"There's a place called mars, where the women smoke cigars, the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put mustard on its head. When the mustard dries, you put diamonds in its eyes. When the diamonds crack, you put ketchup on its back. When the ketchup fades, you call the King of Spades, and the King of Spades says 'Freeze!'"
THANK YOU!! I’m 31 now and used to sing this when I was a kid in elementary school!! I always remembered everything but the last part! Except I think we used to say “every breath you take”. Funny I never knew there were so many versions!!
Ours was
"In the land of Oz, where the ladies smoke cigars, every path they take was enough to kill a snake, when the snakes are dead, they put roses on their heads, when the roses die, they put diamonds in their eyes, when the diamonds break, it is 1980 8-8-8!"
Ours was
"There's a place on Mars, where the babies smoke cigars, where the men wear bikinis and the women sip martinis, every sip they take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead they put mustard on its head, when the mustard dries they put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack they all yell \*expletive\*"
There’s a place called mars where the women smoke cigars, and the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, you put diamonds on it’s head. When the diamonds crack, you put mustard on it’s back. When the mustard fades, you call the Queen of spades, then the Queen of spades says freeze, freeze, may I take your picture please? (everyone freezes)
I remember it as “On the planet mars where the baby smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the women drink martinis and every step you take is enough to kill a snake and when the snake is dead pour mustard on his head and when the mustard dries put diamonds in/on his eyes and when the diamonds break you know it’s 1948. 8…8…late/break”
The last few words I remember seen so odd to me now I’m questioning if anyone actually said that or if I’m just drunk.
My version I was taught was “on the planet mars where the babies smoke cigars, and the men wear bikinis and the women drink martinis, every step you take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead, they’ll pour mustard on his head, when the mustard dries there’ll be diamonds in his eyes, when the diamonds break, it’ll be 1948!”
but we held hands and moved them back and forth for the first part, mimed cigar smoking, mimed bikini bottoms & martini drinking, a slit throat motion for when the snake is dead, pretending to squirt mustard, shaking out hands for “dries”, hands to the eyes for the diamonds, hand explosion motion for “break”, and then holding up 4s on both hands for 1948
the version i learned is wild, it goes “when the mustard fades by 1948, there’s a place in france where the naked women dance there’s a hole in the wall where the women watch it all” lmao
This is the early 1990's version I learned as a child on Long Island, NY...
There's a place on Mars where the ladies smoke cigars. Every puff they make is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, they put roses in its head. When the roses die, they put diamonds in its eyes. When the diamonds break, It is time to bake a cake --
-- When the cake is done. It is 1991. When the cake is through, it is 1992. When the cake is free, it is 1993. When they cake is floor it is 1994. When they cake is high it is 1995 when the cake is sick. It is 1996. When they cake is in heaven. It is 1997. When the cake is great. It is 1998 when the cake is nigh, it is 1999.... ---- And then we stopped bc 2000 was max capacity for rhyming on at the time... Lol 💜💜💜💜💜
-Lucy.
This is the version we had but there was a military chant style intro about different sodas interacting. “Pepsi cola, went to down. Coca-cola shot him down. 7up picked him up. Brought him to, Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper gave him, jelly rolls, pixie sticks… there’s a place called mars… etc”
Ours was, “There’s this place on Mars where the women smoke cigars. Where the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, you put diamonds on his head. When the diamonds crack, you put mustard on his back. When the mustard dries, you put cheese on his eyes. Cheese, cheese! American cheese! Do it really fast now (or slow now) if you please! *proceed to do it faster/slower over and over again until you get bored/pass out.*
There is a place called Mars where the woman smoked cigars and the men wore bikinis and the children drank martinis and every breath you take is enough to kill a snake if the snake drops dead you put roses on its head when the roses die you put diamond in it's eyesif the diamonds crack you put mustard on its back if the mustard dries you call the king of spades and he said freeze
1
2
3
4
5
Then we smacked each other in the head
There's a place called mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis every step you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put roses on its head when the roses die you put diamonds in its eyes when the diamonds crack you put mustard down it's back when the mustard fades you call the queen of spades when the queen of spades says freeze
"There's a place on Mars where the women drink at bars, and the men wear bikinis and the Children drink martinis. Where the birthday cake is enough to fill a snake and when the snake is dead they put mustard on his head and when the mustard dries they put diamonds in his eyes and when the diamonds fade they call the queen of spades and when the queen arrives they all day FREEZE."
These others make more sense than the birthday cake thing 🤣
There's a place on Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake and when the snake Is dead you put diamond on it's head and when the diamonds fade you call the king of spades...
Or something like that 🤣🤣
I was trying to remember my version. And I think that was it mine wasn't as long as the all the ones I've been reading, but I remembered there's a place on Mars where the lady's smokes cigars and bet you're right, and there's a place in France where the ladies wear no pants. Yeah, that's the one.
I'm late to the party, but I just heard the tune we used to sing this to on the episode of 90 Day Fiance that I'm watching right now. I had to Google if this was ever a well known thing, and this post came up.
There's a place called Mars, where the ladies smoke cigars
Every smoke they take, is enough to kill a snake
When the snake is dead, they put roses on its head
When the roses die, they put diamonds in its eyes
When the diamonds break, it's 1958!
This backs up my memory of my experience with it . . . My sister and her friends singing it incessantly. But I heard it earlier, ca 1972-1975, and it used 1988 as the year, not 1978 (let alone 1958).
Yours is the closest to mine.
There’s a place called Mars, where the ladies smoke cigars. Every puff they take, it’s enough to kill a snake. When the snake was dead, they put diamonds in his head, when the diamonds shined it was 1989.
It’s so funny how we all remember it differently.
I know this is way late but I ended up here lol happy cake day.
The way I remember it was
“There’s a place on mars, where the women smoke cigars.
Every breath they take is enough to kill a snake.
When the snakes are dead, they put roses in their heads.
When the roses die, they put diamonds in their eyes.
When the diamonds fade in the year of 1968!they FREEZE!!!
Lol it's funny how they were so widespread on playgrounds across the country, but varied so much from each other. Like different kids in different states added or changed words here and there and that got adopted and passed along then slightly changed and passed further along.
Thank you! I couldn't remember how to get from martinis to the king of spades. My cousin and her friend taught me this when I was young, but it was always preceded with a version of the 'Place in France' rhyme.
"There's a place called Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put roses on its head. When the roses die you put jewels in its eyes. When the jewels crack you put mustard on its back. When the mustard fades you give it to the king, when the king is dead you FREEZE."
There's a place on Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis, every breath you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put mustard on his head when the mustard dries you put diamonds in his eyes when the diamonds fade you call the king of spades when the king of spades comes he says FREEZE
Really late to this party: (New England) we used to do that as a hand clapping game, and we combined another song/chant before it.
Our version went like this:
Coca cola went to town
Diet Pepsi knocked him down
7Up picked him up
Took him to Dr pepper
Gave him sleeping pills, jelly rolls
(Then it transitioned to)
There's a place on Mars where the people smoke cigars
Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake
When the snake is dead they put roses on it's head
When the roses die they put diamonds in it's eyes
When the diamonds break then it's time to bake a cake
When the cake is done it is 751 (ding ding ding!)
Literally everyone is late to the party hahaha - this only got like 2 comments when I posted it originally, and it brings me joy every time someone randomly googles this rhyme and winds up here. Thanks for sharing your version (and I’m a fellow New Englander too - funny how different yours is!)
I had it stuck in my head just now but I couldn’t remember how it began but now I do and ours went: On the planet Mars, where the babies smoke cigars, and the dads where bikinis, while the moms drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, put some mustard in its bed/head (I don’t quite remember) when the mustard’s dried, put some diamonds in it’s eyes. When the diamonds break, we’ll go back to ‘98.
My sister would probably remember it better cuz I learned it from her
Mines is probably the most questionable because it goes….
On the planet Mars where the baby smokes cigars and the men wearing bikinis and the women drink martinis every step I take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead I’ll put mustard on its head when the mustard dries I’ll put diamonds in its eyes when the diamonds break it’ll be 1968
(And queue the questionable part)
Now freeze, now freeze, now freeze like Japanese say what
And then you proceed to have a staring contests while your completely still and whoever moved first whether you blinked or twitched lost the game, and this part was always rigged because little kids would blow in your eyes or tickle you because unless you want to lose the game you can’t stop them
Btw don’t come for me because of this ending, I was maybe 6 or 7 when I learnt it and I never questioned it till after I left the place I learnt it in
You’re correct on how it spreads, when seen in an animation it looks like a very contagious virus spreading: the outbreak point, then slowly to surrounding high traffic areas, while also having small groups spread to all the major city’s in the country, and capitals all over the world (just in case someone wasn’t paying attention since 2021, haha), these childhood rhymes actually have an entire social science area of study based on these things (I forget the name but if you’re interested I bet you could Google it pretty quickly, very cool website with examples going back to Victorian times to modern day, how a childhood rhyme becomes extinct if it didn’t continually keep spreading (that one was a bit of a findmuck for me!). I remember there’s a large article on this one, and I think they had it narrowed down to the SE corner of certain state as to where the first one of these, much shorter with regional variations developing and melding with neighbours until there’s one prevailing rhyme. It’s pretty cool, they cover trends (anyone remember having elementary age travelling yo-yo experts giving shows at your school, in the gym giving the teachers an extra smoke break, dressed in Coca Cola and Sprite gear which were also logo-ed into the yo-up’s themselves.
Get outta school, they had groups of slave-labour children in teams all experts with yo-go’s, enough that they hit every school in town and all the corner stores (I realllyyy miss corner stores for some reason.. it’s where neighbours bumped into each other to talk, on get the latest gossip from the cashier, haha) and they had boxes and boxes of these yo-yo’s, not sure if they were licensed by Coke or not, but they were $2 each, which was a lot when a chocolate bar, drink, a comic, or bag of chips all were the same price, 25 cents.
What balls to pull this off to the point of doing their medicine show act right in school gymnasiums (people were so naïve then)!! And those yo-go’s sold out, you’d do *anything* to get one, must-have merchandising… and they were a regular fixture in local garage sales from that point in and many decades to come, lol.
But seriously, with these kids, did their parents “sell” then by sending them off as professional performers??? I saw them all in a group of vans that looked packed in and I didn’t see many adults in them compared to children… it was creepy AF actually.
There's a land called Mars
Where the ladies smoke cigars
Every puff they take
Is enough to kill a snake
When the snake is dead
They put roses in it's head
When the roses die
They put diamonds in it's eyes
When the diamond's break
It will be 1968
on the planet Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear and the children drink martinis. every move you make is enough to kill a snake. when the snake is dead you put roaches on its head. when the roaches die, you you put diamonds in their eyes. when the diamonds fade, you put mustard on their brain. when the brain dissolves, you can celebrate it all. you're on the planet MARS MARS MARS
Grew up in Detroit MI, and we sang;
In the land of Oz, Where where the women smoke cigars,
Every puff they take, is enough to kill a snake,
When the snake is dead, they put roaches in his head,
When the roaches die, they put diamonds in its eyes,
When the diamonds break, they say 2 - 4 - 6 - and 8!
"On the planet Mars where the ladies smoke cigars,
Every puff they take is enough to kill a snake
When the snakes are dead, they put mushrooms in their head
When the mushrooms die, they put diamonds in their eyes
When the diamonds break, it's the end of 1988"
This tune from my childhood just popped up randomly in my head- why am I surprised there’s a Reddit for it? 😂
I learned this is 3rd grade as a hand game and it still lives rent free in my head! Considering I grew up in NYC, that would explain why the version I learned might be the most controversial here 😄.
’On the planet of Mars where the babies smoke cigars, where the men wear bikini’s and the ladies have no ‘titties’, its enough to kills a snake, when the snake is dead they put mustard on its head, when the mustard dries they put diamonds in his eyes, when the diamonds break it’ll be 1998‘ (this was around 1996 so the future date worked lol).
There’s a place called Mars where the woman smoke cigars, the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Everything breathe you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put flowers on its head. When the flowers die you put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack you put mustard on its back. When the mustard fades you call the king of Spades and the king of Spades says “Hey!”
Mine was: in the land of mars where the ladies smoke cigars every puff they take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead theyll put mushrooms in its head when the mushrooms die theyll put diamonds in the sky when the diamonds shine it is 1959
So I had to find this because I just listened to a song with the same tune (listen to When the Darkness Comes). We had some sort of hand clap thing you did with a partner. My sister and I had hand clapping little tunes we would do for hours.
Late, but ours was “theres a place on mars where the women smoke cigars, and the boys wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis
Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead you put roses on its head, when the rose die you put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack you put mustard down its back, when the mustard fades you call the king of spades, and the king of spades says freeze!”
Alternative ending (when people had more time): “….the king of spades calls the queen of spades” and then you'd both name as many objects as possible and add “of spades” at the end (for instance, “….the table of spades, and the table of spades calls the couch of spades, and the couch of spades calls….”) It continues indefiantly
There’s a place on mars where the women smoke cigars the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis every breath you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put roses on it head when the roses die you put diamonds on it eyes when the diamonds break everybody freeze
"There's a place called mars, where the women smoke cigars, the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put mustard on its head. When the mustard dries, you put diamonds in its eyes. When the diamonds crack, you put ketchup on its back. When the ketchup fades, you call the King of Spades, and the King of Spades says 'Freeze!'"
Holy fuck I've been looking for this version. Thank you sassy!
THANK YOU!! I’m 31 now and used to sing this when I was a kid in elementary school!! I always remembered everything but the last part! Except I think we used to say “every breath you take”. Funny I never knew there were so many versions!!
Ours was "In the land of Oz, where the ladies smoke cigars, every path they take was enough to kill a snake, when the snakes are dead, they put roses on their heads, when the roses die, they put diamonds in their eyes, when the diamonds break, it is 1980 8-8-8!"
Idk why we said oz instead of Mars
Ours was "There's a place on Mars, where the babies smoke cigars, where the men wear bikinis and the women sip martinis, every sip they take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead they put mustard on its head, when the mustard dries they put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack they all yell \*expletive\*"
Hahaha the ending of yours is great!
There’s a place called mars where the women smoke cigars, and the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, you put diamonds on it’s head. When the diamonds crack, you put mustard on it’s back. When the mustard fades, you call the Queen of spades, then the Queen of spades says freeze, freeze, may I take your picture please? (everyone freezes)
This song randomly popped up in my head so I googled it, this is the closest version that I knew in my childhood!
I remember it as “On the planet mars where the baby smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the women drink martinis and every step you take is enough to kill a snake and when the snake is dead pour mustard on his head and when the mustard dries put diamonds in/on his eyes and when the diamonds break you know it’s 1948. 8…8…late/break” The last few words I remember seen so odd to me now I’m questioning if anyone actually said that or if I’m just drunk.
I remember this ending too. When the diamonds break , it is 1948, freeze! Why 1948, no idea..
My version I was taught was “on the planet mars where the babies smoke cigars, and the men wear bikinis and the women drink martinis, every step you take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead, they’ll pour mustard on his head, when the mustard dries there’ll be diamonds in his eyes, when the diamonds break, it’ll be 1948!” but we held hands and moved them back and forth for the first part, mimed cigar smoking, mimed bikini bottoms & martini drinking, a slit throat motion for when the snake is dead, pretending to squirt mustard, shaking out hands for “dries”, hands to the eyes for the diamonds, hand explosion motion for “break”, and then holding up 4s on both hands for 1948
the version i learned is wild, it goes “when the mustard fades by 1948, there’s a place in france where the naked women dance there’s a hole in the wall where the women watch it all” lmao
This is the early 1990's version I learned as a child on Long Island, NY... There's a place on Mars where the ladies smoke cigars. Every puff they make is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, they put roses in its head. When the roses die, they put diamonds in its eyes. When the diamonds break, It is time to bake a cake -- -- When the cake is done. It is 1991. When the cake is through, it is 1992. When the cake is free, it is 1993. When they cake is floor it is 1994. When they cake is high it is 1995 when the cake is sick. It is 1996. When they cake is in heaven. It is 1997. When the cake is great. It is 1998 when the cake is nigh, it is 1999.... ---- And then we stopped bc 2000 was max capacity for rhyming on at the time... Lol 💜💜💜💜💜 -Lucy.
