Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion

"Para: We are villains who like to rhyme...

Dox: In fact, we do it all the time.

Para: You may think it's rather crass...

Dox: But you can stick your cards right up your nose.

Para: ...You were supposed to say "ass," brother. I thought we rehearsed this."

- Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series

So...you're listening to a song, or are on one of those crazy planets where everyone speaks in verse. A rhyming couplet is set up, but rather than using a rhyme the speaker takes it in a different, non-euphonic direction, either by speaking a different word, having it bleeped out, or cutting off an offending secti-part.

This is most often used for comedy: generally, the rhyme set up and subverted was clearly supposed to be a profanity. (If the replacement word begins the same way as the averted word, this amounts to a deliberate Curse Cut Short.) It's one of the myriad gimmicks used for Getting Crap Past the Radar, and when used this way is known as a "Miss Susie", after one of the most famous examples. Sometimes in this case the cut-off word will appear in a different context as a Midword Rhyme (The steamboat went to Hell/o operator.) Doing this is the only way to get the worse Bawdy Songs on American network television -- though of course the trope is much older than that: it's used in an Elizabethan broadside ballad about seducing a maiden, thus making it at least Older Than Steam.

Known as a mind rhyme according to The Other Wiki.

A subtrope of Last Second Word Swap, with a little bit of--Diet Coke. Compare with Painful Rhyme, Rhyming With Itself and Midword Rhyme. Not to be confused with Lame Rhyme Dodge.

Anime and Manga
"Ichigo: Mew Mew Style, think I'll pass, English dub can kiss my--
 * A famous Tokyo Mew Mew fanart piece released just after the Macekre of the English dub does the "cut off" version:

Minto: Ichigo!"

"Announcer:
 * The Samurai Pizza Cats closing does this:

So, hail to thee, O Pizza Cat! Please ring your little bell!

Although you may be pen and ink, we know you'll fight like --

The Pizza Cats: (in unison) PIZZA CATS!"

"Jessie: To protect us from all that chafing and itching!
 * One episode of Pokémon, "Hassle in the Castle", has Team Rocket doing this with their motto.

James: It might finally stop all of Jessie's...complaining!"

""And Sailor Venus
 * A commercial for Sailor Moon aired on the Canadian youth programming channel YTV did this:

which rhymes with....I can't say that on TV!""

""Rickum, rackum, ruckum, ruckum!
 * The English version of Mahou Sensei Negima gives us this gem from the cheerleader trio in volume 1.

Throw that ball and really f...fight!""

""Rah rah ree,
 * From Yu-Gi-Oh GX

Kick em in the knee

Rah rah rut,

Kick em in the...other knee""

Comics
"Etrigan: Our heroes ,quite noble, have fallen to hell; may they curse their eternal foul luck. And while these champions may triumph o'er street crime quite well, down here with the demons they're totally doomed.
 * Etrigan is a Rhyming Demon who will occasionally break his station for comedic effect.

Blue Beetle: That didn't rhyme!

Etrigan: So sue me."

"The Maxx: It is different somehow, this land isn't mine! And my brain has been freed! I'm not thinking in ...poetry stuff."
 * The Maxx falls asleep watching cartoons in issue #5 and enters a surreal dream land where everyone talks and thinks in rhyme, including him. Upon his escape he discovers he can speak normally again, expressing this with a somewhat forced rhyme subversion:

Electronics
"Spring has sprung
 * The voice sample for the "Boing" synthesized voice in Mac OS X uses a classic example of this:

Fall has fell

Winter's here

And it's colder than usual."

Fan Work
"There was an old farmer who lived on a rock
 * Crawdaunt used The Assumption!

He sat in the meadow just shaking his

Fist at some boys who were down by the crick

Their feet in the water, their hands on their

Marbles, they played there until half past four

There came a young lady who looked like a

Pretty, young preacher. She sat on the grass

She pulled up her dress and showed them her

Ruffles and laces and white, fluffy duck

She said she was learning a new way to

Bring up her children, so they would not spit

While the boys in the barnyard were shoveling

Refuse and litter from yesterday's hunt

While the girl in the meadow was rubbing her

Eyes at the fellow down by the dock

He looked like a man with a sizable

Home in the country, with a big fence out front,

If he asked her politely, she'd show him her

Small, tender hands with a movement so quick

And then she'd bend over and suck on his

Candy, so tasty, made of butterscotch,

And then he'd spread whipped cream all over her

Cookies that she had left out on the shelf

If you think this is dirty, you can go fuck yourself!"

"The prosecutor's put downs were quite rich
 * Turnabout Storm: Derpy's poem regarding what she saw on the trial ends with this little verse regarding the prosecutor Trixie:

But honestly, she was being a big stuck-up...Meanie..."

Film: Animated
"Please keep well off of the grass
 * In the first Shrek movie:

Shine your shoes, wipe your...face."

"Duloc is, Duloc is, Duloc is a perfect place!"
 * Though they do complete a rhyme eventually:

"A princess full of sass
 * Shrek the Musical makes a similar joke:

And a dragon and a...donkey!"

"Dusty Rust-eze: Winter is a grand old time
 * Cars: Lightning McQueen is trying to sneak out of his personal appearance:

Rusty Rust-eze: Of this there are no ifs and buts

Dusty Rust-eze: But remember, all that salt and grime

Rusty Rust-eze: Can rust your bolts and freeze your...Hey, look! There he is!"

"Narrator: Now, honey rhymes with bunny, and bunny rhymes with...
 * In Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree:

Pooh: Rabbit?"

"Its toes are black, its fur is blue/ I swear all I tell you is not made up!"
 * And again in the new movie:

"You know the saying, born under Venus, look for a...(cell phone rings cutting her off) hello?"
 * And OOOOOOOH, what a shame! (He was ashamed!) Thought of changin' my name! (Oh, what's in a name?) And I got downhearted...(How did you feel!?) Every time that I...(Hey Pumbaa, not in front of the kids!) Oh. Sorry.
 * In Disney's Aladdin, Genie sarcastically "cheers" Jafar: "Jafar, Jafar, he's our man, if he can't do it, GREAT!"
 * In The Rugrats Movie the moms are discussing the gender of Didi's then unborn baby and Charlotte says:

Film: Live Action
"Eddie: I'm through with taking falls
 * During the Weasel fight in Who Framed Roger Rabbit:

And bouncing off the walls

Without that gun

I'd have some fun

And kick you in the...(gets hit in the head)

Roger: Nose!

Smart Ass Weasel: "Nose"? That don't rhyme with "walls"!

Eddie: No, but this does! (kicks Smarty in the junk)"

"So 'till then, I'll have to master...my own fate."
 * Variation from the musical Altar Boyz: The song is about waiting until marriage to have sex. The line rhymes, but it's still not the word that the audience might be expecting:

"Some things in life are bad,
 * Always Look On The Bright Side of Life:

They can really make you mad.

Other things just make you swear and curse.

When you're chewing on life's gristle,

Don't grumble; give a whistle,

And this'll help things turn out for the best."

""We have a snoozaphone for your brother Stew, and a sousaphone for your brother Drew, a muncle for your uncle, a fant for your aunt, and a fampa...for your cousin Leon.""
 * Done randomly in the new How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie:

"Why, for year after year
 * Not to mention:

I've put up with it now!

I must stop this Christmas from coming...

But how? Er, I mean, in what way?"

"If Jock could talk, he'd give you a clue.
 * In the 1981 film The Private Eyes, the killer subverts rhyme in each note to the detectives. For example:

But now that he's dead, what can you do?

He deserved what he got. I don't regret it a bit.

By the way, you're standing in bull ca-ca."

"I came to help restore your pluck,
 * In Ferris Buellers Day Off, thinking he's terminally ill, a strippergram/prostitute dressed as a nurse is sent to his house, and greets him (actually his sister) with the rhyme:

cause I'm the nurse who likes to...

(the door is slammed in her face)"

"Tom: Let's step on the gas and kick some...butt!"
 * This was still too vulgar for network TV, and most showings have the door slam before the nurse says anything.
 * The father in Catch That Kid (a.k.a. Mission Without Permission) uses subverted rhyme when starting go-kart races to tone down the language:

"Pretty little fly
 * From The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:

Why does it cry?

Caught in a web...

Soon will be ...eaten"

"I ate some bugs
 * Nacho Libre:

I ate some grass

I use my hand

To wipe my tears"

"Boys are cheats and liars, They're such a big disgrace
 * Justified, considering his character is a Catholic monk.
 * The Hot Chick had a little rhyme that went like this:

They will tell you anything to get to second...

Baseball, baseball He thinks he's gonna score,

If you let him go all the way then you are a

Horticulturist's study flowers, geologists study rocks,

All a guy wants from you is a place to put his

Cockroaches, beetles, butterflies and bugs

Nothing makes him happier than a giant pair of

Jugglers and acrobats and a dancing bear named Chuck

All boys really want to do is

Fff...orget it no such luck"

"You looked, and looked,
 * In the movie version of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Thimbletack speaks in rhyme when he is a brownie, but not a boggart:

and found the book,

and from the chest

the thing was (transforms) STOLEN!"

"My sanity is hanging by a thread,
 * The soundtrack version of the song "Cabin Fever" from Muppet Treasure Island has an extra verse, which goes like this:

Since we're going nowhere, I've gone out of my head,

We were sailing, sailing, over the bounding main

Lew Zealand: ...And now we're not! Heh heh heh!"

"Fireballs, Girls. Take this sucker down.
 * Lampshaded in Matthew Patel's musical number in ~Scott Pilgrim vs. The World~

Let us show him what we're all about.

Scott: That doesn't even rhyme!"

"You think you're so great, but you're missing the point
 * Well, it's closer to a rhyme than the one Scott comes up with in the graphic novel during the same scene (for the record, the "fireballs" line is a rhyme in the graphic novel, by way of Matthew using "out" instead of "down"):

You gotta have friendship and courage and whatever!

Matthew: That doesn't even rhyme!

Scott: Shut up!"

"But from that point on, Phil Coletti was known as...Machete Phil!"
 * In the Broken Lizard movie Club Dread:

"And never whirl with a three-toed girl
 * The Don Knotts-Tim Conway film The Private Eyes featured a number of these.
 * The Unsinkable Molly Brown has a song called "Belly Up To The Bar, Boys", that has these lyrics:

Or a discontented whor...

..rible example, like a girl who's name was Carrie..."

"Tom's Boss: I'm a bit worried about you, Tom.
 * In Five Hundred Days of Summer, the main character Tom writes greeting cards. After he and Summer break up...

Tom: Oh? Why?

Tom's Boss: Well, your latest card reads: "Roses are red. Violets are blue. Fuck you, whore."

Literature
""Now we sing this stupid song
 * Non-profane use: In the novel The Fairy's Return, one character is constantly making up poems, but he always ends his couplets with a non-rhyming word, even when the word has an obvious synonym that does rhyme.
 * In Night Watch, Detritus trains new City Watch recruits, and teaches them his jody (which "somehow, you could tell it was made up by a troll"):

Sing it as we march along

Why we sing this we don't know

We can't make the words rhyme prop'ly!"

"Lovely to look at
 * Also, the warning in the magical equipment shop in A Hat Full of Sky:

Nice to hold

If you drop it

You get torn apart by wild horses."

"A turner of phrases quite pleasin',
 * Which is based on a sign in real-life souvenir shops that feature "Consider it sold" as the last line.
 * In Godel Escher Bach, the Crab puts on a record of himself singing "A Song Without Time or Season." Here's how it goes:

Had a penchant for trick'ry and teasin'.

In his songs, the last line

Might seem sans design;

What I mean is, without why or wherefore."

"Roses are red
 * Non-comic, non-profane example: In George Herbert's poem "Denial" every stanza (except the last) ends on a non-rhyme, to symbolize the speaker's spiritual crisis.
 * Kurt Vonnegut retells one in his novel Breakfast of Champions:

And ready for plucking

You're sixteen years old

And ready for high school"

"Mary had a little lamb, she also had a duck.
 * A long verse appears in Don't Pat the Wombat'

She took it round the corner and taught it how to

Fry some eggs for breakfast, fry some eggs for tea.

The more you eat, the more you drink the more you have to

Peter had a boat, and the boat began to rock.

Up jumped Jaws and bit him on the

Cocktails, ginger alle, fourty cents a glass.

If you don't like them shove it up your

Ask no questions, tell no lies

I saw the boogey man doing up his

Flies are bad, mosquitoes are worse

and this is the end of my silly little verse."

"Clouds broke at evening, and the sun set red
 * Sean Kelly's National Lampoon parodies of war poetry included two couplets by "Wilfred Owen, who in 1915 found himself at the front, under constant gas and artillery attack, and without his rhyming dictionary":

Flushing to rose the faces of the deceased."

"People tell you all the time,
 * Gleefully inverted in Wendy Cope's "An Attempt at Unrhymed Verse":

Poems do not have to rhyme.

