Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Rubber Room. A Rubber Room With Rats. And Rats Make Me Crazy.
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About
Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Rubber Room. A Rubber Room With Rats. And Rats Make Me Crazy is a copypasta that loops the aforementioned line. While the origins of the meme likely predate the modern internet, variations of the poem have been posted on the internet since at least 2002. Versions of the copypasta also include replacing "rats" with "ducks" or extending the poem with further lines and rhymes.
Origin
The earliest known internet post featuring a version of the "Crazy? I was crazy once" copypasta is a March 30th, 2002, post by user 3Suns on the website Everything2.com under the category "songs designed to annoy" (seen below).[1]
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They put me in a room.
A rubber room.
A rubber room with rats.
They put me in a rubber room with rubber rats.
Rubber rats? I hate rubber rats.
They make me crazy.
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They put me in a room….
Spread
On October 16th, 2007, YouTuber[7] @Scarlet Grunt posted a video reciting the poem, gathering over 140,000 views in 15 years (seen below).
Versions of the poem made appearances on internet blogs in 2015, with WordPress user briegonda writing a blog[2] post recounting her use of the lines as a child (seen below, left). On November 22nd, 2015, the website[3] ScaryForKids then posted a longer version of the poem (seen below, right).
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They put me in a rubber room.
A round rubber room
And told me to sit in the corner.
Corner? There was no corner
So I sat in the middle of the floor
Surrounded by rats.
Rat? I can't stand rats.
They tickled my feet.
They made me laugh.
I laughed so hard I thought I would die
Die? I did die in there.
They buried me in a hole.
A hole six feet under the ground
And that's when the worms came.
Worms? I hate worms.
They burrowed into my skull And started to eat my brain.
They drove me crazy!
Crazy? I was crazy once.
They put me in a rubber room.
A round rubber room
And told me to sit in the corner.
In 2016 and 2017, the poem made an appearance on Reddit in the /r/copypasta[4][5] subreddit, as well as AminoApp's anime forums.[6] On May 18th, 2018, streamer Kryoz[8] posted a video titled, "Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room! – PUBG," gathering over 700,000 views in five years (seen below).
On July 26th, 2018, Redditor[9] /u/Alex_Krapanos posted to /r/Poems by claiming to have written to the poem in 4th grade. The post received a reply[10] from /u/Faremir that alleged that the earliest internet post of the poem can be traced to a 1996 post on the Usenet alt.support.depression (seen below).
![88 I Was Crazy Once [Original 2008] (self.Poems) submitted 4 years ago * (last edited 4 years ago) by Alex_Kapranos 41 comments source share save hide give award report crosspost hide all child comments navigate by sorted by: top you are viewing a single comment's thread. view the rest of the comments → [-] Faremir 3 points 1 month ago Not the original. However, based on my research, the earliest mention of the "Crazy? I was crazy once" poem that I could find is from a Usenet group called alt.support.depression, where it was posted on January 25, 1996, by an anonymous user. The post contained a longer version of the poem that included additional verses beyond the ones that are commonly circulated today. The whole peom in that post was: "Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a rubber room and told me to sit in the corner. In the corner, there was a round table and on the round table, there was a glass bowl and in the glass bowl, there was a silver key. I took the silver key and they said, 'Now you're sane.' Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a padded cell and told me to make myself comfortable. So I went to sleep on the bed and when I woke up, I was in a straight-jacket. I told them I was sane and they said, 'Now you're crazy.' Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a maze and told me to find my way out. I found the way out in five minutes and they said, 'You're a genius!' Crazy? I was crazy once." permalink source embed save save-RES report give award reply hide child comments](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/604/867/393.png "Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Rubber Room. A Rubber Room With Rats. And Rats Make Me Crazy.")
On December 20th, 2018, Redditor[11] /u/OwenPotatoKing posted a meme using the copypasta to /r/LodedDiper, gathering over 100 upvotes in four years (seen below).
Various Examples
@i.am.maddox crazy? i was crazy once. they locked me in a room. a rubber room, a rubber room with rats. and rats make me crazy. crazy? #insanity #deranged #smii7y #smii7yclips #crazy #fyp #strandeddeep ♬ i was crazy once – maddox
@orangenoiseofficial Crazy… I was crazy once. They locked me in a room… a rubber room… rubber room with rats… and rats make me crazy. Crazy… I was crazy once. They locked me in a room… a rubber room… rubber room with rats… and rats make me crazy. Crazy… I was crazy once. They locked me in a room… a rubber room… rubber room with rats… and rats make me crazy. Crazy… I was crazy once. They locked me in a room… a rubber room… rubber room with rats… and rats make me crazy. Crazy… I was crazy once. They locked me in a room… a rubber room… rubber room with rats… and rats make me crazy. #fyp #rats #corecore #schizopost ♬ original sound – Orange Noise
@tekranakra Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. A rubber room. A rubber room with rats, and rats made me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once… #crazy #iwascrazyonce #theylockedmeinaroom #arubberroom #arubberroomwithrats #andratsmakemecrazy ♬ original sound – Sam Wok
@imkeithholland I was crazy once #keith #mustache #hair #chad #majestic #rizz #rubberroom #rats ♬ original sound – Keith Holland Jr.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Everything 2 – Songs Designed To Annoy.
[4] Reddit – /r/copypasta
[5] Reddit – /r/copypasta
[7] YouTube – Scarlet Grunt
[11] Reddit – /r/lodeddiper
![88 I Was Crazy Once [Original 2008] (self.Poems) submitted 4 years ago * (last edited 4 years ago) by Alex_Kapranos 41 comments source share save hide give award report crosspost hide all child comments navigate by sorted by: top you are viewing a single comment's thread. view the rest of the comments → [-] Faremir 3 points 1 month ago Not the original. However, based on my research, the earliest mention of the "Crazy? I was crazy once" poem that I could find is from a Usenet group called alt.support.depression, where it was posted on January 25, 1996, by an anonymous user. The post contained a longer version of the poem that included additional verses beyond the ones that are commonly circulated today. The whole peom in that post was: "Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a rubber room and told me to sit in the corner. In the corner, there was a round table and on the round table, there was a glass bowl and in the glass bowl, there was a silver key. I took the silver key and they said, 'Now you're sane.' Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a padded cell and told me to make myself comfortable. So I went to sleep on the bed and when I woke up, I was in a straight-jacket. I told them I was sane and they said, 'Now you're crazy.' Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a maze and told me to find my way out. I found the way out in five minutes and they said, 'You're a genius!' Crazy? I was crazy once." permalink source embed save save-RES report give award reply hide child comments](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/604/867/393.png "Crazy? I Was Crazy Once. They Locked Me In A Room. A Rubber Room. A Rubber Room With Rats. And Rats Make Me Crazy.")
Top Comments
Skittles Lad
Jun 18, 2023 at 03:05PM EDT
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