Image Odyssey: The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon
My kindred spirit Cat referred to Spoon Theory today in a kind comment about my health. I immediately wanted to symbolically give her a special spoon, and the best way I could think to do so was with an image search for the most bizarre renditions of the final Hey Diddle Diddle lines.
Even as a child, I thought this Mother Goose nursery rhyme was truly ridiculous. I guess all nursery rhymes are. But if you need a refresher for this one:
Turns out anthropomorphized plates and flatware inspire a wide spectrum of artistic interpretation, both vintage and modern. Take a look!
SheWalksSoftly 
August 2, 2015 at 11:13 pm
So cool! I like how people work out the ambiguity of whether or not the dish and the spoon have genders and which one is which. Also cool to see the one with the spoon howling in protest. That’s a totally legitimate interpretation!
August 8, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Yeah, so interesting to see the various interpretations.
August 2, 2015 at 11:44 pm
I’ve always had a thing for this verse, so I treasure my copy of an old, poignant, New Yorker Cartoon based on it that I clipped out many years ago. Prints are for sale on their website now. Thinking links might not make it into comments, you could find it by searching the Conde Nast Store for Leo Cullum, item #8473309.
August 8, 2015 at 1:12 pm
I looked it up and it brought me to a list of 968 cartoons! Now I’m so curious though…
August 29, 2018 at 8:34 pm
I’ve got an idea about ‘the cow jumped over the moon’….I think that refers to an item of faith from Egyptian/Babylonian lore, explaining how we got the Milky Way. Other than the canard that fiddle strings were made of catgut, I’ve nothing else on the jingle, and I’ve known it almost all my life.