It's often better if they don't

And I'm determined this one won't."

- Oh dear.


 * The title of Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room, by James Carville and Paul Begala.

Live Action TV
"You're the cutest of the Scoobies
 * From the Musical Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More, With Feeling:

with your lips as red as rubies

and your firm yet supple...tight embrace!"

"She is the one, she's such wonderful fun
 * Which is incidentally a callback to an earlier verse in which Xander dodges a crudity without breaking the rhyme:

such passion and grace.

Warm in the night, when I'm right in her tight

...embrace. Tight embrace!"

"She's just going through the motions,
 * Also inverted a few times in that same musical episode: there are several instances where a song is interrupted, and then it is always the case that the interruption rhymes, while there seems no obvious way the intended line could have:

faking it somehow.

She's not even half the girl she...ow!"

"Xander: She clings, she's needy,
 * Another example of that:

She's also really greedy,

She never -

Anya: His eyes are beady!"

"Buffy: Will I stay this way forever?
 * And again:

Sleepwalk through my life's endevors?

Distressed Dude: How can I repay--

Buffy: Whatever."

"Every soul that plays this role risks injury or death,
 * The second season theme song for Slings and Arrows, where it's The Scottish Trope instead of an obscenity that's being obscured:

I'd rather sweep the bloody stage than ever do MacYouKnowWho."

"Michael Kelso: If this van's a rockin'...we're in there doing it!"
 * From That 70s Show:

"The other day my girlfriend said 'Greg, you wanna thrill'?
 * Colin Mochrie, of Whose Line Is It Anyway fame, is very good at improv--but his talents do not lie in music. Inexplicably, during the American run of the show, Drew Carey's favorite game was Hoedown (his excitement at it visibly irritated Ryan Stiles at times), meaning it was performed very often. Mochrie didn't even try to sing most of the time, rhyming in a sort of chant. However, he gleefully subverted the format several times--in one about the lottery, saying he didn't care anymore, speaking briefly in tongues, running around the studio, and hugging an attractive audience member; another time, in a callback to an earlier gaffe with his microphone's battery, mouthing words but saying nothing, ending in "my battery pack!"; and once ending a hoedown verse about a traumatic event in "I lost the ability to rhyme" (which did not, obviously, rhyme with the previous line).
 * On the other hand, however, many of the other stars on the show, particularly Greg Proops, do this so often and easily that subverting a profane rhyme is called "Pulling a Greg" in the fan community. Example:

She took me to a bridge at the bottom of a hill.

She tied the rope to my leg and I ran out of luck.

For when she pushed me off that bridge, I just yelled out 'wow'.""

"I don't pay alimony, I don't pay child support,
 * Drew did it at least once: "I hope soon that I get out all my stitches / 'Cause let me tell you, brother, they hurt like sons of guns."
 * Drew also inverted it in the "Children" Hoedown:

I don't pay nothing of no kind of that sort,

I get to keep all the money that I'm paid,

How can you have any children if you never ever get l(BEEP)--hey!""

"And there I'll open a business,
 * No less a performer than Robin Williams once used the above cheer in a game of Props.
 * Used by Ryan in an Irish Drinking Song:

And I will get real rich,

I am so happy

I'll leave that old...Oh, hidey hidey..."

"My teacher was beautiful, a beautiful lass.
 * Wayne Brady pretends to read a poem from an imaginary book:

But I was embarrassed in front of the class.

I would sit in the back because I was quite a loner.

And then I - oh!"

"Cory: There once was a boy named Cory.
 * During an Irish Drinking Song, Colin is set up to say a line that rhymes with trucker, but instead he just smiles and says nothing. Both he and the audience know what he could have said.
 * This was a gag about Once an Episode in Up Pompeii where one of the characters, an extremely virginial young man would compose odes to his current crush which would suggest an obviously bawdy rhyme which was invariably subverted.
 * The limerick version popped up again in Boy Meets World

Eric: Who now has an interesting story.

Cory: He learned about kissing.

Eric: And all he was missing...

Shawn: When he and Topanga made out!

Cory: Shawn, can we say "summer school"?"

"Teacher: Alright, get out of class!
 * The Amanda Show had an example of this, when a boy in a classroom full of superpowered kids had the power of super rhyming.

Student: Oh no, my dad's gonna kick my--

Teacher: Be quiet!"

"Werewolf Bar Mitzvah!
 * The Kids in The Hall had a song called Daves I Know, where the final line of almost every verse breaks the rhyme AND meter.
 * Thirty Rock has the novelty song,

Spooky! Scary!

Boys becoming men,

Men becoming wolves!"

"Kenneth: You made a promise to Masi Oka. "Conserve electricity. Don't be a zero, be a good guy!" ...Why doesn't that say 'hero?' That feels like a real missed opportunity."
 * Also:

"Robin Williams: (rapping) We wanna raise some money
 * On The Muppet Show, during the Loretta Lynn episode, Fozzie, Scooter, Annabelle, and Link Hogthrob sing what's supposedly "The Rhyming Song". As might be expected, none of the lines in the verses rhyme. (They're also disjointed, but that's another story.)
 * From the opening of Comic Relief V:

we'll work around the clock

If you don't send enough

I'm gonna have to show my...Comic Relief T-shirt!"

"But it doesn't matter what I'm paid,
 * For added effect, he pulls said T-shirt out of his pants.
 * The Daily Show used to have a segment called "News You Can Utilize".
 * Judge Dread's song "Big Five",can be found here definitely fits this trope to T.
 * The Nanny when Niles wrote a play based on his own life:

Because I'm finally getting--

Six bucks an hour!

Includes a room and shower!"

"Up in the loft where the lamp-light flickers
 * The Two Ronnies had far too many to list them all. Particularly memorable is one of their Jehosophat and Jones songs:

I lost my heart and she lost her...parasol."

"But will we act
 * From The Gillies Report musical sketch "Maralinga, or Wise After the Event":

Upon this fact?

This whole inquiry was a stunt!

I've never seen a bigger...miscarriage of justice!"

"The boy stood on the burning deck,
 * The Paul Hogan Show did a parody of The Prophecies of Nostradamus where Hoges revealed the prophecies of his ancestor which, like Nostradamus', were also in verse. One of them ran:

His pockets full of crackers.

A flame shot up his trouser leg

And blew off both his...sandshoes."

"It's K to the N to the O-P-E,
 * Parks and Recreation: Jean-Ralphio's rapping skills seem stuck on this:

She's the dopest little shortee in all Pawnee....Indiana.

R to the O to the N,

Swanson got swagger the size of Big Ben...clock.

Yo B to the O to the double S,

Do what he say and you'll be success...ful."

"Catherine:This guy was about pucks,bucks and...chicks."
 * CSI had a non-singing one in an early episode that centered on a hockey player.

"Rob Lee: We've all heard it: "Beans, beans, good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you"...er, produce flatus."
 * Myth Busters had one episode where the hosts were testing myths regarding flatulence, and were attempting to keep things tasteful, generally by using the scientific term "flatus" in place of...the common term for such. Rob Lee also avoided using said "common term", generally via Unusual Euphemism (or else via less offensive terms), but there was one time he danced around the word using this very trope:


 * In one episode of Adventures in Wonderland, the White Rabbit has contracted "rhymitis", which forces him to only speak in rhyme. After he's cured, he sings a song full of these, with each followed by the chorus "And you know what the best part is? It doesn't rhyme!"

Music
"There's nothing surer
 * The 1921 classic "Ain't We Got Fun" does the clean version:

The rich get rich and the poor get -- children."

"Sometimes London don't seem too appealing
 * The second time 'round, the poor get "laid off."
 * Obscure British Art-pop band David Devant and his Spirit Wife and Mr Solo (the lead singers solo project) do this a LOT.
 * From 'Pimlico':

Maybe youre lover is living in Deptford."

"And my Uncle thinks I'm barmy
 * From 'Slip it To me':

'cause i don't pack my bag and join the navy."

"I woke up this morning, my head was full of rocks
 * From 'Black and White'

I couldn't remember the night before, I'd lost a pair of shoes"

"This song doesn't make it's own luck
 * From 'Genius':

'cause this song doesn't give a flying family planning clinic."

"Did you come here to dance?
 * Furthermore the lead singer sometimes changes the lyrics which actually do rhyme when performing live. For instance 'Do you have plans in your head, you wish they'd all go drop dead' becomes 'Do you have plans in your head, you wish they'd fuck off and die'.
 * OK Go's Let It Rain:

What's in your...glass?"

"Some days you're quick
 * A clean classic from U2's "Some Days Are Better Than Others"

but most days you're speedy

Some days you use

more force than is necessary"

"Spit so many verses, sometimes my jaw twitches
 * From Madvillain's "Great Day"

One thing this party could use is more...booze"

"Jenny, Jenny, you're the girl for me
 * Tommy Tutone's memetic hit "Jenny (867 5309)" features this little gem

You don't know me but you make me so happy"

"A little bit of this is all I need
 * Tommy Heath's awkward pause right before delivering the "happy" line really makes it.
 * A double subverted lyric with different words than you'd think - Hieroglyphics' Throw it in Ya Grill:

Can't wait to get home and smoke some

Throw it in ya grill, then called my seed (scene?)

And when the street lights go off, we"

"You don't have an ounce of class
 * Not where you thought they'd go with that, was it?
 * From the Weird Al song "I'm So Sick of You":

You're just one big pain in the neck"

"It's a big hit isn't it
 * And from Al's not-officially-released track "Still Billy Joel to Me":

Even if it's a piece of junk"

"This song's got nothing to say
 * From "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", which is about not being able to think of more lyrics for the song:

But I'm recording it anyway

I know if I put my mind to it

I know I could find a good rhyme here"

""Sitting in Class
 * From Daphne and Celeste's cover of "School's Out"

Is a pain in the neck''"

"Well we got no class
 * From the Alice Cooper song of the same title, with Lampshaded goodness (and to be fair, it is hard to come up with something that rhymes with "principals"):

And we got no principals

And we got no innocence

We can't even think of a word that rhymes!"

"Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes (got big lanes, got big lanes)
 * Similarly with Camper Van Beethoven's Take The Skinheads Bowling:

Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same (look the same, look the same)

There's not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything (anything, anything)

I has a dream last night, but I forget what it was (what it was, what it was)"

"I love my bar and I love my truck
 * From Alice Cooper's I Love America:

I'd do most anything to make a buck

I love a waitress who loves to...flirt!

They're the best kind"

"The bandages come off today
 * Another Alice Cooper example in "Working Up A Sweat":

Really feelin' sick

The hardest part's explainin'

All these blisters on my...NOSE!"

"Let me send you pics for your personal collection
 * The MC Lars song "Internet Relationships":

I hope they inspire you and give you a...smile"

"And I'm from Mars, and she's from Venus
 * And his "Space Game":

She has ovaries and I have a...light saber"

""And if I were gay
 * Stephen Lynch loves doing this in his songs.
 * "If I Were Gay":

We would tear down the walls

But I'm not gay

So won't you stop cupping my...hand!""

""Just don't take it personally
 * "Vanilla Ice Cream":

This is no attack

But we will never last because

I'm white and you are -- also white...""

""I thought college life was great.
 * And in his El Ray Performance...

Ed couldn't count from one to two.""

"When your legs are open, I begin the gropin'
 * And in "Gynecologist":

But I fear I must be blunt

I would just as soon not go near your balloon

I think that I'll stick to your. . . front."

"Yeah, he'd whittle if it's light, he'd whittle if it's dark
 * Double-Subverted, as it is a rhyme. Just not the one everyone thought it would be.
 * Also, from the same song: he "loves pu...tting womens' minds at rest".
 * "Whittlin' Man":

And if Noah was around, well, he'd whittle him an ark

He'd whittle something new, and he'd whittle something old

He'd whittle something hot, and he'd whittle something rather chilly..."

"Our baby fell out of the window
 * Benny Bell's infamous song "Shaving Cream"; depending on the performance you witness, it has anywhere from 8 to hundreds of verses all in the form:

You'd think that her head would be split.

But luck was with her that morning --

She fell in a big pile of shhhhhhhhhhhhh--

--SHAV-ing cream, be nice and clean

Shave every day and you'll always look keen."

"I think I'll break off with my girlfriend
 * The Mora Tr Ã¤sk cover of this song, Skidvalla, substitutes ski wax for the shaving cream.
 * An old friend of mine sang this charming version, a double example:

Her antics are queer I'll admit

Each time I say, 'Darling, I love you'

She tells me that I'm full of...

Shaving cream, shaving cream, be nice and clean

Shave every day and you'll always look"

"Down in Carolina
 * Invoked and played by Voltaire during the whole song: The Dirtiest Song That Ain't.

I met a girl with a nice [...]

So I reached down between us

And I whipped out my [...]

Skipped right past the suckin'

And got right down to [...]

She turned and said: "I gotta ask,

Would you slip it into my [...]?"

