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File:MadlHatterByTenniel.svg

The Mad Hatter reciting, as illustrated by John Tenniel

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is a poem recited by the Mad Hatter in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".[1]

Text[]

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!
Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!

Context[]

The Hatter is interrupted in his recitation by the Dormouse. "The Bat" was the nickname of Professor Bartholomew Price, one of the Dons at Oxford, a former teacher of Carroll's and well known to Alice Liddell's family.[citation needed]

Other appearances[]

The poem was sung in Disney's Alice in Wonderland film. In it, the Dormouse drowsily recited it at the tea party. The poem was later sung again at Alice's trial, and taken down as "important" evidence.

The poem was sung in the 1999 film by the Hatter (Martin Short) as a sort of "encore" to his singing performances.

The poem is also used in the Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Halloween special entitled "Madness". It is read aloud by the Mad Hatter, one of the villains in the series. It can be found in the Haunted Knight Collection written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale.

In the 1995 film Batman Forever, the character Riddler tells Batman, "twinkle twinkle little bat / how I wonder where you're at." Mad March (the March Hare) also says the first two lines to Hatter in the 2009 miniseries.

In Tim Burton's 2010 film version of Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter leads the March Hare and Dormouse in a recitation of this poem in an attempt to distract Stayne from discovering Alice.

References[]

  1. Gardner, Martin (1998). The Annotated Alice. Random House. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-517-18920-7. 
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