Seven Beloved Nursery Rhymes With Dark Meanings

By Kaleena Fraga | Edited By Jaclyn Anglis

Published October 13, 2023

Updated December 4, 2024

The Dark Potential Meaning Behind The Muffin Man Nursery Rhyme

Public DomainThe nursery rhyme about the Muffin Man might have a surprisingly dark meaning.

At first glance, the Muffin Man seems like an uncontroversial figure. The nursery rhyme gives scant details, suggesting only his gender (man), occupation (muffin seller), and home address (Drury Lane). But an odd internet theory has recently suggested that the Muffin Man was a serial killer.

This rumor has percolated in strange corners of the web in recent years, appearing in places like TikTok and Uncyclopedia, which is a parody of Wikipedia. There, it’s claimed that the Muffin Man was a 16th-century muffin seller and a vicious murderer named Frederick Thomas Lynwood.

Lynwood allegedly used his muffin business to kill. These sources state that he would tie a muffin to a string, then lure an unsuspecting victim close enough for him to beat them to death with a spoon. Lynwood himself purportedly avoided arrest all his life, and died after choking on food.

Public DomainSome have claimed that the Muffin Man was actually a 16th-century serial killer named Frederick Thomas Lynwood.

But when it comes to nursery rhymes with secretly dark meanings, does this one stand up? Was the Muffin Man really a violent serial killer?

According to Snopes, this claim is unproven. Theories about the Muffin Man being a serial killer are pure speculation. Though people on TikTok have claimed that Lynwood was London’s first known serial killer, that title actually belongs to Mary Ann Cotton, a Victorian woman who killed 11 of her children and three of her husbands to collect insurance payments.

Rather, it’s most likely that the nursery rhyme about the Muffin Man is a simple reference to 19th-century food vendors. The tune was first documented in 1820, and around that time, Londoners often bought food from vendors on the street. They worked long hours and often had no kitchens, so it was easiest to pick up a muffin (which would have been more like an English muffin than a sweet American muffin) to eat.

author

A senior staff writer for All That's Interesting since 2021 and co-host of the History Uncovered Podcast, Kaleena Fraga graduated with a dual degree in American History and French Language and Literature from Oberlin College. She previously ran the presidential history blog History First, and has had work published in The Washington Post, Gastro Obscura, and elsewhere. She has published more than 1,200 pieces on topics including history and archaeology. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

editor

Based in Brooklyn, New York, Jaclyn Anglis is the senior managing editor at All That's Interesting, where she has worked since 2019. She holds a Master's degree in journalism from the City University of New York and a dual Bachelor's degree in English writing and history from DePauw University. In a career that spans 11 years, she has also worked with the New York Daily News, Bustle, and Bauer Xcel Media. Her interests include American history, true crime, modern history, and science.

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Fraga, Kaleena. "A Serial Killer, The Bubonic Plague, And Human Sacrifice: The Chilling Backstories Behind Seven Nursery Rhymes." AllThatsInteresting.com, October 13, 2023, https://allthatsinteresting.com/nursery-rhymes-with-dark-meanings. Accessed August 2, 2025.