tweedledum and tweedledee

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Tweedledum and Tweedledee are fictional characters in an English language nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19800.

Lyrics

Common versions of the nursery rhyme include:

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

    Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

    Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

    As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so,

    They quite forgot their quarrel.^[1]

Origins

The words "Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee" make their first appearance in print in "one of the most celebrated and most frequently quoted (and sometimes misquoted) epigrams", satirising the disagreements between George Frideric Handel and Giovanni Battista Bononcini, written by John Byrom (1692–1763):^[2],

Some say, compar'd to Bononcini

That Mynheer Handel's but a Ninny

Others aver, that he to Handel

Is scarcely fit to hold a Candle

Strange all this Difference should be

'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee!^[3]

Although Byrom is clearly the author of the epigram, the last two lines have also been attributed to Johnathan Swift and Alexander Pope.^[1] Although the rhyme in its familiar form was not printed until around 1805, when it appeared in Original Ditties for the Nursery, it is possible that Byrom was drawing on an existing rhyme.^[4]

Lewis Carroll and John Tenniel

John Tenniel's illustration of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, from Through the Looking-Glass (1871), chapter 4

The characters are perhaps best known from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There. Carroll, having introduced two fat little men named Tweedledum and Tweedledee, quotes the nursery rhyme, which the two brothers then go on to enact. They agree to have a battle, but never have one. When they see a monstrous black crow swooping down, they take to their heels. The Tweedle brothers never contradict each other, even when one of them, according to the rhyme, "agrees to have a battle". Rather, they complement each other's words. This fact has led Tenniel to assume that they are twins also physically, and Gardner goes so far as to claim that Carroll intended them to be enantiomorphs, i.e., three-dimensional mirror images. Evidence for these assumptions cannot be found in any of Lewis Carroll's writings^[4]

The two characters appeared in Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland despite the fact that the movie was mostly based on the first book.^[5] They are often represented by actors in Disney theme Parks. The Disney versions of the characters also appeared in a brief cameo during the final scene of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.^[6]

Other references in popular culture

In literature and letters

• In a letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver the writer James Joyce uses the twins "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" to characterize Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung and their conflict: "... a certain Doctor Jung (the Swiss Tweedledum who is not to be confused with the Viennese Tweedledee, Dr. Freud) ..." (James Joyce: Letter to Harriet Shaw Weaver. 24 June 1921).

• They appear as the character 'General Doppelganger' in Frank Beddor's 2007 novel The Looking Glass Wars.

On television

• In the show Arrested Development (2003-6), Michael Bluth makes reference to Tweedledee and Tweedledum, after which the narrator explains that Michael did not "mean it in that way...how could he? He didn't even know."^[7]

• In the anime Kiddy Grade two fraternal twins called Tweedledee and Tweedledum appear. The twins also have a guard robot called "Dodo" as well as a spaceship named "C-Square", which stands for Cheshire Cat, both taken from Alice's Adventure in Wonderland.

In comics and manga

• In DC Comics, two long-time Batman villains call themselves Tweedledum and Tweedledee , because they are cousins that happen to be identical and very similar to the original versions. Their true names, appropriately, are Deever and Dumfree Tweed. They occasionally appear as henchmen of the Joker, but just as often operate solo. They first appeared in Detective Comics #74.

• They also appear as bosses in American McGee's Alice working for the Mad Hatter.

In politics

• During the 2000 United States presidential election, candidate Ralph Nader pointed out that George W. Bush and Al Gore were not very different in their corporate policies,^[8] and called them Tweedledum and Tweedledee.^[9]

In popular music

• The video of Nik Kershaw's "The Riddle" (1984) features characters who resemble Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

• "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum" features as the opening song on Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft.^[10]

Notes