"There was an old farmer who lived on a rock
 * The Assumption Song by Vito Petroccitto Jr. is entirely based on this trope.

He sat in the meadow shaking his

Fist at the boys playing down by the crick

Their feet in the water their hands on their

Marbles and playthings..."

"And then he'd spread whipped cream all over her
 * However, subverted HARD at the very end of the song..

Cookies that she had laid out on her shelf

If you think this is dirty you can go f*** yourself!"

"I was thinking about a series of dreams
 * The entire thing can be heard here
 * 'Series of Dreams' by Bob Dylan has a good example. Just the opening is quoted here, but the whole song avoids the use of the expected rhyme, although several other words appear in rhyming partnership with dreams.

Where nothing comes up to the top

Everything stays down where it's wounded

And comes to a permanent stop"

"I decided to flip a coin, like either heads or tails
 * Sneakily averted in "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream":

Would let me know if I should go back to ship or back to jail

So I hocked my sailor's suit and I got a coin to flip

It came up tails, that rhymes with...sails, so I made it back to ship."

"There was a young sailor who looked through the glass
 * Oscar Brand's "Clean Song" is probably familiar to devotees of Dr. Demento:

Spied a fair mermaid with scales on her island

Where seagulls flew over their nests

She combed the long hair that hung over her shoulders..."

"Oh, I'm Melvin Rose of Texas,
 * Allan Sherman used this trope in one of the parodies in his medley "Shticks And Stones" on his 1963 album My Son, The Folk Singer; in this case, he detoured around what was then a borderline obscenity in Yiddish, the word "schmuck":

And my friends all call me Tex.

When I lived in old New Mexico,

They used to call me Mex.

When I lived in old Kentucky,

They called me Old Kentuck.

I was born in old Shamokin,

Which is why they call me Melvin Rose."

"Now they're going to bed,
 * The Killers, Mr. Brightside:

And my stomach is sick,

And it's all in my head,

But she's touching his chest, now

He takes off her dress, now..."

"Churning lovesick lullabies,
 * Also possibly the chorus.

Choking on your alibis,

But it's just the price I pay.

Destiny is calling me.

Opens up my eager eyes.

'Cause I'mmm Mr. Brightside."

"Grass below you, sky above,
 * The obscenity-ducking is inverted in Jonathan Coulton's First of May:

Celebrate Spring with a crazy little thing called...Fuckin' outside."

"That's all the family news that we're allowed to talk about
 * And in Chiron Beta Prime by the same artist:

We hope you come and visit us soon

I mean we're literally begging you to visit us

And make it quick before they [MESSAGE REDACTED]."

"Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a bad motherfucker
 * In his "Kenesaw Mountain Landis", there's one that seems like this at first given his humor, but it turns out to just be an unexpected rhyme scheme (which does get respected the rest of the way):

He was seventeen feet tall, he had 150 wives

He didn't do that much except he saved the game of baseball

He put two and two together and he noticed it was four

Now the treachery of Shoeless Joe can't hurt us anymore"

"I'll end world hunger, I'll make dolphins speak,
 * "The Future Soon", which has the following lines:

Work through the daytime, spend my nights and weekends Perfecting my warrior robot race..."

"And the night followed day
 * It's a bit of a stretch, but the intended rhyme is likely "Asleep", though an earlier line describes working "In a space lab in space," which rhymes but doesn't fit the meter of the song.
 * Alternatively, you can think of "speak" rhyming with the first syllable of "weekends."
 * Paul and Storm, who often tour with Jonathan Coulton, have one of their own in "Cruel, Cruel Moon." You keep waiting for them to sing "...and then rip me apart." but they never do.
 * Subverted rhymes aren't always obscured obscenities. From Brian May's song "'39":

And the storytellers say

That the score brave souls inside

For many a lonely day

Sailed across the milky seas"

"Soon I grew, and happy, too
 * Replace "seas" with the intended rhyme "way," and remember that Brian May's a Ph.D in astrophysics...and the song begins to make more sense.
 * On the other hand, in Good Company...

My very good friend and me

We'd play all day with Sally J.

The girl from number four"

"Ra! Ra! Rhee! Kick 'em in the knee!
 * Popular cheer for cheerleaders:

Ra! Ra! Rhass! Kick 'em in the other knee!"

"Ra! Ra! Rhass! Kick 'em in the ass!
 * Ah, but don't forget the inverted version:

Ra! Ra! Rhee! Kick 'em in the other ass!"

"Rick em! Rack em! Rock em! Ruck em! Go out there and really fight em!"
 * Another cheer like this:

"We eat Wheaties! We are fit! The other team doesn't! They eat shhh...redded wheat!"
 * One more cheer:

"Chocolate, Strawberry, Banana Split! We think your team plays like, SHIFT to the left, shift to the right..."
 * And another!

"We're red! We're white! We're good! You're...not."
 * Depending on your team's colours:

"Two, four, six, eight, our team is really great! Three, five, seven, nine, you lead petty little lives and you live in a cultural wasteland."
 * Non-British tropers: The word that would rhyme with white in the above, "shite", is offensive in British English.
 * There are a lot of these:

"Zimmerman: Now Ted's a little haggard, but he's thankful for the schism,
 * Variation: In this performance of Roy Zimmerman's song "Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual", there is the following couplet:

[audience laughter]

Zimmerman: [speaking] "You're right, but wait for it."

[sings] And you might find it hard to swallow...the syllogism..."

"Now we've learned our lesson: it's hard to conduct
 * Also, in "Saddam Shame":

A war when the prewar intelligence sucked.

Now some say the country is totally f...ar from anything a well-meaning superpower could ever hope to reconstruct."

"Find a white dress or a tux;
 * And again in "Summer of Loving":

It ain't nobody's business who a person marries."

"One summer evening when my woman was doing laundry
 * And a cleaner, more subtle version in "Defenders of Marriage":

I shared a six-pack with an old John Bircher

And oh so wisely he imparted an ancient quandary

To ponder: He

Said, "It's nature versus...legislature.""

"You scream,
 * From Acid Bath's "Paegan Love Song":

I scream,

Everybody scream

For morphine"

"Sometimes he drives a big car,
 * From the Bob and Tom Song "Snailman"

Sometimes he drives a truck,

He knows you're in a hurry,

He doesn't give a darn"

"I really couldn't be bothered:
 * Mitch Benn loves this trope:
 * In "Apathy Song":

My mind was totally blank.

So I made myself a cup of tea,

Read the paper, had a w-alk in the park."

"And we've already had a hit,
 * In "Boy Band":

And you're listening to it,

And I'm sure you think it sh-ould be number one already!"

"You gave us digital and satellite,
 * Another one from a song he performed on The Now Show:

You never said they would be sh-ockingly bad!"

"They'd exploit any tragedy that makes them a buck,
 * And from "Tabloid Journalists":

And if it makes things worse they don't give a f...

..Or your own protection you'd better beware,

There are tabloid journalists everywhere."

"She knows very well she had the easiest job,
 * And again in a song about the return of amusingly deformed vegetables, and what this might mean for Esther Rantzen (who spent the 70s and 80s anchoring a show that featured them heavily):

Just holding up a parsnip that looked just like a kno .. ughty thing!"

"We heard your stories, we're here to bring the missing bit,
 * And again in "David Cameron Said Tw..", at the end of every verse (except the last one which just bleeps it out).
 * And yet again in "We Love Our NHS":

And if you're losing your own argument, could just be you're full of shanana da da da da naa"

"Are you having a happy Christmas?
 * And once more with feeling:

Just exactly how happy is it?

On a scale of one to ten

where one is great and ten is sh-ockingly bad"

"The tune don't have to be cle-ver,
 * Comedy artist Worm Quartet performed "Spatula", with multiple instances of the approaching mention of male genitalia being the cue for the chorus of "Spatula, spatula, spatula..."
 * Tom Lehrer uses this trope in a few of his songs.
 * It's parodied in The Folk Song Army (along with just about every other folk song trope).

And it don't matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line.

It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English,

And it don't even gotta rhyme.

Excuse me, rine."

"Now you're the only one here
 * An even better example occurs in "My Home Town", where Tom Lehrer replaces an entire line with "I'd better leave this line out just to be on the safe side" or "We're recording tonight, so I'll have to leave this line out", depending on which recording you're listening to (the former for the original studio recording, the latter for a later live performance). The really funny thing about this particular example is that there is no line to leave out. Try as he might, Tom Lehrer couldn't come up with anything that actually rhymed and that sounded better than simply suggesting that there was a line, but he wasn't allowed to include it.
 * To provide some context, the entire song is a cheerful ditty about all the charming folks in his home town...and about how unspeakably, amorally depraved each one is. The elided line would have described some secret involving "That fellow...who taught our Sunday School", and "our kindly Parson Brown." Remember, back then it really was the love that dared not speak its name.
 * They Might Be Giants' "Kiss Me, Son Of God:"

Who can tell me if it's true,

That you love me,

And I love me."

"A rich man once told me "Hey, life's a funny thing."
 * This is debatable, but I think they set up "exploited working class" to rhyme with "kiss my ass", but instead used "kiss me, son of god." If you know the song title, you can see this one coming.
 * Also in "Number 3", then averted on the third line.

A poor man once told me that he can't afford to speak.

Now I'm in the middle, like a bird without a beak..."

"And you can bung it down the toilet. You can spread it down your halls.
 * Fred Wedlock's 'Handier Household Help' [to name but one of his comic songs to do this]

You can buy it in pint canisters for putting on your...banisters.

It removes the stains from carpet, the blemishes from glass,

Keeps your radio free from static. It will fumigate your...attic. (And so on...)"

We were teamed up in duelling class/But no one else believed that I could knock you on your bum "A cheerleader might not have her GED but she's pursuing one.
 * In Draco and the Malfoys' "Potions Yesterday":
 * Sometimes inverted in concert.
 * From Deirdre Flint's Cheerleader:

A cheerleader might not be a CEO but she'll be...dating one."

"I pulled my groin, I pulled my groin
 * The Arrogant Worms are often miscredited with The Assumption Song (see above). Although they never recorded that song, they have pulled this trope with I Pulled My Groin:

It hurts me when I skate, but not when I master...hills"

"Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and blunt
 * The pirate-themed band The Jolly Rogers have recorded a song called "The Clean Song" (possibly NSFW) whose lyrics consist entirely of this trope, except for the very end.
 * In the same vein is a supposed "Old English Folk Song", sung here by Bob Saget.
 * Bat for Lashes' version of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire":

And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my...soul"

"Such a big man
 * Used twice in the Bowling for Soup song "99 Biker Friends" which is insulting an un-named abusive boyfriend that titular biker friends and the band wish to beat up. The first time it was played straight:

Such a little chick

I think it all

Goes back to your tiny...pick up truck"

"Tell her that you're sorry
 * The second time was very much subverted:

Blame it on the beer

Your dad was mean to you

Your friends think you're...an asshole.

And I do too

Over compensating

For your small shoe"

"One evening as I was lying down by Leicester Square
 * The profanity-ducking version is Subverted by The Pogues in "The Old Main Drag":

I was picked up by the coppers and kicked in the balls"

"Big time, my belly's getting bigger
 * The ending of Peter Gabriel's "Big Time":

Big time, and my bank account

Big time, look at my circumstance

Big time, and the bulge in my big big big big big big big big big big big big big big big, hi there"

"This is the world we live in
 * Certain versions of the song just end it after the last "big".
 * I believe that only the music video version ends with the "Hi there," which is clearly taken from the beginning of the song.
 * Genesis pulled this to neat effect in "Land of Confusion". The rhyme of the first couplet in the refrain suggests exactly the opposite of the word used in the second:

And these are the hands we're given

Use them and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in"

"Stand up and let's start showing
 * They almost totally avert the trope at the end, though:

Just where our lives are going to"

"...Where I'd quickly learn the system,
 * Another obscenity free example comes from "I Wish I was a Hudson" by...ummmm...the Hudsons.

Start giving good advice

I'd drink a barrel of whiskey

And I'd eat my beans and...maybe some cornbread. Maybe some cornbread!"

"My Baby drives...a truck
 * From the Dead Milkmen

My Baby sure is...good luck

My Baby has a...pet duck

My Baby is a heck of a f...friend"

"Tony the Tiger:Every day I wake up
 * In the song "Rehab Center for Fictional Characters"

And I get to work late

My boss says "Hey whats up"

And I say that I'm Grrrrrrrrrrrrrowing tired of this shit"

"My whole family thinks I'm gay
 * By the same artist, My Whole Family

I guess it's always been that way

Maybe it's 'cause of the way I walk

That makes them think that I like...boys"

"Did you know that Satan wears a cape
 * Also by Bo Burnham, Sunday School

Made out of a rainbow flag?

And did you know that Jesus hates abortions

Unless the kid was a f- Jew?"

"We'll love him and raise him, till he finally leaves us
 * Untitled

What should we name him? How about Adolf.

