For some reason that song "Do You Know the Muffin Man" popped into my head the other day.  You know what I'm talking about, right?  Wait... do YOU know the Muffin Man?  

In case you don't, the entire song consists of people asking each other if they know the Muffin Man and then confirming that, in fact, they do.  They even know that he lives in Drury Lane, which seems a bit stalker-ish to me.  

Anyway the more I thought about it, it's a kind of weird song.  I don't know where it came from exactly, but I'm assuming it's intended for kids since it's catchy and repetitive and there doesn't seem to be a lot of point to it.  Why does everyone want to know if everyone else knows the Muffin Man anyway?  There's no follow-up to the question.  It's just like, you know him, right?  Yep.  Oh, good.  We both know him.

Well, now my curiosity is piqued so I'm going to go look up the origins of the song.  Be right back with whatever info I discover...

All right, well, I didn't find too much and I didn't want to dig forever, but it looks like it's English in origin, dates back to at least 1820 when the earliest known written version of it comes from, and is largely just a song/game for kids.  I guess muffins used to be commonly delivered in Victorian England and that's probably who the Muffin Man is, although I did see a possibility that he could have been a vagabond, aka "ragamuffin."  

All in all, it seems to just be a silly song/game for kids and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.  Although the one remaining thing that feels weird about singing it is I have to totally act like I know who this Muffin Man is, when in all reality I don't know this dude.  Why am I saying I know him when I totally don't?  

Yeah, it's a weird song.