Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill at Nursery Rhyme School.

Kermit interviews Jack in a Sesame Street News Flash.

Slimey and Glo Worm as Jack and Jill.

Wegman's dogs reenact the rhyme.

Elmo and Zoe as Jack and Jill.

Jack and Jill is a nursery rhyme which was first published in the eighteenth century. There is no clear origin to the rhyme, with many theories looking at mythology and royalty as influences.

Adaptations

• The story of "Jack & Jill" was told in a segment of Mother Goose Stories.

• William Wegman used his dogs for a recreation of the rhyme in a Sesame Street insert. (EKA: Episode 3491)

Recordings

• Kermit sings the song in the sing-along book-and-tape set Sing Me a Story!

• The Sesame Street Music Box Record Player by Fisher-Price features a record that plays a musical rendition of the rhyme.

• Oscar sings the song as part of a Grouch Medley in the album Kids' Favorite Songs.

References

• Kermit the Frog reported live from the scene in a "Sesame Street News Flash" sketch. Jack needs someone to go up the hill with him. First he chooses Mervin, then Francine and Gladys the Cow. Finally Jack chooses a pampered looking Jill, who refuses go up the hill with him again, so he asks Kermit to fill in. (EKA: Episode 1071) Here Jack is a Lavender Anything Muppet in a green vest, and Jill is a Green Muppet wearing sunglasses and an old-fashioned bonnet.

• Jack (Martin P. Robinson) and Jill (Stephanie D'Abruzzo, and later Carmen Osbahr) attend Storybook Community School on Sesame Street (in season 36 and 37) with other famous characters from children's literature and nursery rhymes.

• In the Sesame Street video Elmo and Abby's Birthday Fun!, accident prone Jack reveals that he is the Jack in Little Jack Horner, Jack and Jill and Jack and the Beanstalk.

• A 2007 Sesame Street book, Guess Who, Abby!, features Elmo and Zoe as the twosome.

• Jack and Jill also appear in the 2007 book Abby Cadabby's Rhyme Time, rhyming "tumble" with Jack's grumpy "grumble".

• Nursery Rhyme Day is the theme of a 2001 episode of Sesame Street. Slimey and Glo Worm take on the roles of Jack and Jill, who take so long to climb up the hill that Big Bird changes the story to have them climb up the clock from Hickory Dickory Dock instead.

• The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes & Fairy Tales has the Muppet Babies taking on the rhyme.

• Elmo has an Uncle Jack and Aunt Jill.

• The Sesame Street Library Volume 11 feature Ernie and Bert as Jack and Jill.

• Two monsters named Jack and Jill sing "Scratch My Back."

• Abby Cadabby is reading the book in a 2007 episode of Sesame Street.

• Super Grover and Baby Bear slide down a hill on sleds, while Jack and Jill come tumbling after in the book Friendly, Frosty Monsters.

• In a 1993 episode of Sesame Street, Mother Goose, played by Judith Ivey, reveals to Maria that Jill grew up to be a doctor.

• Episode 3081 of Sesame Street features Bob teaching Telly Monster how to read with a book of nursery rhymes, but Telly can already identify Jack and Jill in the book.

• The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 7 features Ernie, Betty Lou and Professor Hastings in the rhyme.