Little Adooooooooolf!"

"Miss Susie had a steamboat
 * For reference, here is (one version) of 'Miss Susie', which originated as a jump-rope rhyme:

The steamboat had a bell

Miss Susie went to Heaven

The steamboat went to

Hello operator

Please give me number nine

And if you disconnect me,

I'll paddle your

Behind the refrigerator

There was a piece of glass

Miss Susie sat upon it and broke her little

Ask me no more questions

Tell me no more lies

The boys are in the girls' room

Pulling down their

flies are in the city

bees are in the park

Miss Susie and her boyfriend

Are kissing in the

D-A-R-K

D-A-R-K

D-A-R-K

[fast] DARK, DARK, DARK

Dark is like a movie

A movie's like a show

A show is like a TV screen

And that is all I know

I know I know my mother

I know I know my pa

I know I know my sister

With the alligator bra!"

"Three little angels, all dressed in white
 * A somewhat similar nursery rhyme-type song:

Trying to get to heaven on the end of a kite

The kite string broke and down they all fell

Instead of going to heaven, they all went to

Two little angels...(This continues on until the end of 'one little angel'.)

Don't get excited

Don't lose your head

Instead of going to heaven

They all went to bed."

"His name was Nobby Hall, Nobby Hall
 * Another kids' song, to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It":

His name was Nobby Hall, Nobby Hall

His name was Nobby Hall, and he only had one...finger

His name was Nobby Hall, Nobby Hall"

"He went to rob a bank, and he stopped to have a...sandwich
 * Later verses include:

The copper he came quick, and they caught him by his...elbow

The judge's name was Annie, and she had a hairy...head"

"All around me are familiar faces
 * A no-obscenity version for subtle emphasis in "Mad World":

Worn out places, worn out faces

Bright and early for their daily races

Going nowhere, going nowhere"

"You scare me out of my wits
 * The Magnetic Fields' "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long" does this twice:

When you do that Shih Tzu"

"You've just run out of luck
 * and later...

I don't care what you foxhounds do..."

"Homegirls, for once, forget you got class,
 * Digital Underground's "Doowutchyalike"

See a guy you like: just grab 'im in the biscuits!"

"If you're hungry, then get yourself something to eat
 * From the same song:

And if you're dirty, then go take a bath.

Messed up the line? Nope - sometimes I don't rhyme."

"She's like my Nellie
 * "The Freckle Song" contains several instances, including

From her head down to her...elbow."

"She was born in Hackensack
 * And then there's:

she made a fortune on her...career!"

"She drinks until she gets plastered
 * And, of course, there's:

She gets drunker than...my brother!"

"I met a guy, who drives a truck
 * Julie Brown's comedy song "I Like Them Big and Stupid":

He can't tell time but he sure can drive"

"The moral of this story, like a jewel it is gleamin'.
 * Bowser and Blue's "Polkadot Undies" is entirely built on this trope, and it even lampshades it in the last verse.

But you'll never find it in a glass of warm...

Milk or tea, 'cause it will not fit,

And you probably already think I am full of...

Vague innuendos and double-meanin' rhymes.

But I'll tell you that obscenity is all in your...

Polka-dot undies!"

"It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife,
 * Alanis Morissette, in a show of support, altered the lyrics of her song "Ironic" to:

It's like meeting the man of my dreams...and meeting his beautiful new husband."

"The path you tread is narrow and the trumpets sheer and very high
 * Lampshaded in Pink Floyd's "Cymbaline":

the ravens all are watching from a vantage point nearby

aprehension creeping like a tube train up your spine

will the tight rope reach the end, will the final couplet rhyme?"

"It's metal by numbers!
 * The final couplet of the song, of course, is the only one which doesn't rhyme.
 * Subverted by comedian Brian Posehn's "Metal By Numbers" which sets up a obscene rhyme, only to replace it with another word, that means the same thing.

it's not arithmetic!

John Mayer or Kelly Clarkson,

they both can suck my...penis"

"Global market meltdowns,
 * Done in Jib Jab's latest 'Year in Review' song, where the lyrics cut to the same word, only in a different context.

A bailout by the Fed

Fanny, Freddy, AIG and Lheman crapped the

Bedlam in Afghanistan

The Big Three self-destruct

Jessie Jackson threatened to cut off Obama's

Nutjobs made a bigfoot

And Spitzer's friend turned tricks

Duchovny went to rehab 'coz he couldn't control his

Dick needed a kickstart, the US needed gas

Harry showed the world his wand and Miley showed her

Ask me any question, I'll give it to you straight

For your sake kid I sure do hope '09 ain't like '08"

"Just a brown fellow
 * "Flavor of the Month" by Black Sheep:

Who's not afraid of Jello

To the people of the world

I would like to say G'day"

"I've never thought much of formulaic verse anyway
 * Tally Hall presents a pseudo-example of this for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag in the song "Haiku":

And rhymes are not my forte. [correctly pronounced as "fort"]"

"Some people use the front door
 * From "Backdoor Lover", the song-within-a-band-within-a-movie from the Josie and The Pussycats film (wherein the title is a metaphor for both secret affairs and, ah, "unorthodox" sexual relations):

But that's never been my way

Just 'cause i slip in back doors,

Well, that doesn't make me...hey!"

""Drink the drinks, the drinks they drank
 * Multiply double-subverted in Anthrax's song "I'm the Man":

I put my money in the bank

They cut their crack, they offer joints

We don't do drugs, do you get our..."

"Meaning!"

"Point! Point! Watch the beat!""

"There once was a farmer who took a young miss
 * A lovely little song entitled Sweet Violets does this trope for the entirety of the song. A snippet:

behind the barnyard and gave her a

on gooses and chickens and eggs

and told her she had the most beautiful

that suited a girl of her charm

a girl that he'd like to take up in his

and then if she did

then they could get married and raise lots of"

"I work all day
 * The aforementioned "Assumption Song" uses the same tune but this one's much cleaner!
 * The Rick Moranis song "9 More Gallons" pulls this in the first two verses (the third verse has a similar subverted intent, but manages to rhyme anyway):

To pay the rent

Before the money's earned

It's all been allocated"

"Work all night
 * And in the second:

I'm always tired.

Hope my boss

Doesn't get me laid off."

"The boll weevil said to the farmer
 * Brook Benton's "Boll Weevil Song":

"Farmer, I'd like to wish you well"

Farmer said to the boll weevil

"Yeah, and I wish that you went...lookin' for a home...""

"Oh you'll never go to heaven on a blade of grass,
 * Fairly common in the song Oh, You'll Never Go To Heaven:

'Cos a blade of grass will cut your leg.

Oh you'll never go to heaven in a portaloo,

'Cos a portaloo is full of water."

"Your name is Clive, and you're forty-five
 * Amateur Transplants' "Beautiful Song", to the tune of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", tells the story of a young boy and his middle-aged best friend:

But you don't let that come between us

And you make me hold your hand."

"They'll come and play
 * The Pixies' "Vamos":

Their friends will say

Your daddy's rich

Your mama's a pretty thing"

"Come on dad, I ain't no runt
 * The Violent Femmes' "Gimme The Car", where the profane rhymes are suddenly interrupted by guitar slides:

Come on girl, gimme your- * sproing*"

"Now if you want an encore
 * Every verse of "The Air Is Getting Slippery" by Primus ends on one of these:

You might hear "Is It Luck?"

But me, I'd rather play Residents

'Cause I don't give a-

Forgive me if I hesitate"

"They call me Mr. Knowitall
 * Also from Primus; Mr Knowitall

I am so eloquent.

Perfection is my middle name

And whatever rhymes with eloquent."

"Almost every line in sung in time
 * "Please Play This Song On The Radio" by NoFX (Written as 'rhyme' but pronounced another way):

Almost every verse ends in a rim"

"And it breaks my heart that we're not on the chart
 * "Stutter Rap" by Morris Minor and the Majors uses this well in two separate ways:

'cause the record's nearly over when the vocals start

And I'm down and out, and I'm down on my luck

And I'm livin' on my own and I'm dying for a f-riend to say "You're great!"

But I'm under the hammer

'cause all I seem to do is s-s-s-st--"

"Well no-one's ever seen what I mean
 * Another example from "Stutter Rap", in this case people expecting to hear 'nineteen'...

From the age of n-n-n-n-n-n-thirteen"

"NO! SLEEP! 'TIL BEDTIME!"
 * ...and yet again from "Stutter Rap", misdirected 'No Sleep 'til Brooklyn' lyrics:

"If the A-side makes a hit
 * The B-side of this record, Another Boring B-Side, contained this double example, where the first averted rhyme becomes the set-up for the second:

We don't care if this is missed

'Cause the sonner we get finished

The sooner we get home"

"Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck
 * Tim Wilson did a comedy sketch called "Love Songs for Losers" in which he offered fake clips from love songs for people with very un-sexy names. One of them had the lyric:

I think she finally wants to fffffffffforget about yesterday."

"There was a new girl in town
 * In the song "Into Your Arms" by The Maine, the first few lines go as follows:

She had it all figured out.

And I'll state something rash,

She had the most amazing...smile.

I bet you didn't expect that,

But she made me change my ways..."

"''C'mon, people, don't you look so down
 * From L'America, by The Doors;

You know the rainman's comin' to town

He'll change your weather, change your luck

And then he'll teach you how to...find yourself!''"

"I've seen lightning blow a cypress tree in half
 * Many Country Music songs subvert a rhyme to "ass": "Honky Tonk Attitude" by Joe Diffie, "You Ain't Much Fun" by Toby Keith, "Men" by The Forester Sisters, etc. Diffie uses a "well", and the other two use a "yeah". Also in Jo Dee Messina's "I'm Alright", she just doesn't say the word at all: "Been on top of the world and off on our…" When Phil Vassar (who wrote the song) did his own rendition for a Greatest Hits Album, he sang "asses."
 * Chad Brock's "Lightning Does the Work" takes it a step further:

The thunder's busy talkin', and lightning's kickin'...(thunderclap)"

"I'm talkin' jet skis and inner tubes
 * Another Country Music example from Blaine Larsen's "Chillin'":

Pretty girls with big ol'...blue eyes"

"If you wanna know what we're all thinkin'
 * And yet another, from "The Truth About Men" by Tracy Byrd:

It's nothin' too complex

Just somethin' cold for drinkin'

And a whole lotta S-E-yeah, that's the truth about men..."

"De que me vale ser filho da santa
 * Little Texas gets the most brazen award for country songs that subvert a rhyme to "ass" here...not completing the rhyme, in the chorus, and then using said non-completion as the title of their song, in "Kick a Little". (Though you might not know it because they set it up to rhyme with "last".
 * Chico Buarque, Brazilian musician, once used this in his song "Cálice". This song was a heavy protest against the military dictatorship that occupied Brazil back then. The subverted rhyme was a way of Getting Crap Past the Radar, making it a rare non-comedic example. Being such a serious and powerful song, most people appreciate the subtlety. AND it actually rhymes better this way. Yes, Chico is a genius!! It's also unusual in that the substituted part is before the part it is supposed to rhyme (he substituted the word puta, that means bitch or whore, for the word outra, other).

Melhor seria ser filho da outra

Outra realidade menos morta

Tanta mentira, tanta força bruta"

"What's the worth of being son of the saint
 * I kinda did a translation for English-speaking people, sorry if it's bad, Cálice is very hard to translate.

Would be better being son of the other

Another reality, less dead

So many lies, so much brute force"

"I know a girl called Dorothea,
 * Also from Brazil, but comedic: "Julieta" is a raunchy succesion of those. For one easy to translate:

She is very sick, she's got...a cold"

"Yes, Mr. Brown just doesn't look as if he's rich
 * Mr. Brown by Glow:

Cause all the money he earns goes directly in the bank"

"Single, double, triple, home run
 * The Lonely Island inverts using this trope for censorship in "We Like Sportz."

For the celebration I'll shoot my gun

I like my friend, he's a real guy's guy

He's not a loudmouth like that cunthole, Steve!"

"When I was in Harvard I smoked weed every day
 * Which is in fact a reference another example in an older song, "Just 2 Guyz": ''I like playing games in the pool/Who invited Steve? That dude's a cunt!"
 * Similarly in "Natalie's Rap" (featuring Natalie Portman):

I cheated every test and snorted all the yay

I gotta def posse, you gotta bunch of dudes

I'll sit right down on your face and take a shit!"

"I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
 * "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.

And I called him my pa, and he called me his son

And I came away with a different point of view

And I think about him, now and then

Every time I try and every time I win

And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him...Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!"

"On behalf of my behind
 * Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's "What Is A Booty?" includes:

I feel it is my duty to my booty

To be head of the class

When it comes to...butts"

"I will worship the great god Loki,
 * Some of the alternate verses to "Old Time Religion" play with this, but specifically Lampshaded in:

he's the Norse god of chaos

that's why this verse doesn't have any meter or rhyme scheme or anything like that

and that's good enough for me."

