Five Little Monkeys


"Five Little Monkeys" is an English-language nursery rhyme, children's song, folk song and fingerplay of American origin. It is usually accompanied by a sequence of gestures that mimic the words of the song. Each successive verse sequentially counts down from the starting number.
The most common version of the song has a similar tune to the Austrian folk song "Wie Böhmen noch bei Öst'rreich war" and the American folk song Hush, Little Baby. Alternative versions have similar tunes to the first verse of the 1890s folk song "Shortnin' Bread."

Lyrics

One version of the lyrics, published in the 2015 collection No More Monkeys, runs:

Variations

Alternative versions of the song change the last verse to "one fell off" or "she fell off".
An additional final verse includes lines such as:
The last line can also be replaced in various ways, such as "That's what you get for jumping on the bed!"

Gestures

The song can be performed with gestures to accompany each verse, such as:
  • Hold up a number of fingers equal to the number of monkeys and bounce them onto the palm of the other hand;
  • Hold head;
  • Put your pinky finger to your cheek and thumb to your ear ;
  • Wag your index finger

    Influence

has written a series of books titled "Five Little Monkeys ..". She acknowledges that she did not write the original lyrics, she heard it from her daughter. Four of these books would later be adapted into a stage play by Ernie Nolan.
In 2021, Filipino TikToker Amor Carias, also known by her stage name "Miss Catering", performed a cover of "Five Little Monkeys", this time with lyrics mashed up from "Humpty Dumpty", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and possibly "Three Little Kittens", along with Tagalog-language "Tagu-taguan maliwanag ang buwan", "I wanna be a tutubi" and "Pen Pen de Sarapen", plus the song "Upuan" by Gloc-9 and Zelle vocalist Jeazell Grutas.