In the womble song, does underground overground refer to the underground like in trains?

11 comments

1. I think they live underground don’t they?

2. I’ve always taken it to mean they are capable of wobbling free both above and underground. Not sure whether they had any part in railway construction, I’ll check the history books in case I missed it though.

3. After more than 30 years, it was only a couple of weeks back I realised it probably wasn’t

   > The Wombles of Wimbledon,

   > Common are we

   And is probably

   > The Wombles of Wimbledon Common, are we

   Just thought they were describing themselves as being a bit common, which I found endearing

4. Never saw a episode where they took the District Line anywhere.

5. You never see a run over womble.

6. No. The Wombles are creatures that live underground and only come above the ground to collect the waste and rubbish that the everyday folk litter on Wimbledon Common.

   They are shy (apart from Tomsk obvs), live in something like a badgers set, have a familial patriarchal hierarchical structure (see great uncle Bulgaria) but also have respect for their female elders (Madame Cholet).

   They repurpose waste left by humans and other than their brief spell as a musical act touring and doing top of the pops performances didn’t interact with humans at all.

7. I think it’s become e a sort of pun in the fact Wimbledon had underground and overground stations.

   But literal in world sense the wombles live in burrows on Wimbledon common and pop up to clean the litter

8. Given they are allegedly capable of wombling with no hindrance both above and below ground you could argue that specifying both positions is somewhat superfluous.

9. No.. They live in a burrow, *underground*

10. They live underground but they come up (overground) to tidy human rubbish. The nasty people at TfL stole this concept to name their transport systems.

11. No, they live underground, they forage overground for litter