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A simple rhyming song which I heard growing up and which still gets stuck in my head every so often:

My friend Billy had a ten foot willy.
He stuck it through the neighbour's door. OR He showed it to the girl next door.
She thought it was a snake,
Hit it with a rake,
And now it's only four foot four.

A little searching on the internet has convinced me that this is a somewhat well-known ditty, at least in England, so not just made up by someone I knew.

What is the origin of this song? Where and when did it first appear, and is there any hint of an original author?

(I've found the same question asked on another forum, Who Wrote The Naughty Rhyme "My Friend Billy Had a Ten Foot...", but without any serious answers (the top answer "My mate did. Yours sincerely, Billy." is absolutely hilarious and absolutely useless). I've also found an article crediting it to one James "Nipper" Jenkins, but given that the same site has an article "Pfizer cuts research into Alzheimer's, but can't remember why - more soon", I'd consider it somewhat less than reliable.)

verbose
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Rand al'Thor
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    This is a pretty good time to start learning about folklore studies. This article is certainly relevant: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1499891 i also recommend the book Folklore Matters. And i definitely remember reading something by a colorist who researched this very rhyme. –  Jan 12 '18 at 03:19
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    All such verses are composed by a branch of The Splendid Source, the secret society which supplies the world with dirty jokes. – user14111 Jan 12 '18 at 06:45
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    When and where did you first hear this song, and to what tune was it sung? – user14111 Jan 12 '18 at 07:31
  • @user14111 I don't even remember how I first heard it; it's just one of those things I knew growing up (in England). My internet research shows that it goes back to the 1970s at least. I'm rubbish with tunes, but it's something like: "*My friend Billy had a ten foot willy. He stuck it through the neighbour's door. She thought it was a snake, Hit it with a rake, And now it's only four foot four.*" – Rand al'Thor Jan 12 '18 at 12:14
  • It's Old King Cole, of course! – Mick Jan 12 '18 at 12:45
  • I heard it at school in King's Lynn, which puts it in the early 1960s at latest. Probably not original even then. – Mike Stone Jun 11 '18 at 17:25
  • Tried the Opies? http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2017/03/07/opie-archive/ – A E Jun 24 '18 at 18:54
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    @AE I've cited their book a couple of times, but I don't actually have a copy of it - been relying on Google Books and such. – Rand al'Thor Jun 24 '18 at 19:01
  • Iona Opie recorded the start in Salford 1975: https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Opie-collection-of-children-s-games-and-songs-/021M-C0898X0073XX-0100V0 – A E Jun 24 '18 at 19:46
  • Also Dorset 1975 https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Opie-collection-of-children-s-games-and-songs-/021M-C0898X0080XX-0200V0 – A E Jun 24 '18 at 19:51
  • See also the same question in Mythology & Folklore SE https://mythology.stackexchange.com/q/3367/197 – b_jonas Feb 24 '21 at 19:44
  • @b_jonas Yes, another user copied my question after failing (in now-deleted comments here) to browbeat me into deleting this question and re-posting it on Mythology. – Rand al'Thor Feb 24 '21 at 19:56
  • Same rhyme also documented in Australia and New Zealand. See https://museumsvictoria.com.au/media/3835/play-and-folklore-issue44-nov2003.pdf , which refers to an interesting-looking paper if you can find it: Grugeon, Elizabeth. (1988). ‘Underground knowledge: What the Opies missed’, English in Education, Vol. 22, No. 2. – shoover Apr 05 '21 at 16:42

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