Who's Got The Button

Red background with white text curved on the top and bottom of button and a thick white bar in the center of the button with red text.

The phrase 'button button who's got the button" comes from a children’s guessing game where a small object like a button is secretly placed in the hand of a person in the group by the leader, then whoever is “It” must guess which person has the object. Often children in the group chant the phrase “button button who’s got the button” before making guesses. The first printed reference to the game was 1871 in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Men. The phrase has also been used to whimsically pose questions needing guesswork to an audience, and at times used literally by writers when referencing buttons of all kinds.