“What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?”/“Hot cross bunnies.”
A popular riddle about hot cross buns is:
Q: What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?
A: Hot cross bunnies.
The joke was published in Boys’ Life magazine in 1976 and is frequently told at Easter, along with Easter bunny jokes.
“What do you call rabbits that marched in a long sweltering Easter parade?”/“Hot, cross bunnies” is another riddle about hot cross buns.
Wikipedia: Hot cross bun
A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins, marked with a cross on the top, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday in Australia, British Isles, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and some parts of America. The buns mark the end of Lent and different parts of the hot cross bun have a certain meaning, including the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices inside signifying the spices used to embalm him at his burial. They are now available all year round in some places. Hot cross buns may go on sale in Australia and New Zealand as early as New Year’s Day or after Christmas.
Google Books
July 1976, Boys’ Life, “Think & Grin,” pg. 65, col. 1:
Flopsy: What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?
Mopsy: Hot cross bunnies! — John Stolz, Ann Arbor, Mich.
15 September 1978, Nevada State Journal and Reno Evening Gazette (Reno, NV), “Hangin’ Out” by Guy Richardson, Entertainment sec., pg. 3, col. 3:
“What do you get from pouring hot water down a rabbit hole? Hot cross bunnies.”—David Harris, (who is probably over the border by now, so pursuit is pointless).
1 June 1981, The Centre Daily Times (State College, PA), “Mulligan’s Stew: Tracing the Mysterious Geography of Jokes” by Hugh A. Mulligan (AP), pg. 13, col. 1:
RIDGEFIELD, Conn. (AP)—Some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, or midway through my last root canal, my dentist told me a joke.
“What do you get when you pour scalding water down a rabbit hole?”
“Hot cross bunnies.”
About a month later I saw the same joke in Reader’s Digest. The just recently the joke was reprised several times on “The Muppets Go to the Movies.” And now you hear it everywhere.
Google Books
Linguistic Concepts:
An Introduction to Tagmemics
By Kenneth L Pike
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press
1982
Pg. 129:
Query: If you pour hot water down a rabbit hole, what do you get?
Answer: Hot cross bunnies.
1 March 1982, The Sun (Baltimore, MD, “Cats on canvas: Calif. artist paints them selfish, smug and strange” by Muriel Dobbin, pg. B3, col. 3:
And a rabbit with its ears upright is Mrs. Dizick’s illustration of an old joke about what happens when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole.
“Hot cross bunny, I call it,” she said.
Google Groups: alt.support.autism
OT - Happy Easter
BevB
4/14/01
(...)
What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?
A Hot Cross bunny.
12 April 2003, Daily Press (Timmons, ON), “Easter Internet style: The good, the bad and the corny” by Steve Elliott, pg. 21:
Q. What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole? A. A hot cross bunny.
Southern Maryland Online
101 Easter jokes
jazz lady
04-08-2004, 01:40 PM #1
(...)
Q. What do you get when you pour boiling hot water down a rabbit hole?
A. Hot cross bunnies!
Twitter
Ian Sealy
@iansealy
Replying to @jemimakiss
@jemimakiss Last attempt before sleep: Q: What do you get when you pour a kettleful of water down a rabbit hole? A: Hot, cross bunnies.
5:49 PM - 21 May 2008
Twitter
James Zhuo
@jamesz
What do you get when you pour a kettleful of water down a rabbit hole? A: Hot, cross bunnies. from @iansealy
3:32 AM - 22 May 2008
Twitter
clare1608
@clare1608
Replying to @thejoka
@thejoka What d’you get if you put boiling water down a rabbit hole?
Hot cross bunnies!
10:16 AM - 7 Mar 2009
Google Books
A Prairie Home Companion
Pretty Good Joke Book (6th Edition)
Introduced by Garrison Keillor
Prince Frederick, MD: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
2015
Pg. ?:
What do you get when you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?
Hot cross bunnies.