"They may tell you it's only their job,
 * "If You Can't Smoke It, Kick It to Death":

But they love it every bit,

So when they say it's not their way they're talking a lot of hypocrisy

They hate you!"

"I don't eat no ham n' eggs
 * Most iterations of the chorus to A Tribe Called Quest's "Ham N' Eggs" do use the expected rhyme ("Not at all"), but towards the end of the song it's momentarily switched to:

Cuz they're high in cholesterol

Afrika do you eat 'em? No.

Pos, do you eat 'em?

Hell yeah, all the time!"

"Make a note on the rhythm we gave ya
 * Also "Can I kick it", 'hair' is forced to rhyme with everything else, but not 'wear' or 'air'

Feel free, drop your pants, check your ha-ir

Do you like the garments that we wear?

I instruct you to be the obeyer

A rhythm recipe that you`ll savor

Doesn`t matter if you`re minor or major

Yes, the tribe of the game, rhythm player

As you inhale like a breath of fresh air"

"You're thinking too much
 * Dream Theater's "As I Am". Might not be intentional, but it works anyway. The phrase seems like it should be "You cannot touch the way I roll"

Where is your soul?

You cannot touch the way I

Play

Or tell me what to say"

"Even tied, eggs you fried, out of luck
 * Toy Matinee's "Turn it on Salvador" contains this. Quoted directly from the lyrics insert:

What the [some 15th century German word]

[some 15th century German word]"

"Her inspiration's Ready Steady Cook
 * This may render the lyrics impossible for anyone to sing ever again, since the singer/main songwriter died, others might not remember the word, and it is incomprehensibly slurred and trailing-off; it sounds a tiny bit similar to "squawk."
 * "Chippy Tea" by The Lancashire Hotpots:

Am I eating it? Am I...It's Friday night, I want a chippy tea!"

"It were from a lass in Lancashire, her page had loads of hits
 * "I Met a Girl on My Space" is even better:

I saw the pictures in her profile, she had absolutely massive too-ra-loo-ra-aye!

and:

She said she had no transport, so a lift she'd cadge

And if I played my cards right, I'd get to feel her too-ra-loo-ra-aye!"

"I play electric bass,
 * In Eric Bogle's "Introduction Song", in which the members of the band introduce themselves, the bass player gets this:

With an educated thumb,

If you think my face is hairy,

(instrumental line)"

"Hector Ormano is my favorite boxer.
 * of Montreal's "My Favorite Boxer":

He goes smasho and everyone cheers.

He turns big men into whimpering cowards.

He's so strong and...how I adore him."

"Miss Lucy had some leeches
 * Then there is the Emilie Autumn version of the popular "Miss Lucy" song- here's just a part of it. (The rest can be found here.

Her leeches liked to suck

And when they drank up all her blood

She didn't give a"

"He came from Hull, he was true grit.
 * Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden with "Big Fat John" (Prescott, that is):

He was full of hope and he was full of integrity."

"And a stiff drink for Mommy in a nice tall glass
 * Played straight in Bob Rivers' A Visit From Saint Nicholson:

She could really use something to kill that bug up her chimney"

"Everything that happens, I know it's just bad luck
 * The bridge of Rin Barton's Favorite Tiny Cat has this:

Even when I get home to find you've managed to poop on the wall, how did you even do that, what the fff-"

- favorite tiny cat, you're my favorite tiny cat...

"I feel insane
 * "Almost Easy" by Avenged Sevenfold:

Every single time

I'm asked to compromise

'Cause I'm afraid

And stuck in my ways

And that`s the way it stays"

"Shame
 * And later:

Pulses though my heart

From the things I`ve done to you

It`s hard to face

But the fact remains that

This is nothing new"

"If I put my fingers here
 * Barenaked Ladies' "It's All Been Done":

And if I say "I love you, dear"

And if I play the same three chords

Will you just yawn and say, "oh --

It's all been done""

"Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
 * Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans":

If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye

We held our fire 'til we seed their faces well

Then we opened up our squirrel guns and really gave 'em -- well..."

"We kept real still and we had our eyes a-glued
 * Spoofed with "The Battle of Kookamunga" by Homer and Jethro. The missing word is not a profanity, though it would make the song racier.

We saw how they were dressed, they were swimming in the- well now..."

"He was looking rather bleary
 * Frank Zappa's "Father O'Blivion" has a rather prolonged one:

He forgot to watch the clock

'Cause the night before behind the door

A leprechaun had stroked, yes...

The night before behind the door

A leprechaun had stroked (he stroked it!)

The night before behind the door

A leprechaun had stroked his...

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh - stroked his smock!"

"There's a tire around my gut
 * Harry Chapin's "W.O.L.D." serves up a mild variation of this, only with the "offending" word replaced with the thump of a drum rather than a different word:

From sittin' on my (* thump* )"

"My lyrics are like the movie The Shawshank Redemption
 * And then there's Wodega, which is an entire song built on this.
 * Jon Lajoie's rap parody "I Kill People" manages to rhyme most of the time, however awkward and beige they may be. But when he decides to praise his own lines, well...read it and see.

[Awkward pause]

They're really good"

"Look around tell me what you see
 * The last verse of "The Games People Play":

What's happening to you and me?

God grant me the serentity,

To remember who I am.

Cause you're giving up your sanity,

For your pride and your vanity,

Turn your back on humanity,

And you don't give a da da-da da-da..."

"I am just a poor boy,
 * Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"

Though my story's seldom told.

I have squandered my resistance

For a pocket full of mumbles, such are promises."

"I can see you staring there from across the block
 * Lady Gaga's song LoveGame:

With a smile on your mouth and your hand on your HUH!"

"Let's have some fun, This beat is sick
 * Also the chorus:

I wanna take a ride on your disco stick"

"What is happening, and how have you been?
 * The song "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale" by Love uses an interesting variation of this. The last line of every stanza always trails off before a rhyme, but the word you'd expect to go there is then used as the first word of the next stanza. Thus:

Gotta go, but I'll see you again

And oh, the music is so loud

And then, I fade into the...

Crowds of people standing everywhere

'Cross the street I'm at the slop affair"

"Perhaps I'll look beneath the couch
 * "Don't Forget To Remember" by TV's Kyle includes one:

Perhaps I'll look behind the corn

Or in my closet in the back

Behind the questionable periodicals"

"I'm a thoroughbred
 * From "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by Big & Rich:

That's what she said

In the back of my truck bed

As I was getting

Buzzed on suds"

"Check yes Juliet, are you with me
 * "Check Yes Juliet", by We The Kings, starts thus:

Rain keeps falling down on the sidewalk"

"I never had a chance to choose my own parents
 * And every time he hears it, this troper's mind completes the second line with city...
 * Another subverted rhyme to add emphasis to the lyrics is in Yoko Ono's "I Felt Like Smashing My Face in a Clear Glass Window"

I never know why I should be stuck with mine

Mommy's always trying not to eat

And daddy's always smelling like he's pickled in booze"

"This is a song I wrote, it's a song that doesn't rhyme.
 * Done acappella with mermaids here.
 * Oded Gross's "Song That Doesn't Rhyme" is built on this trope:

'Cause I was in a hurry, and I didn't have the...patience."

"Well you and me
 * The Zambonis do it in their hockey rock song Play to Win.

We make a pretty good team

So let's go melt some ice

If you know what I mean

You grab my stick

I'll grab your puck

Feels so good

Baby, let's play to win"

"You, by the phone
 * It may actually be unintentional, but the single stanza of The Ramones' "It's A Long Way Back":

You, all alone

It's a long way back to Germany

It's a long way back to Germany"

"Heigh, heigh, yo-ho
 * The expected rhyme being "home".
 * There's this bit from Ludo's Rotten Town:

O're the Atlantic we go

Drinkin' 'till we all get sick,

And comin' up with limericks

But we never quite remember how they end"

"It's Friday night
 * The rap group Insane Clown Posse never blush at spewing filthy language, so they usually don't employ this trope. But, ironically, they do use it in an unexpected way in the opening verse of "The Headless Boogie":

Dark, scary

Lonely walkin' through the park

Cemetery

And it's foggy

Cold and smoggy

I hear a dog

A how-a-lin' doggy

I'm scared

Shoulda brought my shotgun

Woulda, shoulda

But I ain't got one

So I watch my back

Hey, what's that?

The caretaker

A dirty old hunchback

I'd better run!

Hide!

Quick!

Fast!

He's comin' for my ass with a shovel (instead of "pick")!"

"I am the fire
 * From Angelspit's "Kill Kitty"

You use me to light the gas.

You are the paper

I use you to wipe my."

"I'm runnin' this shovel way down in a ditch
 * Double subverted by "Down in a Ditch" by Joe Diffie:

When you're down in a ditch, it's a son of a gun

Every fool knows you'll never get rich

When you're down in a ditch in the Tennessee sun."

"Oh, you had to scratch that itch
 * Jo Dee Messina's "I'm Done" subverts the rhyme because, if the word were there, it'd throw the meter off:

You deserve what you get, yeah, you and that…

Walkin' around, talk of the town..."

"And here's to bartenders tryin' to get paid
 * "One More Drinkin' Song" by Jerrod Niemann:

While the rest of us are tryin' to get...

Hey hey hey, what's so wrong

With one more drinkin' song..."

"But I will hold on hope
 * A rather odd case in The Cave, by Mumford and Sons.

And I won't let you choke

On the noose around your neck"

"Sergeant: Tell that mean Iraqi nut--
 * Capitol Steps, "Sound Off":

Chorus: Tell that mean Iraqi nut!

Sergeant: We will never kiss his--

Man: Whoa, Sarge! Never say never."

"There's a a face in every window of the Songwriters' Neighborhood
 * Inverted in Warren Zevon's "Genius".

Everybody's your best friend when you're doing well...I mean good"

"Socks are thin and socks are thick
 * "I Want Your Socks", a parody of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" by Mark Jonathan Davis (before he became Richard Cheese), has:

You can even wear one on your...hand."

"Grandma knits me a great big sweater
 * Sykotik Sinfoney's "Manic Depresso", best known for its use in b-movie Bad Channels:

My little life can't get no better

Life's so happy and full of joy

I'm lying, it really sucks!"

"Love put me wise
 * Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady" has a variation, setting up one obvious rhyme (given the subject matter) but then rhyming with a different word instead.

To her love in disguise

She had the body of a Venus

Lord, imagine my surprise!"

"Fact and fantasy united as one
 * Carcass' "Don't Believe a Word" has this few verses:

Real power stems form the barrel of a pen"

"My time on earth was a lot of fun
 * An example from Art Brut's "Ice Hockey" where Eddie Argos sings;

But the adventure has only just started"

"Drinkin' beer in the hot sun
 * Dead Kennedys' cover of "I Fought the Law" does this at the outset, mostly to starkly contrast their modified version of the lyrics from the original's:

I fought the law and I won

I needed sex and I got mine

I fought the law and I won"

"Raisin' hell in Austin, just after sundown
 * The W.A.S.P. song "Blind In Texas" has this verse:

when the hoosegow police decided to come 'round.

They said, "What's the matter with you?

Whatcha tryin' to do?"

I looked at the man, and I said...

(Blackie's obvious response isn't censored, but simply omitted as the song moves along to the chorus.)"

"Taxes for the poor, none for the rich
 * From Bela Fleck's "The Message":

People starving in America, now ain't that a bummer"

"I had everything we needed in the back of my truck
 * "Fish" by Craig Campbell:

Turns out my baby loves to...

Fish, she wants to do it all the time

Early in the morning, in the middle of the night

She's hooked and now she can't get enough

Man, that girl sure loves to fish"

"Oh you can't get to Heaven on the Frankford El
 * "Beat Up Guitar" by the Hooters [The Frankford El is an elevated train line in Philadelphia. The couplet is older than the song, being used in jumprope rhymes years before the song was released.]:

Cause the Frankford El goes straight to Frankford"

"Well I stumble my way into my local bar
 * Inverted in "Whiskey's Gone" by the Zac Brown Band:

Where I saw the devil in my glass

The bartender told me it was time to go

I told him that he could lick my sack"

"A J-pop song comes on we start to rock (wo-oh)
 * In the Leet Street Boys song, "Lady And The Trap"

She reached up my leg to grab my...hand (wo-oh)"

"I drink more liquor to fuck you up quicker
 * Eminem skirts this in "Criminal":

Than you wanna fuck me up for saying the word...(left unsaid since he's white)"

"The blue ladies rode the bikes
 * Combined with Rhyming With Itself in Cracker's "Ms. Santa Cruz County":

And what they were, we assumed, rhymed with bikes"

""When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "The Mountains of Mourne"
 * Two examples from Eric Bogle:
 * "Plastic Paddy":

In his search for Celtic chiché, the man has left no stone unturned

'Til he embarks upon the harp that once through terraced halls

Accompanying himself on the Bodhrán, which takes a lot of...courage."