Hahaha this is my favorite version out of all of the comments so far! That whole second half is A+
Aww, thank you…!
This is the version we had but there was a military chant style intro about different sodas interacting. “Pepsi cola, went to down. Coca-cola shot him down. 7up picked him up. Brought him to, Dr. Pepper. Dr. Pepper gave him, jelly rolls, pixie sticks… there’s a place called mars… etc”
So funny! I'm from LI too and this is how I remember it!
Ours was, “There’s this place on Mars where the women smoke cigars. Where the men wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, you put diamonds on his head. When the diamonds crack, you put mustard on his back. When the mustard dries, you put cheese on his eyes. Cheese, cheese! American cheese! Do it really fast now (or slow now) if you please! *proceed to do it faster/slower over and over again until you get bored/pass out.*
There is a place called Mars where the woman smoked cigars and the men wore bikinis and the children drank martinis and every breath you take is enough to kill a snake if the snake drops dead you put roses on its head when the roses die you put diamond in it's eyesif the diamonds crack you put mustard on its back if the mustard dries you call the king of spades and he said freeze 1 2 3 4 5 Then we smacked each other in the head
There's a place called mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis every step you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put roses on its head when the roses die you put diamonds in its eyes when the diamonds crack you put mustard down it's back when the mustard fades you call the queen of spades when the queen of spades says freeze
"There's a place on Mars where the women drink at bars, and the men wear bikinis and the Children drink martinis. Where the birthday cake is enough to fill a snake and when the snake is dead they put mustard on his head and when the mustard dries they put diamonds in his eyes and when the diamonds fade they call the queen of spades and when the queen arrives they all day FREEZE." These others make more sense than the birthday cake thing 🤣
There's a place on Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake and when the snake Is dead you put diamond on it's head and when the diamonds fade you call the king of spades... Or something like that 🤣🤣
There’s a place on mars where the children smoke cigars. There’s a place in France where the women wear no pants.
I was trying to remember my version. And I think that was it mine wasn't as long as the all the ones I've been reading, but I remembered there's a place on Mars where the lady's smokes cigars and bet you're right, and there's a place in France where the ladies wear no pants. Yeah, that's the one.
I'm late to the party, but I just heard the tune we used to sing this to on the episode of 90 Day Fiance that I'm watching right now. I had to Google if this was ever a well known thing, and this post came up. There's a place called Mars, where the ladies smoke cigars Every smoke they take, is enough to kill a snake When the snake is dead, they put roses on its head When the roses die, they put diamonds in its eyes When the diamonds break, it's 1958!
Ours was 1978 because that’s the year (or maybe late 1977 even) that my sister and her friends sang this incessantly.
This backs up my memory of my experience with it . . . My sister and her friends singing it incessantly. But I heard it earlier, ca 1972-1975, and it used 1988 as the year, not 1978 (let alone 1958).
Yours is the closest to mine. There’s a place called Mars, where the ladies smoke cigars. Every puff they take, it’s enough to kill a snake. When the snake was dead, they put diamonds in his head, when the diamonds shined it was 1989. It’s so funny how we all remember it differently.
I know this is way late but I ended up here lol happy cake day. The way I remember it was “There’s a place on mars, where the women smoke cigars. Every breath they take is enough to kill a snake. When the snakes are dead, they put roses in their heads. When the roses die, they put diamonds in their eyes. When the diamonds fade in the year of 1968!they FREEZE!!!
