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Ring the other one

Posted by Masakim on January 03, 2002

In Reply to: Ring the other one posted by R. Berg on January 03, 2002

: : Any help with the derivation of "Ring the other one it's got bells on". Anything to do with the women's fashion of wearing bells in their garters during the Twenties & Thirties?

: From Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day:

: "'pull the other one, it's got bells on it!', occ. prec. by 'now'. 'A rejoinder to a fanciful statement or a tall story. "We don't believe it. Pull the other leg, it has bells on it"' (Granville, 1969).
: Frank Shaw attributed it to the 1920s. . . .
: Presumably from pictures of court jesters, wearing cap and bells."

Does it have something to do with the following nursery rhyme?

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music whenever she goes.
--Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1784.

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