Context

This line is sung by a chorus of creepy children in the film A Nightmare on Elm Street, directed by Wes Craven (1984).

A Nightmare on Elm Street is about a crazy killer (Freddy Kruger, you may have heard of him) stalking teenagers and murdering them in their dreams. Because kids are fascinated with death, they turn this legend into a jump-rope rhyme, because nothing motivates you to jump-rope like bloodshed.

Like when Lizzie Borden took and axe and gave her mother forty whacks, the kids in Nightmare take the "one, two, buckle my shoe" rhyme and update it, adding much-needed terror to make it compelling. (Although we'd be terrified of anyone wearing shoes that have buckles on them.)

Where you've heard it

You've heard this if you've ever engaged in playground games with morbid children—either that or when you're getting ready to marathon A Nightmare on Elm Street numbers 1-97 (or however many of those movies there are now).

Additional Notable References:

• DMX sampled this tune in "X is Coming"

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This is less pretentious than making a nursery rhyme remix from a real-life murder like Lizzie Borden.