"And when some stupid damn committee gave the match to Melbourne City
 * "World Cup Fever":

Though it made us all feel quite...annoyed, we didn't cause a fuss."

"Well the gringo boys got their dark sunglasses
 * From the Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers song "Counterclockwise"

And the girls on the beach are all shaking their fingers

'Cause no matter how dark the lenses they can see

That the eyes and the minds of the boys are somewhere they ain't supposed to be."

"Thormas Time
 * There's one from a recent upoad by Anthony and Those Other Guys: Thormas Time

Is in its prime

That rhyme really sucked

But if thou doth not sacrifice

Then thine life will be fff-false and meaningless"

"Saying swears a whole lot, not a little bit
 * Rappy Mcrapperson's song, "Curse In your Verses", is all about how he cusses too much, yet doesn't contain a single cuss. This is as close as it gets:

Cursing in my verses, cause I don't give a whaaat!"

"As a few good men set sights to link with your chick
 * MFDOOM is fond of doing this. Just one of many examples:

You have to find a new hen fight to drink your liq'

Ten years later, see how Enzyte'll shrink your...wallet"

"Well roses are red and ready for plucking
 * 1960s group Doug Clark & the Hot Nuts does this in their Double Entendre-loaded "Hot Nuts Theme #1"

And girls out of high school are ready for...college"

The fact that it is subverted makes this possibly one of the cleanest lines in the song. "A couple nice girly bits
 * Tom Smith's "Quit Freaking Out Over Boobs" has:

Quit freaking out over bosoms"

"And I chewed my only necktie from the metal frame of my bed
 * Los Campesinos!' "Baby I Got the Death Rattle"

Where I tied your wrists together spent all night giving oh you get the message don't you?"

"I called up the station down the road a-ways
 * The Charlie Daniels Band's "Uneasy Rider" has this piece:

He said he wasn't very busy today

And he could have someone out there in just about ten minutes or so

He said, "Now you just stay right where you're at,"

And I didn't bother to tell the durn fool

That I sure as hell didn't have any place else to go"

"Well, where oh where can my baby be?
 * And of course, there is the chorus line for "Last Kiss" by J. Franklin Wilson and the Cavaliers:

The Lord took her away from me

She's gone to heaven, so I've got to be good

So I can see my baby when I leave this world"

"They see my blonde hair, blue eyes and class
 * "Hot Problems" by Double Take.

But they don't know I have a really big heart"

Musical Theater
"Ah, my heart is still in Scotland
 * "Fie on Goodness" in the musical Camelot contains the following lines:

Where the lasses woo the best

On some bonny hill in Scotland

Stroking someone's bonny..."

"Fie on Scotland, fie!

Fie on Scotland, fie!"

"You, dear friend, who talk so well,
 * In the musical My Fair Lady, Eliza causes pandemonium at the Ascot races by shouting, "Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin' arse!" Shortly afterwards, Freddie is about to rhyme "farce" by repeating her words when Mrs. Pearce interrupts him.
 * Later, Eliza sings in "Without You":

You can go to

Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire."

"In France, every Frenchman
 * Higgins' "Why Can't the English" has a very subtle one:

Knows his language from A to Zed

(The French don't care what they do actually

As long as they do it in bed pronounce it properly.)"

"Julia: So you're back where you started,
 * A clean example is used in the musical of The Wedding Singer:

On your way to success.

So

Will you sing at my wedding?

A beat.

Robbie: NOOOOOOOO."

"Mrs. Lovett: Is that just revolting,
 * Actually, this is a Double Subversion, because it does rhyme, just not where you think it will.
 * The subversion still rhymes (of course it rhymes, it's Sondheim) but Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street teeters over the edge of profanity in Mrs. Lovett's song "The Worst Pies In London":

All greasy and gritty?

It looks like it's moulting,

And tastes like...

Well, pity

A woman alone..."

"There's no one
 * At the very end of the show, Todd and Mrs. Lovett are singing a reprise of "A Little Priest": "Life is for the alive, my dear, / So let's keep living it, really living it—" and then Todd flings her into the oven, making the implied, but never sung, last line "in here!"
 * Although it's not used for comedic effect, Company features one in "Poor Baby":

In his life,

Robert ought to have a woman..."

"Is there a source for this congestion
 * In a reversal of this trope's conventional use, "Feelings," from the Bock and Harnick musical The Apple Tree: after Eve sings at some length about how nervous and dreamy she gets around Adam, she concludes with:

That I must learn to rise above?

Is there a name for this condition?

Yes, there's a name, and it is hell!"

"Well, they couldn't teach you anything; you think you're such a looker,
 * From a sanitized version of "Beauty School Dropout" in a junior high production of Grease:

But no customer would go to you unless she was a...fool!"

"And when all your neighbors are upper class
 * "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" from Finian's Rainbow:

You won't know your Joneses from your Astors.

...

When we're in the dough and off of the nut,

You won't know your banker from your butler."

"We've got a situation:
 * In the Lippa version of The Wild Party, Burrs sings in "Make Me Happy" (while waving a loaded pistol):

Shit or get off the pot!

Whaddaya say? You wanna give her away

Or do you wanna get--

On your knees?"

"Mercury: There was Mélisande,
 * In The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan, Katisha is trying to reveal to the chorus that Nanki-Poo is the son of the Mikado, but she keeps getting interrupted: "No minstrel he, despite bravado! He is the son of..."; "I'll spoil your gay gambado! He is the son of..."; and so on. Fortunately for Nanki-Poo, the chorus is Genre Blind enough that they don't realize that the word that keeps getting cut off must be "Mikado".
 * "They Couldn't Compare To You" from Out of This World:

A platinum blonde

(How I loved to ruffle her locks).

There was bright Aurora,

Then Pandora,

Who let me open her--

Chorus Girls (not half a beat too late): They couldn't compare to us!"

"Carmen: Yes, green's my favorite color,
 * In Curtains, near the end of the song "It's a Business", after using several inappropriate words without qualms:

And I don't mean on the grass

It's a business.

And the shows I do do business,

And I'm good at doin' business,

And if you don't like my business, sweetie,

Blow it out your...

Guys: Business!"

"Cowboys: What's that music?
 * Played with in the song "Thataway". The script offers this line to alternate with the original or be used in its place for younger productions.

What's that dance?

What's that stirring?

It's romance!"

"Cowboys:What's that stirring?
 * The original line?

In my pants?"

""Here's the butcher! He has AIDS! Here's the teacher! She has AIDS! Here's the doctor! He has AIDS! Here's my daughter! She has Aaaaaaaa wonderful disposition...""
 * It's not exactly a rhyme, since it's just the same word over and over again, but from The Book of Mormon:

"I see a nose!
 * In Wicked, during Elphaba's birth in "No One Mourns the Wicked":

I see a curl!

It's a healthy, perfect, lovely little - (her father and the midwife realize she's green and start screaming)"

"The designers can't light me
 * The song "Random Black Girl" from "Homemade Fusion" by Kooman and Dimond:

Director don't know my name

And the makeup artists think

We all wear the same shade

And Mr. Stage Manager thinks I got too much sass

And the costumer don't know what to do with my big old...black...head, oh!"

Radio
"He suggested the EU should lead from the front
 * A The Now Show example from someone other than Mitch; Marcus Brigstocke's Dr Seuss poem about the Copenhagen summit has Gordon Brown taking a stand:

So the Mail and Telegraph called him something very unpleasant indeed"

"Twenty years ago, a man called John Gray, a genius,
 * Laura Shavin:

Wrote a book called Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus,

All about the differences between us,

And it's not just that men have got...a Y-chromosome...it's Radio 4...not sure we can say penis."

"Fosters: A brawl broke out outside Parliment House last night, during which Seanator Ros Kelly was punched in the belly...
 * At least one Abbott and Costello radio episode featured these.
 * Played straight and subverted on How Green Was My Cactus when Little Johnny Howler and John Fosters (the Cactus Island counterparts of Liberal party politicians John Howard and John Elliot) appeared as The Two Johnnies, and Fosters demonstrated that he had no understanding of what actually made the gag work:

Howler: ...the Honorable Barry Jones broke a few bones...

Fosters: ...and Senator Steele Hall was kicked in the carpark. (pause) Shouldn't that have been 'balls'?"

Theater
"Florrie: It's vain of its face
 * From the play Saturday's Children by Maxwell Anderson:

It's vain of its figger

It's just fat enough

But it mustn't get - larger

Willy: Rhyme it you dancing fool, rhyme it!

Florrie: Um - it never uses bad words."

"Now Othello loved Desi like Adonis loved Venus.
 * Used in the Reduced Shakespeare Company's "Othello Rap":

And Desi loved Othello

'Cuz he had a big...SWORD!"

"Their fate pursues them, they can't seem to duck it,
 * Even before that, they've already pulled a similar trick:

(pause) And then in Act 5, they both kick the bucket."

"Hamlet: (singing) For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
 * Used by Shakespeare himself in Hamlet:

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here

A very, very--pajock."

"Horatio: You might have rhymed."
 * "Pajock" was a synonym for "peacock," and "was" would have been pronounced to approximately rhyme with "ass". Immediately Lampshaded by Horatio :

"And was George afraid? Yes, he was and he run,
 * A Stanley Holloway monologue has this line:

And he hid there in one of the ditches,

While the Dragon, the pig, ate his ferrets and pup,

Aye, best of his prize-winning er - she dogs."

Video Games
"Roses are grey
 * In World of Warcraft the Forsaken have completely subverted a traditional rhyme with,

Violets are grey

I'm dead

And colorblind."

"A﻿ fairly decent job, even with all the fuss,
 * In Banjo-Tooie, Jamjars, who teaches you moves, does so in a rhyming style. Sometimes, he ends up rhyming the button names, which, while always rhymed in the original version, often did not rhyme in the Xbox Live Arcade version. You'd have the same problem if you played the original game in the US--Jamjars at one point rhymes the Z button with "red," which works in the UK--where "Z" is pronounced "Zed"--but not the US, where it's pronounced "Zee."
 * Also in Banjo-Tooie, Gruntilda, who has spoken entirely in rhyming couplets all through Banjo-Kazooie, and up to that point in the sequel, says "Oh, very well then" in response to a demand by her sisters to stop the incessant rhyming.
 * In Dissidia Final Fantasy,  always speaks in rhyme during  cutscenes, except on one occasion:

I hereby score you a solid B minus."

"Yuffie: That's the way things go, you know. Without luck, you're...Uh, okay, moving on!"
 * The gag here, of course, is that
 * 'B minus' does work, but it's something of a Painful Rhyme.
 * Also happens with a Last Second Word Swap for an amusing comment by Yuffie when explaining the game's Battlegen system:

"Alison,
 * In Left 4 Dead, there is a room full of graffiti which includes

Roses are red

Violets are blue

You suck"

"Korvak: Magic makes me happy, magic makes me glad, magic makes the voices quiet, and nothing rhymes with purple."
 * I'm a poet and I know it not! Oh, Arkvoodle....
 * In Runescape, you can get a rune pouch repaired by Wizard Korvak, who already went mad from the revelation. When you get it repaired, he drops this little gem.

"You are my hen, the mistress of my flock. You nourish my body, and tend to my...rooster."
 * There's also Bard Roberts' shanty, recapping the "Great Brain Robbery" quest: "Mi-Gor tried to stop your heart's pace / Your foe's arm part anchor, part mace / Struck without delay / But him ye did slay / made him look a total...[beat]...moron."
 * The Pacman ghosts: Pinky, Blinky, Inky, and Clyde.
 * In Dragon Age: Awakening, a clue for one sidequest reads as follows:

"Guybrush: We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange.
 * In The Curse of Monkey Island, there's a point where Guybrush Threepwood has to subvert the rhymes of his crew.

Haggis: And...! ...um...

Bill: Well...

Edward: ...err...

Bill: Door hinge?

Edward: No, no...

Bill: Guess the song's over, then.

Haggis: Guess so.

Edward: Okay, back to work.

Guybrush: Well, gee. I feel a little guilty, now."

"Homestar: Bleu cheese or ranch. We can dine in, or we can take it to go.
 * In one part of SBCG4AP: Baddest of the Bands, the player has to help Homestar fill in the words to his song by directing him to food items. However, one of them doesn't pan out as expected:

Our food-related love makes me all tipsy, kinda queasy, like a...

[Strong Bad points to the escargot]

[Record Needle Scratch] Homestar: Plate of snails?! That...doesn't rhyme..."

"Fawful sings a song of bad.
 * Fawful in Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story delivers this gem:

Mushroom Kingdom is so sad.

All of it is for Fawful

and the...rhyme with...that."

"It's hard to be sheep
 * In the 2011 edition of You Don't Know Jack, one of the commercials / sponsors is for a rhyming dictionary where the voice over consistently fails to rhyme any of his lines.
 * Final Fantasy XIII 2 provides us with the following gem, in a poem about the sheep of Gran Pulse titled "The Melancholy of the Lambs:"

out here on the plain,

Avoiding the hunters

is such a terrible strain.

Oh, I wish that once

I could munch on some grass

Without a man coming to pull

a tuft from my...side."

"Goodbye, my only friend.
 * The Credits Song at the end of Portal 2, called "Want You Gone," gives us what seems like a heartwarming good-bye, but then G La DOS proves to be...well, G La DOS, and subverts it to make it more insulting.

Oh, did you think I meant you?

That would be funny if

It weren't so sad."

Web Comics
"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
 * From Nedroid, Beartato's Night Before Christmas pastiche:

Except for Reginald's,

And Beartato also forgot his."

"Roses are red,
 * Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Strip 644:

Violets are blue,

Get the f*** off my lawn!"

"''There once was a man from...schmonnerhea
 * And of course there's strip 547, which provides examples of both Sublime Rhyme of "There once was a man from Natucket" (if only in a forced way) and this Koan-like gem, under the pretense that rhymes can take the edge off bad news:

You have AIDS. Ucket.''"

"That's enough; I don't feel well.
 * Freakangels Does this to "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" by Jules Léotard
 * In Freedom Force, there's a villain named Deja Vu, who clones himself and others and speaks in rhymes. When you defeat him, it combines this with Curse Cut Short and Killed Mid-Sentence.

I fall down; You go to ugh...*collapses*"

Violets are blue And so is this card Red, I mean]]
 * In Tweep, [[http://www.tweep.com/comic/?date=07-23-04 when the blender explodes
 * From Housepets:
 * [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/13/cut-on-the-dotty-line/ Roses are red
 * From the alt text of this Dinosaur Comics: "it happens to me randomly / though when i force it you can see / it gets bad pretty quickly / and that's why rhyming is... difficult"

Web Original
"Para: We are villains who like to rhyme...
 * The trope title itself is an example. If you don't get it...we can wait.
 * Cake Wrecks does it twice in the description of a wedding cake that appears to have sperm on it First "Roses are red,/Butterflies are blue,/Um.../Pardon me, but are those sperm on your wedding cake?" and then in Poem Option #3: Roses are red/And cake can be pretty./How sad for you,'Cuz yours looks all.../[eyeing children]/...unpleasant.
 * Lampshaded in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, in the duel against the rhyming Paradox Brothers.

Dox: In fact, we do it all the time.

Para: You may think it's rather crass...

Dox: But you can stick your cards right up your nose.

Para: ...You were supposed to say "ass," brother. I thought we rehearsed this."

"Para: You have tricked us with your magic box!
 * Also, in the middle of that duel:

Dox: We invite you to suck on our co-"

"Para: It seems that we ran out of luck!
 * And at the end of the duel:

Dox: It's just a card game, who gives a fu-"

"Para: When we're through with you you will want to submit.
 * And in a flashback of the scene in a later episode:

Dox: If you ask me this clip show's a pile of horse sh-"

"The Pharoh awoke the very next day,
 * Also played straight in the second christmas special:

Wearing an outfit that made him look...uh, handsome."

"Marik: "We don't want vinyl or chinos or briefs/I am a criminal and he is a thief/and we are hot/hot, hot hot/we are quite sexy."
 * And in "LEATHER PANTS~"

Bakura: "Marik, that doesn't quite rhyme."

Marik: "SHUT UP I AM LADY GAGA!""

"I'm gonna dress myself without an ounce of class,
 * A cult YouTube video parodies the Nickelback song Rockstar with new lyrics lampooning pop singers such as Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson:

Gonna make the boys all drool and stare at my...glasses"

"Ten Dollar Solo. Not bad so far
 * Used cleverly on multiple occasions in Commentary! The Musical, the musical commentary to Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog:

There's internal rhyme

Although not every instance

And the meter is occasionally a little bit bizarre"

"My wonderful me-ness
 * and, as sung by Nathan Fillion:

My hammer the peee--

ople can tell

That I'm awfully swell..."

"Roses are red
 * Note that "The hammer is my penis" is an actual line that Nathan Fillion's character says in the original film.
 * In Zero Punctuation's review of Saints Row 2:

Violets are blue

Your house is covered

In piles of excrement"

"My car door's freaking out; it seems to be forever
 * Cabel Sasser does this in Buggy Saints Row: The Musical:

In the concrete barricade; I wonder how I'm ever going to drive away.

This really isn't my day.

Sparks are flying, people dying, metal frying,

And I wonder if there's more to life or if I'll find that this is really it.

This game is a piece of work."

""I have a better plan
 * In this I'm a Marvel And Im ADC episode with Deadpool singing: I'm sure that his power ring's a lot of fun/ but can it ever really be as cool as my M16 with laser sided scope oh my GOD I love this thing.
 * Break It Down, a short skit from the people who would later form Tally Hall, includes the following plan to make a quick buck:

I'll marry a wealthy man."

"Wouldn't that make you gay?"

"Not neccesari-lay...

...I'll sleep in a separate bed,

and I'll refrain from giving...

[beat]

...kisses.""

"Ian: The Transformers creators wouldn't pay us to make this rap
 * This video celebrating Stephen Fry reaching one million followers on Twitter.
 * The Smosh video Transformers Rap does this.

They told us that the script was full of NONSENSE!

I bet you thought I was gonna say "crap", cause it rhymes with "rap", but I'm better than that!"

""I'm Charles Dolling, droppin' rhymes/I've been arrested seven times/I know that sounds like a lot/but three of times were for...vandalism.""
 * this one contains the lyrics

"Joker, are you busy? Let's call a truce.
 * In the The Key Of Awesome parody of The Dark Knight, Alfred almost reveals Batman's identity to the Joker:

I need you to help explain the plot to...Batman."

"Nose jobs, tummy tucks
 * They also have this verse in their parody of California Girls

These are the girls I like to...hang out with."

"Nachos, lemon head, my dad's boat
 * Youtube Poop: THE EPIC MOVIE:

You won't go down 'cause my dick can"

"But let's not forget that we need to perform well
 * A Very Potter Musical's "Back to Hogwarts", Hermione sings:

In class if we want to pass our...OWLS."

"You're tall and fun and pretty
 * And of course:

You're really, really skinny...

CHO CHANG!"

""Merry Christmas to everybody and also goodnight to everybody!""
 * Celebrity Bric a Brac Theater has John Madden in the boots of Santa Claus. And we hear him exclaim as he rides out of sight:

"Remember that time that I saved your life? You were happy, I could tell.
 * Red vs. Blue Revelation's soundtrack has a track called "Your Best Friend" where Caboose sings about his friendship with Church. It's full of this trope.

You said something about how I was smart and I make your life a living heaven.

We do everything together like hide and go seek, your favorite game.

But I'm so glad that we found each other and I know you feel the identical way as me."

"I'm five foot eleven of sex
 * The YouTube video "Pale kid raps fast" has these lyrics:

From the tip of my head to my gorgeous...knees."

"Baby Year 2008: Barrack [sic] defeated Johnny
 * Jib Jab does this with "The Year 2008 in Review", sung to the tune of "Miss Susie". One example:

So long to the far-right.

Now McCain has many houses,

But none of them are...

White men got passed over,

From Wasilla she was plucked;

When the maverick tapped a hockey mom

The press said, "What the..."

Truck bombs in Islamabad;

Bill Gates up and quit.

Putin stuck his chest out,

Told the Georgians to eat...

Ships were seized by pirates,

Ike and Gustav hit,

Johnny's honey had a baby,

But he said it wasn't...

HIIIIISSS-tory's now littered

With more famines, floods and wars.

If there's one thing I am grateful for,

It's that this job's now YOOOOUUUURS!"

"[[AC:The race has begun
 * The Friendship Is Witchcraft episode "Neigh, Soul Sister" features a couple of these in Sweetie Belle's song about the big race:

We must run fast

Jump over the mud

Having a good time]]"


 * and

"[[AC:Making tacky jelly

Put it on your head

We're gonna win the race

Because I am a good racer!]]"

"[[AC:Just because you feel upset
 * The opening line of her earlier song might qualify, depending on where she was going with it:

Does not mean you have to yell]]"

"It burns me like this cheap whisky,
 * In The Nostalgia Chick's The Lorax episode, she speaks in rhyme several times throughout, the final verse being:

Right down to my thorax.

I'm your Nostalgia Chick,

And I speak...for underrated Dr. Seuss books from the 1970s."

Western Animation
"We built this car
 * Billy and Irwin sing a song like this in the Billy and Mandy episode "Go Kart 3000":

All by ourselves,

If you don't like it

You can go to...heck!"

"Sassy Cat, Sassy Cat, full of sass, full of sass, if you don't like it you can kiss her BUTT!"
 * There's also this classic gem.

"Dot: Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
 * Animaniacs did this in a segment of "Dot's Poetry Corner".

The more you eat, the more you get kicked off the air for finishing this poem."

"Chorus: Come on back; farewell, Attila
 * Lampshaded in the song 'Here Comes Attila', though, surprisingly for the show, it's actually not done to get crap past the censors in this case:

Ate three ox, and got his fill-a

He wore shorts made of chinchilla

His favorite ice cream was strawberry.

Yakko: What can I say? It's not a perfect world."

"Dot: I never am vain
 * YMMV: the possible connection is a bit obscure, and certainly not hinted at (the subverted rhyme itself lampshaded, any innuendo behind their words was not), but the intended rhyming word ('Vanilla') could have been a pass at "other white stuff." Given the show's rather blatant remarks (specifically, "Wait 'till they get to the creamy filling"), the subverted rhyme may or may not have been an attempt at getting Crap Past the Radar, given the extreme subtlety involved if it was.
 * Animaniacs also did this in the song "I'm Cute."

Yakko: She's becoming a pain in the--

Dot: But I'm also real nice"

"Brian: I love the work of Allen Funt.
 * From the Family Guy episode "Brian Sings and Swings":

Stewie: Or a nicely shaven leg."

"Brian: Cause you get a kick out of carnage and guts.
 * And again, in "Road to Europe":

Stewie: And you get a kick out of stroking your--

Brian: Whoa whoa. You can't say that on TV.

Stewie: What, "ego"?

Brian: Never mind."

"Brian: Now, The Sopranos is a show I recommend.
 * "I Need a Jew" was Bowdlerized into this, rhyming "Jew" with "light," "slap," and "Lord."
 * In Stewie and Brian's song at the Emmys:

Stewie: Because you never know just how it's gonna- (cut to black screen)"

"Peter: My black son, my black son/ Now everyday my heart is getting bigger/ Don't even remember sleeping with that lady/But I did..."
 * Peter does this in a scene where he is imagining he's in an 80's sitcom.

"Mrs Landers was a health nut. She cooked food in a wok.
 * Wendy Testaburger did a version of the "Miss Susie" song in one episode of South Park.

Mr Harris was her boyfriend, and he had a great big

Cock-a-doodle-doodle, the rooster just won't quit

And I don't want my breakfast, because it tastes like

Shih Tzus make good house pets. They're cuddly and sweet.

Monkeys aren't good to have, because they like to beat their

Meeting in the office or meeting in the hall,

The boss, he wants to see you so you can suck his

Balzac was a writer, he lived with Allen Funt

Mrs Roberts didn't like him, but that's 'cause she's a

Contaminated water can really make you sick.

Your bladder gets infected, and blood comes out your

Dictate what I'm saying, 'cause it will bring you luck

And if you all don't like it, I don't give a flying fuck."

"When Brian Boitano traveled through time
 * The Movie contains the Big Gay Al song "I'm Super", which refrains from using the word "gay" until the Truck Driver's Gear Change final chorus.
 * Also from the movie:

To the year three thousand ten,

He fought the evil robot king

And saved us all again

When Brian Boitano built the pyramids

He beat up Kubla Khan,

'Cause Brian Boitano doesn't take shit from an - y bo - dy..."

"Adam: Bull shark! Porcupine! I don't know what!
 * The second verse of the ~My Gym Partner's a Monkey~ theme song:

Going to this school's a pain in the--

Jake: Adam!

Adam: What? I was gonna say "neck".

Jake: Oh. That's okay, then."

"Overlord: We'll do what we always do, blow the planet up and move on to the next one! ISN'T THAT CUTE?
 * The painful thing about this is that the show can't go thirty seconds without a butt joke. Censoring it in the theme song is rather misleading.
 * Let's not forget Animal School Musical...in this one song Jake was singing, he subverted every single rhyme. And the song was about his incapability to rhyme.
 * An episode of The Fairly Odd Parents lampshades this, with Timmy being sent to the planet Yugopotamia, which has been conquered by the Gigglepies, an alien species that wear cuteness and rhyming as a hat. When Timmy inquires to their overlord about what they will do to their planet:

Timmy: That's horrible! And it didn't rhyme!

Overlord: [to the Gigglepies] He's on to us! GET HIM."

"Garfield: And now, this tale I must suspend / For I have come to...the finish."
 * Garfield and Friends: 47's told in verse, except the last line which is not. Don't worry, folks, he wouldn't curse, but see the twist this cat hath...made:

- "Fit For A King"

"Homer Simpson: I once knew a man from Nantucket...
 * The Simpsons in "30 Minutes over Tokyo":

Bart: And?

Homer: Let's just say the stories about him are greatly exaggerated."

"Lisa and Jamie (singing and rhyming): "Miss Lucy had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell. Miss Lucy went to Heaven and the steamboat went to-"
 * There once was a rapping tomato. That's right, I said rapping tomato. He rapped all day, from April to May...and also, guess what,
 * Also from "Fat Man and Little Boy" with its own verson of 'Miss Susie' with Homer eavesdropping:

Homer (gasps)

Lisa and Jamie: "Hello operator, get me number 9, and if you disconnect me, I'll chop off your be-"

Homer (more gasps)

Lisa and Jamie: "-hind the refridgerator, there was a piece of glass, Miss Lucy sat upon it and cut her big, fat-"

Homer (gasps, then passes out)

Lisa and Jamie: "Ask me no more questions, I'll tell you no more-"

(Lisa gets hit by a spitball)

Lisa: "Ow! Spitballs!""

"Sherri and Terri: Bart sold his soul, and that's just swell,
 * And from "Bart Sells His Soul,:

Now he's going straight to...

Hello, operator, give me number nine."

"Crowd: STAN! STAN! HE'S OUR BOY! IF HE CAN'T DO IT, NO ONE...(Beat) WILL!"
 * In "Homer Loves Flanders", there's a football player named Stan "The Boy" Taylor.

"Actor Dot: But Megabyte betrayed Bob and
 * The Musical Recap of Re Boot's 3rd season features these lyrics:

He threw him deep inside the pit

The pit was closed

and Bob was hosed

and all that he could say was

Actor Bob: Noooo!"

"To be first in the soil which erupts in a coil
 * The Maxx does this after becoming trapped in a cartoon. He speaks in rhyme throughout the entire sequence, until:

Of trees, vines, and grasses all brought to a boil

Wait, it's different somehow 'cause this land isn't mine

And my brain has been freed, I'm not thinking in...poetry stuff."

"Yak:You sure are a clever guy. Now just follow Nob and I
 * In the Angry Beavers episode "Yak in the Sac", the Cloudcuckoolander Yak (a Tastes Like Diabetes parody to Dr. Seuss's The Cat in The Hat) attempts to ensnare the beavers by having them speak in rhymes. Norbert is in his thrall already, but Dagget resists:

Norb:

Dag I think you're really neat

I like to sit and watch you eat

It's cold in here, turn up the --

Dag: He--music.

Yak: LET'S TRY AGAIN! Let's not cast blame but this time Dag, just say your name!

Norb: It looks like a good baguette, please give some to brother --

Dag: Da--your name."

"Doofenshmirtz: The movies are gray
 * In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Unfair Science Fair", Dr. Doofenshmirtz recalls the time he tried writing poetry:

The TV is black

The horses are running

Please bring me some food."

"Romance,
 * Or it could've just been a free verse poem. The comedic effect is the poem making no sense whatsoever, not because it didn't rhyme.
 * An episode of Pinky, Elymra and the Brain contained a song with these lyrics:

A chance

To jump in someone else's arms!"

"Epitaph: Here lies Cynthia Snell.
 * Also Lampshaded in the 'Ghost Bride' episode of Hey Arnold when Arnold reads the tombstone:

She lived her life and went straight to -

Arnold: Huh. I can't read the rest."

"...Two mice came up from somewhere behind their Royal chum
 * And in a Pinky and The Brain cartoon set in medieval times with Pinky as a minstrel constantly missing obvious rhymes. In the climax Brain must choose between providing the right rhyme or completing the spell that will allow him to take over the world. Guess what he does.
 * From the Bagpuss song "The Boney King of Nowhere":

They said, Dear King

Here is a thing

To warm the royal...

And stop you feeling numb

(For the non-British: the missing word is 'bum', which means 'bottom'.)"

"So now you know your problem you can deal with your emotion,
 * Beached Az has the song sung to the stingray.

and have a better life when you return to the...sea"

""I've made you cry, your theatre is burnt!
 * At the end of Dan Vs "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre," Dan gloats over his victory thusly:

It lies in ruin, plain for all to see

And now it seems your lesson has been learnt

That should teach you not to mess with DAN!""

"There was once a man from Venus, with a rocket ship for a...uhh...wiener."
 * Beavis and Butthead has one episode when the boys visit a cafe with a stage, and Butt-Head steps in and saying some rhymes.

"This little piggy went to market,
 * And there's another episode, "At the Movies", when a cop shoots his foot and Butt-Head picks up the toes:

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef,

And this little piggy shot a big-ass hole through his foot."

Miscellaneous
"Jack wasn't nimble. Jack wasn't quick.
 * From a birthday card, with the last word on the inside:

He sat on your cake and burned his...corduroys."

"Mary had a little lamb
 * Inspired by the classical nursery rhyme:

and she also had a duck,

she put them on the mantelpiece

to see if they would f"

"Mary had a little lamb
 * A similar rhyme:

She kept it very well

One day she fed it dynamite

And blew it all to...pieces"

Violets are blue I'm schizophrenic So am I! Violets are blue I've got Multiple Personality Disorder And so do we! Violets are blue I've got Dissociative Identity Disorder For goodness' sake settle on a bloody name for what we've got already! Poppies are red The grass is all red SHIT THE GARDEN'S ON FIRE! These poems are lazy Political correctness Is driving us mad. "Here I sit,
 * An alliterative example: A number of popular science writers are fond of describing the basic drives of all animals (including humans) as involving the "Four F's: Feeding, Fighting, Fleeing, and Reproducing."
 * Roses are red
 * Roses are red
 * Roses are red
 * Roses are red
 * Violets aren't blue
 * A piece of bathroom graffiti, riffing on a classic piece of bathroom graffiti.

Broken-hearted,

Came to shit,

But my girlfriend dumped me."

"Suzanne was a lady with plenty of class
 * Songs that avert naughty words in this manner are called "teasing songs". Yet another example:

Who knocked the boys dead when she wiggled her

Eyes at the fellows as girls sometimes do"

"There once was a lady from Brunt
 * Here's a limerick:

Who stood in water up to her knees

This poem doesn't rhyme yet

But wait 'til the tide comes in"

"There once was an old man named Chuck
 * Another one:

Who loved a lady from Innsbruck

"She's too pretty for me,"

He said morosely,

"But I wish I could get her to go on a nice walk down the road so we could really get to know each other.""

"There was a young lady from Bude
 * A non-limerick by Trad (or his brother Anon)

Who went for a swim in a pond

A man in a punt

Stuck his pole in the water

And said "you can't swim here, it's private"."

"There was a young poet of Mainz
 * Or how about:

Whose limericks had no last lines.

When asked why this was,

He said "it's because"

"There was a young man of Arnoux
 * In a similar vein:

Whose limericks stopped at line two."

"There was a young man of Verdun,"
 * And taking this train of thought until it hits the buffers:

"There was a man from Rome
 * Of course, we won't even mention the limerick about Emperor Nero.
 * Similar:

Who daily composed a poem

Try as he might

He just couldn't quite

Stop from putting too many words in the last line, it sounded awful."

"The limerick, peculiar to English
 * Subverted Rhyme, Heavy Meta, and Sophisticated As Hell:

Proved exceedingly hard to extinguish

When Congress in session

Decreed its suppression

People got around it by writing the last line without any rhyme or meter."

"Little Miss-Miss, went out to pi--
 * Going with the Florence (second verse)
 * The Dragon's Lamentable Love
 * A camp song:

--ck, some flowers;

She waded in grass, up to her aaa--

--nklebones;

She went to the coop, to take a pooo--

--rr, little chicken out;

Little Miss-Miss, went out to pick, some flowers."

"'All going down to Amster--SHHH!
 * Then of course, there was the song about the 'Three Jolly Fishermen', and one verse has them,

We must not say that naughty word;

Must not say that naughty word;

They all went down to Amster--SHH!!!'"

"'We're gonna say it anyway;
 * Gleefully subverted in the next verse, however:

Gonna say it anyway;

Amster-Amster--DAMNDAMNDAMN!!

Amster-Amster--DAMNDAMNDAMN!!

They all went down to Amster-DAMN!!!'"

"There's a statue on a rock,
 * There are many Russian kids' songs (made by kids, not for kids, of course) of this kind, with a varying grade of obscenity. I'll try to translate one here:

And that statue has no--

EYES!!!

Don't you dare to spoil my rhymes! (Note: in Russian it rhymes better)

That one statue has no COCK!"

"Lo! The bushes are a-wagging!
 * Translated another one:

What're they doing in there? --

SHAGGING!

Don't you dare to spoil the merries!

There's a bear searching for berries!"

"I'm a di--
 * There are also many rhymes/songs of the following type; for example:

I'm a di

I have fu--

I have fu

I like boo--

I like boo

Yes, my co--

Yes, my co ;)

And my ba-

And my ba

Then my nu-

Then my nu"

"Old Lady Jill was out of luck
 * There are also so called "Eve Verses". A bit hard to translate (or, rather, compose new ones), but here is an attempt:

She looked for someone young to...dance

But they were no type for romance

They only cared for smoking crack."

"Rah Rah Ree!
 * A cheer that goes like this:

Kick 'em in the knee!

Rah Rah Ras!

Kick 'em in the !"

"Cigarette ashes! Cigarette butts!
 * And similarly:

We've got your team by the !"

"We like warm beer and cold duck!
 * And yet again:

But most of all we like to fffffff (The drawn-out "fffffff" is essential for maximum amusement of the juvenile minds performing the cheer.)"

"Charlie had a pigeon,
 * That playground classic "Charlie had a Pidgeon":

A pigeon, a pigeon.

Charlie had a pigeon,

A pigeon he had.

It flew in the morning,

It flew in the night,

And when it came home

It was covered in Sh-"

- Charlie had a pigeon...

"April, June and No-wonder
 * 30 Days hath Septober

All the rest have peanut butter

Except Grandma

'Cus she rides a tricycle"

"Can you heal a leper
 * Australian comedy group The Axis of Awesome, in their song "What Would Jesus Do?"

Or feed a crowd with fish and bread?

Can you walk on water?

Did you rise from the dead?

Did you give your life up to save humans from bad luck?

Were you born a virgin birth or did your parents--have sex?"

"Now you can make a tasty dish
 * The Scared Weird Little Guys do a similar thing with their comedic song Christmas Day At least until the very end...
 * A recent Lipton ice tea commercial featuring a singing fish has a great averted rhyme.

'Cause tea with citrus goes great with--chicken"

"Mary had a little skirt,
 * Another Mary poem:

A slit went up its side,

And every time she wore the skirt,

The boys could see her thigh.

Mary had another skirt,

The slit went up its front,

But she didnt wear that one very often."

"Ms. Lucy had a steamboat
 * We must not forget:

The steamboat had a bell

Ms. Lucy went to Heaven

The steamboat went to -

Hello Operator,

Please give me number nine

And if you disconnect me

I'll chop off your -

Behind the 'fridgerator

There was a piece of glass

Ms. Lucy sat upon it

And broke her little -

Ask me no more questions..."

And so on. "There was a man named Tiger Woods.
 * This is also the Miss Susie poem mentioned in the beginning of the article.
 * Popular jump rope game a while ago;

He had the cash, he had the goods.

Tiger Woods had all the luck.

How many women did he...HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH?"

""Lincoln Beachey thought it was a dream
 * An older jump rope rhyme:

To go up to heaven in a flying machine.

The machine broke down, and down he fell,

Instead of going to heaven he went to--

Lincoln Beachey thought it was a dream...""

"Q, R, S
 * There is a Dutch poem which for the whole of the poem actually changes words to rhyme with the previous line. It's about a knight going to rescue a damsel from a dragon. The dragon agrees to let her go if the knight composes a verse on them - he doesn't get her: he can't rhyme.
 * The ABC Song, if you're British or Canadian:

T, U, V

W, X,

Y and zed..."

"Lulu's got a boyfriend
 * A military cadence:

Her boyfriend's got a truck

Lulu likes to shift the gears

Her boyfriend likes to...steer"

"Holy Nellie I am dying
 * When I was in year 5 this was going around the school:

Just one thing before I go

Tie the cat unto a table

And stick a poker up its-

Holy Nellie (etc.)"


 * At a certain public university in a certain eastern state, the men's glee club there maintained a deep repertoire of old and creatively dirty songs, one of which -- called "High Above a Coopie's Garter" -- employed an unusual version of this trope. The eight-line first verse, which the rhyme scheme clearly indicates should build toward the final word "...ass," instead ends with "...hmmmm." The second verse is then eight lines of humming, until the final word -- "...ass."