| AKA | The wild man of Borneo has just come to town The wild man of Poplar |
| First Published | 1890 |
| Writer/composer | Unknown / George Le Brunn | Roud | RN2145 |
| Music Hall Performers | The Two Macs, Tennyson and O’Gorman |
| Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Neville, Alfred; England : Somerset; 1908 Hooper, Lorenzo; USA : Maine; 1941 Hawes, L.A.; USA : New Hampshire; c1941 Gallagher, Mrs. Edward; Canada : Nova Scotia; 1949 Phillips, Ben Wales : Pembrokeshire; 1952 Denley, Tom England : Gloucestershire; 1957 Ford, Mary; Canada 1963 Cook, Viola; USA : Kentucky; 1929-35 Modern performances The Corries |
THE WILD MAN OF BORNEO. An Eccentric Comic Song or duet Sung by The Two Macs. The wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken- The Wife The wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The daughter The daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The child The child of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The dog The dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The tail The tail of the dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The hair The hair on the tail of the dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The flea The flea on the hair on the tail of the dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. Spoken - The whiskers The whiskers on the flea on the hair on the tail of the dog of the daughter of the wife of the wild man of Borneo has just come to town. The whiskers on the child of the .... [break off in confusion] Repeat each line four times
A cumulative song sung by traditional singers throughout the English speaking world. Its origins are on the American vaudeville stage but it was widely sung in the British Halls. I recommend singing the Poplar variant to avoid the casual racism associated with the original….
The Wild Man/Men of Borneo was a name given to the Dayak peoples of Borneo, later used to name several American circus “freak show”acts going back to the 1840s. In the 1870s American-Irish comic Pat Rooney included “The ape-like antics of the Wild Man of Borneo” in his vaudeville performances.
The song came much later and was almost certainly first performed in the USA in the late 1880s America, its only relation to the circus performers may be that it draws on the language used to advertise circuses when they arrive in a new town. It was a big hit in American vaudeville theatres, as suggested by this extract from a comic piece in a 1889 Seattle newspaper:
In the British Music Halls it was sung by two different comedy duos: The Two Macs and Tennyson and O’Gorman: according to the British sheet music both acts sang it to a musical arrangement by George Le Brunn. (The Sheet Music gives no indication of who wrote the American version of the song)
Tennyson and O’Gorman very quickly changed their version to The wild man of Poplar perhaps to distinguish themselves from that of The Two Macs. It apparently featured in the repertoire of the politician Lloyd George!
The Corries sing it:
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A2145
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: Edge One Songster (March) from Bodleian Ballads
- Sheet Music: Worldcat
- Fresno Ballad Index entry
Last Updated on March 17, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: February 8, 2023
