I Asked 64,182 People About “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells”. Here's What I Found Out.

Summary by Krater

Tom Scott investigates whether popular culture references like The Simpsons changed which version of the lyrics to the children's song "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" people use, analyzing data from tens of thousands of respondents across English-speaking countries.

From the video

Answers: Did The Simpsons change the lyrics people sing to Jingle Bells, Batman Smells?

• Jingle Bells Batman Smells
• The Simpsons
• children's playground rhymes
• linguistic survey data
• regional variation in song lyrics

What it concludes

• The Simpsons measurably changed which version of Jingle Bells Batman Smells was popular.
• People in the United States and Canada overwhelmingly sing the version where Robin laid an egg.
• The version where Robin flew away is much more prevalent in the UK, where data shows a peak starting from the mid-1980s corresponding to when The Simpsons aired.
• Regional variations in playground rhymes, as documented by Iona and Peter Opie, show vast differences between American homogeneity and British localized variants.