Thanks, kytrad for posting that version of Puddin Tane!

I also appreciate you adding your comments and including where, when, and how this rhyme was used. I'm especially interested in your recollection that this rhyme was used to trick people into saying "look like a fool" so others could then have a laugh. I guess that some people might not have liked being laughed at but maybe he or she realized that it was all in "clean" fun and he or she laughed right along with the others.

Has humor become more malicious nowadays? {This is mostly a rhetorical question}. It seems to me that humor has become less "clean". I'm talking about the intent and not just the words. Maybe in smaller communities, where people knew each other and therefore knew that the people making the joke liked him or her, a person could more easily laugh along with the fact that he or shewas the target of the joke.

Maybe there are other reasons why these days children are too quick to consider something a personal slight. Kids might even get on a set {get angry} if they think that someone is looking at them. And then they may feel that in order to save face, they have to quickly retaliate with physical violence.

Though I don't have any personal knowledge of this, I've read where some boys {and I guess some girls, too} used to respond with a verbal putdown {like I suppose Puddin Tame/Tan} is witty insult exchanges like the dozens. I'd rather children and teens {and adults for that matter} show off their quick thinking and verbal skills than see situations so quickly escalate into fist fighting and much worse.

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Btw, Jean, I noticed that the word you used for Puddin's last name {if indeed Puddin Tame is a name} was "tame" and not "tane" as I remember saying it. Well, tame definitely rhymes with "name" and "same" better than "tane" does. The word/name "tane" may indeed be a corruption of the word/name "tame".

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NormanD, thanks for sharing that information about that recording of "Puddin' 'n' Tain" by The Alley Cats band. I'll have to check it out!

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gargoyle, I'm never sure whether you're serious or joking {maybe that's a good thing}. Be that as it may, the example you gave isn't the kind of rhyming exchange that this thread focuses on {the kind where one person says a line, and another person responds with a line whose end word rhymes, or sorta rhymes}.

But thanks anyways -I think {therefore I am} :o)