A daft little portrait of a couple in Fife who, quite absurdly, could see with their eyes and talk with their tongues. The joke works entirely by stating the obvious, which is exactly the sort of thing small children find hilarious.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
In a cottage in Fife
Lived a man and his wife
Who, believe me, were comical folk;
For, to people's surprise,
They both saw with their eyes,
And their tongues moved whenever they spoke!
When they were asleep,
I'm told, that to keep
Their eyes open they could not contrive;
They both walked on their feet,
And 'twas thought what they eat
Helped, with drinking, to keep them alive!
About this rhyme
Text confirms the Fife setting and the mock-astonished claims that the couple 'saw with their eyes' and 'their tongues moved whenever they spoke'.
Set in Fife, this one teases a husband and wife by pointing out the entirely ordinary: they see with their eyes, they talk with their tongues. The joke, such as it is, sits in treating the obvious as if it were news.
Say the obvious bits with mock astonishment. That's the whole comedy of it.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition