Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Language Fail via YouTube

Thanks to a student, I am sharing a video with you that I've now watched several times and laughed every one of them. The humor is based on misparsing words in a song--when you hear a string of sounds, you may hear something different than what was originally said. For instance, many kids grow up thinking the "Star Spangled Banner" starts out with "Jose, can you see?", and I was convinced that a donzerly was a type of light because of that song. Another famous mistaken lyric is in Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Bad Moon on the Rise"; many people think the chorus is saying "there's a bathroom on the right." While misparsings often lead to humorous results, I don't think I've ever seen one as humorous as this.



Challenge yourself to see if you can--without looking at the lyrics to the song--figure out what English words the singer is trying to sing. Can you tell where she is misparsing the words to create nonsense words?

2 comments:

  1. I Can't liiiive...... I love this song in The Rules of Attraction. And definitely prefer the Harry Nilsson version.

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  2. She's got a chicken to ride.
    Hold me closer, Tony Danza.
    Let's pee in the corner, Let's pee in the spotlight.
    Might as well face it, you're a dick with a glove.
    Olive, the other reindeer
    Round John Virgin
    Desperado, you've been outright offensive, for so long now.

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