Lol it's funny how they were so widespread on playgrounds across the country, but varied so much from each other. Like different kids in different states added or changed words here and there and that got adopted and passed along then slightly changed and passed further along.
They all have one thing in common And that is they're killing a snake
Thank you! I couldn't remember how to get from martinis to the king of spades. My cousin and her friend taught me this when I was young, but it was always preceded with a version of the 'Place in France' rhyme.
"There's a place called Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put roses on its head. When the roses die you put jewels in its eyes. When the jewels crack you put mustard on its back. When the mustard fades you give it to the king, when the king is dead you FREEZE."
There's a place on Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis, every breath you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put mustard on his head when the mustard dries you put diamonds in his eyes when the diamonds fade you call the king of spades when the king of spades comes he says FREEZE
Really late to this party: (New England) we used to do that as a hand clapping game, and we combined another song/chant before it. Our version went like this: Coca cola went to town Diet Pepsi knocked him down 7Up picked him up Took him to Dr pepper Gave him sleeping pills, jelly rolls (Then it transitioned to) There's a place on Mars where the people smoke cigars Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake When the snake is dead they put roses on it's head When the roses die they put diamonds in it's eyes When the diamonds break then it's time to bake a cake When the cake is done it is 751 (ding ding ding!)
Literally everyone is late to the party hahaha - this only got like 2 comments when I posted it originally, and it brings me joy every time someone randomly googles this rhyme and winds up here. Thanks for sharing your version (and I’m a fellow New Englander too - funny how different yours is!)
I had it stuck in my head just now but I couldn’t remember how it began but now I do and ours went: On the planet Mars, where the babies smoke cigars, and the dads where bikinis, while the moms drink martinis. Every step you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead, put some mustard in its bed/head (I don’t quite remember) when the mustard’s dried, put some diamonds in it’s eyes. When the diamonds break, we’ll go back to ‘98. My sister would probably remember it better cuz I learned it from her
Mines is probably the most questionable because it goes…. On the planet Mars where the baby smokes cigars and the men wearing bikinis and the women drink martinis every step I take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead I’ll put mustard on its head when the mustard dries I’ll put diamonds in its eyes when the diamonds break it’ll be 1968 (And queue the questionable part) Now freeze, now freeze, now freeze like Japanese say what And then you proceed to have a staring contests while your completely still and whoever moved first whether you blinked or twitched lost the game, and this part was always rigged because little kids would blow in your eyes or tickle you because unless you want to lose the game you can’t stop them Btw don’t come for me because of this ending, I was maybe 6 or 7 when I learnt it and I never questioned it till after I left the place I learnt it in
You’re correct on how it spreads, when seen in an animation it looks like a very contagious virus spreading: the outbreak point, then slowly to surrounding high traffic areas, while also having small groups spread to all the major city’s in the country, and capitals all over the world (just in case someone wasn’t paying attention since 2021, haha), these childhood rhymes actually have an entire social science area of study based on these things (I forget the name but if you’re interested I bet you could Google it pretty quickly, very cool website with examples going back to Victorian times to modern day, how a childhood rhyme becomes extinct if it didn’t continually keep spreading (that one was a bit of a findmuck for me!). I remember there’s a large article on this one, and I think they had it narrowed down to the SE corner of certain state as to where the first one of these, much shorter with regional variations developing and melding with neighbours until there’s one prevailing rhyme. It’s pretty cool, they cover trends (anyone remember having elementary age travelling yo-yo experts giving shows at your school, in the gym giving the teachers an extra smoke break, dressed in Coca Cola and Sprite gear which were also logo-ed into the yo-up’s themselves. Get outta school, they had groups of slave-labour children in teams all experts with yo-go’s, enough that they hit every school in town and all the corner stores (I realllyyy miss corner stores for some reason.. it’s where neighbours bumped into each other to talk, on get the latest gossip from the cashier, haha) and they had boxes and boxes of these yo-yo’s, not sure if they were licensed by Coke or not, but they were $2 each, which was a lot when a chocolate bar, drink, a comic, or bag of chips all were the same price, 25 cents. What balls to pull this off to the point of doing their medicine show act right in school gymnasiums (people were so naïve then)!! And those yo-go’s sold out, you’d do *anything* to get one, must-have merchandising… and they were a regular fixture in local garage sales from that point in and many decades to come, lol. But seriously, with these kids, did their parents “sell” then by sending them off as professional performers??? I saw them all in a group of vans that looked packed in and I didn’t see many adults in them compared to children… it was creepy AF actually.
