Wild man of Borneo, The

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:

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 23, 1889

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)

The Era, 16 Aug 1890

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: