methylviolet at 2:20 PM on May 30, 2006

Um, cranial -- those vaginas are powerful things.
posted by Methylviolet at 2:22 PM on May 30, 2006

Best answer: MMTMNTS

Most Mysterious Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Show?

`My Mother Told Me Not To Swear' was a thing seen often in the schoolground as a kid. It involved counting down those words on a hand (starting with pinky) then dropping the finger you touched on the last word.

You are left with two fingers, with which you may gesture rudely at the victim. Ah, the irony of it.
posted by tomble at 2:47 PM on May 30, 2006

We learned the other one, also. BTW--I don't go that way.
posted by 6:1 at 2:47 PM on May 30, 2006

A girl's vagina?!

The crainal nerves are "On Old Olympus' Towering Tops, a Finn and German Viewed Some Hops!"

I guess the feel of said vagina made you forget there are twelve, not ten, crainal nerves! Apparently that vagina just drove the spinal accessory and hypoglossal right out of your mind!

--

The way I heard it in med school, that phrase was followed by the exclamation "...Ahhh, Heaven!" thus accounting for your Accessory and Hypoglossal nerves.

Advice for life: Some Say Money Matters, But My Brother Says Big Breasts Matter More.

And by the way, did you know that Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle?

That having been said, I'm off to go To Zanzibar By Motor Car!

(who remembers those? :-)
posted by Dr. Sam at 5:19 PM on May 30, 2006

MrMoonPie, you forgot Poland Neptune.
posted by emelenjr at 7:20 PM on May 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Isn't it what you say after you do "Eenie, meanie, minie, mo, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers let him go. Eenie, meanie, minie, mo." And then if you don't like the person who won or if you see that the "wrong" person is going to win, you say, "My mother told me not to swear." This is a childhood game used to pick people for things.
posted by acoutu at 7:26 PM on May 30, 2006

Or you can go "My mother told me to pick the very best one" (check again to see if you like result) and then "And you are not it."

I also think I heard the "my mother told me not to swear" as part of a jump rope rhyme.
posted by acoutu at 7:28 PM on May 30, 2006

Response by poster: Yes! "My mother told me not to swear" has got to be it.

Thanks guys.
posted by fogster at 11:25 PM on May 30, 2006

My mother told me to pick the very best one and O U T spells Out You Go!

And someone used PC on your eenie meenie. That's okay, but historically incorrect.
posted by Goofyy at 4:47 AM on May 31, 2006

Bad Boys Ruin Our Young Grass But Violets Grow Wild.
(resistor color codes, the clean version.)
posted by leapfrog at 10:23 AM on May 31, 2006

Actually, Goofyy, there's no conclusive evidence about the use of tigger/tiger vs the n-word. And I didn't hear anyone use the n-word out loud in any context (not just this rhyme) until I was 25. But I grew up in Canada.
posted by acoutu at 9:53 PM on May 31, 2006