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Least Rhymable Word (view source)

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I know, she'll be spending my sugar.<br />
But oh--you can't rhyme sugar! }}
* From ''[[The Muppets (Filmfilm)|The Muppets]]'':
{{quote| Life's a piece of pie/With someone to stir and someone to fry<br />
Life's a bunch of flowers/With someone to while away the hours<br />
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* In ''The Sot Weed Factor'', the poet protagonist and a friend have a rhyming contest at one point and the protagonist triumphantly does a short verse ending in month. Then, his friend does one ending in an obscure word, onth.
* The board book ''But Not The Hippopotamus'' by [[Sandra Boynton]] is all about this trope.
* In Asimov's ''Black Widowers'' series, one character tries to summarise ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' as a series of limericks, but grinds to a halt over the difficulty of rhyming Diomedes.
* ''[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Rhyming+the+unrhymeable-a0182524334 Rhyming the unrhymeable]'': Ove Michaelsen has written a two-part limerick based on rhymes for orange, purple, and silver.
* In ''[[Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell]]'' Jonathan Strange's attempts to become a poet stalled when he had trouble with a rhyme for "let love suffice". In this case it wasn't that no rhymes existed, but that he couldn't find any that were remotely suitable. After coming up with "sunk in vice" (hardly appropriate) "a pair of mice" (nonsense) and "what's the price?" (simply vulgar) he went for a ride, and apparently forgot about the whole business.
* Vladimir Mayakovsky, an unorthodox late Imperial Russian turned Soviet poet, was known among other things for bold and untried, if imprecise, rhymes in the Russian language. He often deliberately put the most expressive word at the end, even if it was usually considered unrhymable, and came up with a rhyme for it, come fire or water.
* [[Randall Garrett (Creator)|Randall Garrett]] tackled three, all of which rhyme better than "door hinge":
{{quote| I ate a poisoned orange;<br />
Now I lie upon my bed.<br />
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Drake and Josh]]'' uses the "orange"/"door hinge" rhyme.
* In the ''[[H.R. Pufnstuf (TV)]]'' episode "Show Biz Witch", Witchiepoo sings a sings a song in which most of the rhymes are made-up words like "schmoranges".
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To9LRUGtnRQ this scene] from ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'', Brian tries to win Alex back by improvising a song over the terminal microphone. His plan hits a snag when he realizes "nothing rhymes with Alex." Nevertheless, he gets a round of applause at the end (but doesn't win her back).
* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'': Rose and Dorothy are trying to write a song about Miami for a contest and Rose criticizes Dorothy's lyrics.
{{quote| '''Dorothy:''' Fine! You find something to rhyme with Miami, hotshot!<br />
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** The correct answers were, by the way, herple and kerple. Herple meaning to hobble along on one leg, and kerple being the part of a saddle that goes along the horse's stomach.
** They've also asked about orange, providing two answers which are both proper nouns: Blorenge (a town in Wales) and Gorringe (a surname). Rich Hall has also suggested door hinge.
* ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]]'': Sally, Tom, and Harry write an inspiring anti-racism poem. Even though the word "racism" is used before a stanza, they make unneeded attempts to replace it with other words in following stanzas, such as "[[Play Station]]" and "[[Claymation]]".
* In Emma's Birthday episode on ''[[Friends]]'', Phoebe tries to sing a song as her gift.
{{quote| Emma,<br />
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Joey: Lots of things rhyme with Rachel. Bagel. Mail. Jail. Bail. Able. May-pole.<br />
Chandler: [[Sarcasm Mode|All good.]] }}
* In ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', the human William the Bloody (so named for his bloody awful poetry) had a very hard time coming up with a rhyme for ''effulgent'', praising Cecily {{spoiler|who was '''possibly''' -- the experts disagree -- actually the vengeance demon Halfrek}}. The best he could do was ''bulge in't''. Incredibly and ironically enough, the only character known to have ''liked'' William's, later Spike's, poetry was [[Angel (TV)|Angel]]. (Which, since Angel also likes Barry Manilow, Spike takes as an insult.)
