Easy peasy lemon squeezy

    • Hello. I think that the authentic version is: "Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Wash your bum in lemon Squeezy". (it was a detergent with a bizarre spelling)

    You would chant this as a child in the playground at school, certainly in the UK (at any point in the last fifty years).

    I'm not sure if this practice has died out.

    Maybe you could keep it alive.
     
    Well, the meaning is obvious, but I do know one thing about it-- I heard it on TV last night. I think it was a Discovery-channel bit about the construction of an aircraft-carrier, modular-style, by robot cranes and computerized blueprints.

    And today, a post about the expression, from Russia. The day has half arrived when that damned Boob Tube will be gushing with the same swill no matter where in the world you live.

    It's a conduit, but one we'll have to find ways of keeping clean. A herculean task? Or easy peasy lemon squeazy?
    .
     
    When? whenever they feel something to be within their range of abilities.

    Why? because children get up to all sorts of mischief.
     
    Lucretia said:
    Thanks, still I can't understand when and why children say so.
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    Imagine a child in the school playground beating another child at a game. In a taunting, gloating way they might say: "Ha ha, beat you. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!"

    But equally, a mother might use it to a child, maybe after successfully convincing them to do something they were reluctant to do:

    "There, that wasn't difficult. Easy peasy lemon squeezy."

    The phrase itself makes no real sense, except for the word "easy". Don't take it literally.
     
    what would adults say instead of easy peasy lemon squeezy?
    I've been saying it currently, without knowing it was a childish way of saying.
    I am blushing....:eek:
     
    Lucretia said:
    Thanks, still I can't understand when and why children say so.
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    It's a fun thing to say (a matter of opinion, of course). It's basically playing with language and making rhymes. So when children say it they say it because it's fun to say! Children are always playing with language, exploring it and changing it.

    Or to put it in another ways, they're silly billies, like me ;)
     
    Yes, 'don't care' could be expressed as: don't mind/doesn't matter/no mind/whatever/whichever/couldn't give a damn/couldn't care less..
     
    chesty said:
    Hello. I think that the authentic version is: "Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Wash your bum in lemon Squeezy". (it was a detergent with a bizarre spelling)

    You would chant this as a child in the playground at school, certainly in the UK (at any point in the last fifty years).
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    I like it, Chesty. I grew up in Lancashire in the 60s and have no recollection of it. I do recall the detergent, which was spelled Sqeezy, for reasons known best to the manufacturers.
     
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    I grew up in Cheshire in the late sixties and seventies, and I remember the shortened version well. I like Chesty's version, although I don't recall ever hearing it before. I should point out that I live in California now, so it's influence is spreading around the globe. The Mexican housekeeper where I work is one of the people that has picked it up and started to use it.
     
    chesty said:
    Hello. I think that the authentic version is: "Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Wash your bum in lemon Squeezy". (it was a detergent with a bizarre spelling)

    You would chant this as a child in the playground at school, certainly in the UK (at any point in the last fifty years).

    I'm not sure if this practice has died out.

    Maybe you could keep it alive.
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    I've got to point out... that this would be very offensive to lots of people saying "Easy, peasy, Japanesey. Wash your bum in lemon Squeezy".

    Think I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't point it out.
    I find it offensive at least.
     
    I saw your post and would appreciate some clarification as to why you state this phrase is offensive. Having lived six years in Japan and now married (14 years) to a Japanese woman with two beautiful, mixed race children, I consider my sensitivity to racial slurs rather acute. However, I have yet to find any historical evidence that this phrase was used as a racial slur. Please enlighten me with what you have uncovered in your research.
     
    Can anyone shed light on the relevance of the "Japanesey" inclusion in the "original" version from post #5??

    ICU812
    I am also married to a wonderful Japanese woman , from an interned family incidentally, so also sensitive to slurs. I don't think jameh0 was suggesting this was intended and used as a slur or insult when it was being used.

    When I read the phrase, my PC (political correctness) light came on and I wondered why the word Japanese was in the jingle. Is it appropriate, could it cause offence, what does it mean? Is it innocuous and used solely for rhyme and meter, or is there an implication about Japanese here somewhere? Does it mean they are to be complimented on their cleanliness, or should clean more? The potential for slur is there (recognized these days, but maybe not back then, in a manner similar to the words like gypped, welshed, jewed etc.). Those words have, thankfully, largely dropped out of use, for obvious reasons. Perhaps this reaction reflects on me and my world view, but you'd be surprised, or maybe not, how many people still use the word Jap as a derogatory term and how insulting it is, whether used by someone intending to insult or just not being aware that it is perceived that way.
     
    JulianStuart said:
    Is it innocuous and used solely for rhyme and meter [...]?
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    That was my reaction: this is a children's nonsense rhyme, after all:)

    ICU812, I somehow doubt you'll get an answer from Jameh0 - he hasn't visited since he posted the comment you reacted to. In any event, welcome to the forums!
     
    Loob said:
    That was my reaction: this is a children's nonsense rhyme, after all:)
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    Thanks! I finally noticed (d'oh) the dates of the original posts (it kept coming up on g**gle!) I agree it is nothing more than rhyme and meter, with no real reference to Japanese.

    It has shown up in a Japanese pop-song, by the way, possibly in a dubious context :eek: : "You are easy breezy and I am Japanesey"

    Austin Powers made it dubious also by getting it wrong "Easy squeezy, lemon peasey :D

    Also a possible name for an incarnation of Ubuntu - Easy Peasy and the Japan localized version is.... you guessed it :D
     
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    Moderator note: I have deleted some very well written posts about topics unrelated to the question in the first post. I apologize to those who put careful thought and effort into writing those posts, but we need to stay on or at least near the subject of the thread.
     
    We say this all the time in the family when we're teasing each other - not don't use it out of the family. But I hadn't realised its apparent origins with the washing-up liquid Sqezy (surely it's been overtaken by Fairy Liquid now; ewie: it's spelt with a single <e>, and available in this part of the world!). According to this,

    The brand first appeared on the shelves in 1964 as "easy peasy lemon sqezy" washing up liquid.
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    So did the phrase originate here or did it pre-date Sqezy?
     
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