Little Jack Horner

PERFORMER	various
PATTERN	Green

InsideSS-3 — Katie Couric interviewing Jack.

4098e — Goldilocks sticks in her thumb and pulls out a plum.

Little Jack Horner is a nursery rhyme which was first published in 1764 but dates back further. Legend ties the rhyme to Thomas Horner, steward to the last abbot of Glastonbury, who transported a pie with deeds to a dozen manors hidden in it, discovering the deeds during his journey.

Adaptations[]

The rhyme was adapted for an episode of Mother Goose Stories.

William Wegman reenacts the rhyme with one of his dogs in a Sesame Street insert. (First: Episode 3460)

References[]

Little Jack Horner has made several appearances on Sesame Street as a Muppet character, usually performed by Jerry Nelson and later by Matt Vogel.
- In the Colambo segment titled "Colambo: The Great Plum Plunder," Colambo decides to have a piece of Christmas pie, when he notices a plum missing from it. He asks the janitor, Little Jack Horner (Nelson), some questions about what he was doing in the corner. It turns out that Jack had stuck in his thumb and pulled out the plum. (First: Episode 3121)
- In Episode 3329, Katie Couric interviews Jack (Nelson) in Hooper's Store for a "Inside Sesame Street" news segment. Jack has recently given up eating with his thumb and has tried using parts of his face to eat his pie, with less-than-satisfactory results: he stuck in his hair and pulled out a pear, then stuck in his snout and pulled out a trout, etc. He vows to make a comeback, however, then sticks his thumb in the pie and accidentally flings a plum into Katie's eye.
- In Episode 3591, Jack (Peter Linz) comes to the aid of Baby Bear, who can't stop sucking his thumb. He convinces Baby Bear to try pulling out a plum from his pie instead. Baby Bear's problem is solved only until Jack reveals that he sucks on the plum after he pulls it out.
- In Episode 4098, Prairie Dawn is reporting for "Nursery Rhyme News," where Goldilocks is ruining nursery rhymes. As Jack (Vogel) recites his poem, and prepares to stick his thumb into the pie, Goldilocks beats him to the punch, pulling out the plum.
- In Episode 4523, Little Jack Horner (Vogel) appears to perform his rhyme, but claims he's "plumb tired" of pulling plums from pies. Big Bird suggests to Mother Goose (Tina Fey) that he change his rhyme. In the revised rhyme, he tries Mexican food instead.

In The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 11, Little Jack Horner pulls out a Rhinoceros in "Big Bird's Ridiculous Rhinoceros Rhymes."

Count von Count is seen re-enacting the rhyme in Grover's Book of Colors.

In the Sesame Street computer game Numbers, Reporter Kermit covers the story of Little Jack Horner eating his Christmas pie, after an entire year of sitting in a corner. Kermit is surprised when Horner pulls out a plum, but is underwhelmed when Horner (voiced by Frank Oz) responds in his usual manner: "Oh, what a good boy am I!"

When Mother Goose, played by Judith Ivey, visits Sesame Street in Episode 3057, she reveals to Maria that Jack grew up to be a cook.

Jodie Foster directs Telly in a reciting of the poem in a Sesame Street insert. (First: Episode 3079)

Oscar is Jack in Sesame Street's Mother Goose Rhymes, where he eats some anchovy pie and tells Big Bird to go away.

Jack appears in the storybook Around the Corner on Sesame Street.

In the Sesame Street video Let's Eat!: Funny Food Songs, it is revealed that Little Jack Horner is a patron of Planet Storybook. Though not seen, he is verbally mentioned by Mr. Johnson, who spies him sitting in the corner (as usual).

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.