* From the U.S. version of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? (TV)|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'', the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rWsnCxx2pM "Knocked Over the Christmas Tree"] Irish Drinking Song.
{{quote| '''Ryan Stiles:''' ''(singing)'' I put the fire out myself.<br />
'''Brad Sherwood:''' ''(singing)'' With a fire extinguisher.<br />
'''Wayne Brady:''' ''(singing)'' Then I thought I was finished.<br />
'''Colin Mochrie:''' ''(singing)'' Ding-da-ding-da-dingisher. }}
* ''[[Young Blades (TV)|Young Blades]]'': When writing a poem about "The" D'Artagnan's exploits, Ramon struggles to find a rhyme for "Constantinople." Rejected ideas: "hope will," "mopeful," and "pope toll."
* ''series/HorribleHistories'' sometimes has to find rhymes for words such as "Elagabalus" and "Paleolithic".
 
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** This is the same [[Mitch Benn]] who found a rhyme for 'iambic pentameter'. ("Using my skills and my talents with grammar ta/ Kick yo' ass in iambic pentameter")
* Episode three of the [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] drama "Doctor Who and the Pirates" is done in the style of a Gilbert and Sullivan homage. The Doctor references the Major-General's song above with "I Am The Very Model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer", using the phrases "Rassilonian legatee" and "Remember me to Gallifrey" (pronounced here as "Gal-i-free").
* ''[[Hello Cheeky (Radio)|Hello Cheeky]]'' did one or two comedy songs every episode. One of them, ''I've Fallen For A Girl Called Agnes'', has no steady rhythm as the singer can't think of a rhyme for Agnes.
{{quote| ''I've fallen for a girl called Agnes''<br />
''And nothing rhymes with that''<br />
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== Theater ==
* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatretheatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', "A Little Priest":
{{quote| '''Mrs. Lovett:''' We've got tinker...<br />
'''Todd:''' No, no, something pinker.<br />
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''(Silence)'' }}
* The [[List Song]] "A Rhyme For Angela" from ''[[The Firebrand Of Florence]]''.
* The song "Popular" from ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]'' has Galinda getting her rhyme scheme interrupted, and improvises by pronouncing it as "Popu... lar?" (as in ''are'').
* Infamous in "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from ''[[The Pirates of Penzance]]'':
{{quote| '''Major-General Stanley''' [''singing'']: In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy...[''spoken''] Strategy, hm, that's a tough one...Ah! [''resumes singing''] You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee!<ref>This is not, as people sometimes think, a nonsense phrase. It means "to have ridden a horse".</ref>}}
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island (Video Game)|The Curse of Monkey Island]]'': Guybrush is trying to get his crew of pirates to stop singing, but they keep finding ways to rhyme with what he says. Then he hits them with this:
{{quote| '''Guybrush:''' We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an ''orange''.<br />
'''Haggis:''' And...! ...um...<br />
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== Web Original ==
* [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]], as he bursts in a ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' parody at the end of his ''[[Batman and Robin (Filmfilm)|Batman and Robin]]'' review:
{{quote| Iiit's...Supercrapafuckarifficexpialibullshit!<br />
A film so bad that censors really oughta go and pull it.<br />
Sadly there's not many words that only rhyme with bullshit... }}
** He gets stuck on "oranges" when he tries to rap along with ''[[BebesBebe's Kids]]''.
* On the [[Limerick DB]] (essentially a clone of bash.org, for limericks), one of the [http://limerickdb.com/?top150 top 150] limericks is this:
{{quote| There once was a small juicy orange,<br />
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== Webcomics ==
* In [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/9/13/ this strip] of ''[[Penny Arcade]]'', Tycho is trying to tell Gabe about some gaming-news or other, but Gabe keeps replying with "Chicken -rhyme-". Of course, he's a fool to challenge Tycho's expansive vocabulary, and sure enough, Tycho proceeds to state "I might even... ''acquiesce'''." Causing Gabe to collapse convulsing as his brain attempts the impossible task of rhyming with it...
