One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest..

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest..

Whats the meaning of this phrase?

It is the title of a book by Ken Kesey and a movie based on the book. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" is my favorite movie so I should know the answer, but I don't. The book is set in a mental hospital. That probably explains the "cuckoo" and it is about escaping from there literally and figuratively.

Spark Notes has a summary, etc. I took a quick look and didn't find anything about the title. www.sparknotes.com/ film/cuckoo/

But I did find this on another site www.epinions.com/ content_14526418564:

The title "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" refers to a shock therapy-induced recollection of a childhood game the Chief (an patient) played with his grandmother. The game centered around a quixotic chant whose elements represent OFOTCN's 3 main characters, and their respective conflicts and polarities. The lyrics are as follows:

"Tingle, Tingle, Tangle Toes
She's a good fisherman
Catches hens, puts'em inna pens
Wier blier, limber lock
Three geese inna flock
One flew east, One flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
O-U-T spells out
Goose swoops down and plucks you out.

Although this may have nothing to do with the meaning of the nursery rhyme, most European cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests and build no nests of their own. The baby cuckoo is raised by parents of a different species along with their own babies but usually grows more quickly than its non-cuckoo nest-mates and pushes them out to die.

Though I suspect it's unrelated to this phrase, or the rhyme, 'The Cuckoo's Nest' is also a euphemism for the female genitalia, at least in the folk song of that name.