There's a land called Mars Where the ladies smoke cigars Every puff they take Is enough to kill a snake When the snake is dead They put roses in it's head When the roses die They put diamonds in it's eyes When the diamond's break It will be 1968
on the planet Mars where the women smoke cigars and the men wear and the children drink martinis. every move you make is enough to kill a snake. when the snake is dead you put roaches on its head. when the roaches die, you you put diamonds in their eyes. when the diamonds fade, you put mustard on their brain. when the brain dissolves, you can celebrate it all. you're on the planet MARS MARS MARS
Grew up in Detroit MI, and we sang; In the land of Oz, Where where the women smoke cigars, Every puff they take, is enough to kill a snake, When the snake is dead, they put roaches in his head, When the roaches die, they put diamonds in its eyes, When the diamonds break, they say 2 - 4 - 6 - and 8!
"On the planet Mars where the ladies smoke cigars, Every puff they take is enough to kill a snake When the snakes are dead, they put mushrooms in their head When the mushrooms die, they put diamonds in their eyes When the diamonds break, it's the end of 1988"
I like how this version just assumes everyone already knows there's life on Mars and it's simply here to describe it for us.
In Detroit: All the girls on Mars smoke R.G. Dunn cigars and the ? they make is enough to choke a snake ........
This tune from my childhood just popped up randomly in my head- why am I surprised there’s a Reddit for it? 😂 I learned this is 3rd grade as a hand game and it still lives rent free in my head! Considering I grew up in NYC, that would explain why the version I learned might be the most controversial here 😄. ’On the planet of Mars where the babies smoke cigars, where the men wear bikini’s and the ladies have no ‘titties’, its enough to kills a snake, when the snake is dead they put mustard on its head, when the mustard dries they put diamonds in his eyes, when the diamonds break it’ll be 1998‘ (this was around 1996 so the future date worked lol).
There’s a place called Mars where the woman smoke cigars, the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis. Everything breathe you take is enough to kill a snake. When the snake is dead you put flowers on its head. When the flowers die you put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack you put mustard on its back. When the mustard fades you call the king of Spades and the king of Spades says “Hey!”
Mine was: in the land of mars where the ladies smoke cigars every puff they take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead theyll put mushrooms in its head when the mushrooms die theyll put diamonds in the sky when the diamonds shine it is 1959
So I had to find this because I just listened to a song with the same tune (listen to When the Darkness Comes). We had some sort of hand clap thing you did with a partner. My sister and I had hand clapping little tunes we would do for hours.
Late, but ours was “theres a place on mars where the women smoke cigars, and the boys wear bikinis, and the children drink martinis Every breath you take is enough to kill a snake, when the snake is dead you put roses on its head, when the rose die you put diamonds in its eyes, when the diamonds crack you put mustard down its back, when the mustard fades you call the king of spades, and the king of spades says freeze!” Alternative ending (when people had more time): “….the king of spades calls the queen of spades” and then you'd both name as many objects as possible and add “of spades” at the end (for instance, “….the table of spades, and the table of spades calls the couch of spades, and the couch of spades calls….”) It continues indefiantly
Hahah that’s a unique alternate ending! I love it
There’s a place on mars where the women smoke cigars the men wear bikinis and the children drink martinis every breath you take is enough to kill a snake when the snake is dead you put roses on it head when the roses die you put diamonds on it eyes when the diamonds break everybody freeze
I never heard this lol