* In ''[[Ozy and Millie (Webcomic)|Ozy and Millie]]'', Llewellyn invents the "authentic Llewellyn-brand borange" just so that orange will have a rhyme. He's a bit unclear about what exactly it ''does''.
* In ''[[Sheldon]]'', Arthur uses it as a cure for a strange disease that makes people talk in rhymes. [http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/040305.html Blunt like that].
* In [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0238.html page 238] of the webcomic ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'', Elan's attempt to persuade the inn patrons in the eatery via bard song which consisted entirely of rhymes. Elan combines the word "grass'n" to create a rhyme for assassin -- something noted by the author, who titled that page "You Try Rhyming 'Assassin'". In addition, he also paused briefly in the middle of the next stanza when trying to think of a word that rhymes with "wooden", in a sentence which implies a promise that his group would do for the patrons if they complied with his request to leave the inn.
* In a guest ''[[Captain SNES]]'' comic, Alex has run into [http://www.captainsnes.com/2009/12/18/1-twas-the-night-before-christmas/ a narrator-slash-censor forcing everyone to rhyme]. He remarks, "Orange is too cliche... how about film?" The narrator then reveals its looseness with rhymes: "Might I suggest you try out 'Dark Realm'?"
* In [http://lackadaisycats.com/comic.php?comicid=91 one strip of] ''[[Lackadaisy Cats]]'', Ivy is chewing out a bedridden Viktor for scaring off her previous boyfriends. He tries to justify it by saying that Chad was "Bad," Claude was "Flawed," and Cecil...
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Barbie and Thethe Diamond Castle]]'': [[Lounge Lizard]] twins Jeremy and Ian are alternating lyrics in a song to charm the heroines. At one point Jeremy ends a line with the word "orange," and Ian quips, "You know perfectly well nothing rhymes with orange."
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'':
** In the episode "Does This Duckbill Make Me Look Fat?" Doofenschmirtz tries to write his own evil jingle to replace a fast food [[Ear Worm]], but can't come up with any good rhymes for evil:
{{quote| "Believe me, I've tried. Keevil, deevil, feevil...you know, none of these are words."}}
** Subverted in the ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across Thethe 2nd Dimension|Across the 2nd Dimension]]'' song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF_lPMNa9jw Kick It Up a Notch], in which [[Eviler Than Thou|Doofenshmirtz's counterpart]] ''successfully'' comes up with a couple of rhymes for evil for his verse in the song:.
{{quote| '''Doof-2''': ''Yeah I'm cranking up the evil''<br />
''Cause political upheaval''<br />
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* The Canadian cartoon ''[[Whats With Andy]]?'' found Andy in a bet with his sister that he could keep rhyming for 24 hours. He manages it until a crucial moment when his sister uses the word "orange". At first it looks like he's stumped, until he see a "door hinge" and pulls through.
** "Zawias" is Polish for "door hinge", so the Polish dub replaced "orange" with "nawias" (which means "bracket"), a similarly difficult word to rhyme.
* The ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Fry and the Slurm Factory" parodies the [[Charlie and Thethe Chocolate Factory|Oompa Loompa]] song, exaggerating their use of meaningless made-up words to fill in rhymes:
{{quote| '''Grunka Lunkas:''' Grunka Lunka dunkity dingredient,<br />
you should not ask about the secret ingredient.<br />
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'''Bender:''' Shut the hell up! }}
* From ''[[The Simpsons]]'': In a particular episode, Homer is watching a 'Miss America' pageant on TV and shouting out rhymes for the states, until one stumps him. "Miss South Carolina!" "Nothing could be finer!" "Miss Delaware!" "Uh, um, uh... Good for her!"
* Referenced by ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' in a "Dot's Poetry Corner" skit, where she's riffing on "Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue" and how "violets are ''violet'', violets aren't blue!" She ends with:
{{quote| When we call something blue when it's not, we defile it.<br />
But aw, what the heck, it's hard to rhyme 'violet'! }}
* In one episode of ''[[Arthur (Animationanimation)|Arthur]]'', Binky has a dream where everyone speaks in rhyme. They are threatened by a monstrous "purple orange". It is even lampshaded at one point that it "has no rhyme".
 
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