"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat" is a poem recited by the Mad Hatter

Mad Hatter

Hatta, the Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll...

 in chapter seven of Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...

's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...

. It is a parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English nursery rhyme. The lyrics are from an early nineteenth-century English poem, "The Star" by Jane Taylor. The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann...

".

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

Dormouse (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The Dormouse is a character in "A Mad Tea-Party", Chapter VII from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. He sat between the March Hare and the Hatter...

. "The Bat" was the nickname of Professor Bartholomew Price

Bartholomew Price

Bartholomew Price was an English mathematician and educator.He was born at Coln St Denis, Gloucestershire, in 1818. He was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, of which college he became fellow in 1844 and tutor and mathematical lecturer in 1845...

, one of the Dons at Oxford, a former teacher of Carroll's and well known to Alice Liddell

Alice Liddell

Alice Pleasance Liddell , known for most of her adult life by her married name, Alice Hargreaves, inspired the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, whose protagonist Alice is said to be named after her.-Biography:...

's family.

Other appearances

The poem was sung in Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)

Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New...

film. In it, the Dormouse drowsily recited it at the tea party. The poem was later sung again at Alice

Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

Alice is a fictional character in the literary classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There. She is a young girl from Victorian-era Britain.-Development:...

's trial, and taken down as "important" evidence.

The line "Like a teatray in the sky" is used in a 1968 song by The Move

The Move

The Move, from Birmingham, England, were one of the leading British rock bands of the 1960s. They scored nine Top 20 UK singles in five years, but were among the most popular British bands not to find any success in the United States....

 entitled "Cherry Blossom Clinic

Cherry Blossom Clinic

"Cherry Blossom Clinic" is a song by British rock band The Move. The song tells the story of a man slipping into madness and what he imagines as he hallucinates in his clinic room...

", about a mental patient.

The poem was sung in the 1999 film

Alice in Wonderland (1999 film)

Alice in Wonderland is a television film first broadcast in 1999 on NBC and then shown on British television on Channel 4. It is based upon Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass....

 by the Hatter (Martin Short

Martin Short

Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

) as a sort of "encore

Encore (concert)

An encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...

" 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

Mad Hatter (comics)

The Mad Hatter is a fictional supervillain and enemy of Batman in the DC Universe. He is modeled after the Hatter from Lewis Carroll's novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a character often called the "Mad Hatter" in adaptations of Carroll. He made his first appearance in Batman #49 in October...

, one of the villains in the series. It can be found in the Haunted Knight Collection written by Jeph Loeb

Jeph Loeb

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost, writer for the films Commando and Teen Wolf and was a writer and Co-Executive Producer on the NBC TV show Heroes from its...

 and illustrated by Tim Sale

Tim Sale

Tim Sale may refer to:* Tim Sale , comic book artist* Tim Sale , Canadian politician...

.

In the 1995 film Batman Forever

Batman Forever

Batman Forever is a 1995 American superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Tim Burton. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is a sequel to Batman Returns , with Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton as Batman...

, the character Riddler

Riddler

The Riddler is a fictional character, a comic book character and supervillain published by DC Comics, and an enemy of Batman. Created by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, the character first appeared in Detective Comics #140 ....

 tells Batman

Batman

Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

, "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

Alice (TV miniseries)

Alice is a 2009 television mini-series that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy...

.

In Tim Burton

Tim Burton

Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...

's 2010 film version of Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)

Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...

, the Mad Hatter leads the March Hare and Dormouse in a recitation of this poem in an attempt to distract Stayne from discovering Alice.