Mondegreen: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"I mean, what the crap was he even saying there? 'Everybody, now bleed a beetle'? No! [[Squick|Ewww.]] 'Everybody, law deed will be dull'? Uhhhh, no kidding. 'Everybody, something the feed mill'?"''|'''Strong Bad''' [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemailintro.html commenting] on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'''s site intro}}

Mondegreens[[Mondegreen]]s are the phenomenon of mishearing lines, normally song lyrics, but poetry is also a frequent victim. Sometimes it's lack of correct enunciation, sometimes it's the speed or pitch that a lyric is delivered at, but often, a song lyric or recited poem will become famous not for what it says, but for what it sounds like it says to the uncarefulcareless ear.

Sometimes caused by [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome|bad diction]], or [[Lyrical Shoehorn|bizarre]] [[Word Salad Lyrics|lyrics]].

'''Note: Examples below should be [[In -Universe]], or ones referenced in other works ONLY.'''

* A commercial for T-Mobile plays with this trope: A guy sings along with Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me", and mondegreens it into "Pour some shook-up ramen." His girlfriend is, of course, incredulous, and turns to T-Mobile for help for some reason.

* One ad for Comcast's "On Demand" service, has a man mangling the lyrics to "Born to be Wild" in the shower -- andshower—and having Mr. T burst through his wall and reprimand him. No, seriously.

* When Scott was reading ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' to his son in ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause]]'', his son mistakes "arose such a clatter" for "a Rose Suchak ladder". This turns out to be justified.

* ''[[Winnie the Pooh (FilmDisney film)|Winnie the Pooh 2011]]'': Pooh and his friends thought that Christopher Robin was kidnapped by a monster known as the Backson because Pooh actually mistranslated Christopher's message "I'll be back soon."

* ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'': "Frollo's nose is long, and he wears a truss." <ref> A truss is a tricorn-like headdress worn by judges in the Middle Ages</ref>

* The Christmas short ''[[Olive the Other Reindeer (Film)|Olive the Other Reindeer]]'' has this set off the plot. Upon hearing on the radio that one of Santa's reindeer is injured and that they'll be counting on "all of the other reindeer," Olive decides that Santa did not say this, but the title, and that she is not a dog at all, and that she is in fact, a reindeer. So she goes to the North Pole to prove it. A bus driver later tells Olive that he used to think the pledge of Allegiance was about him, Richard Stands. As in, "And to the Republic, for Richard Stands."

{{quote| '''Shirley:''' I pledge a lesson to the frog of the United States of America. And to the wee puppet, for witches' hands, one Asian, in the vestibule, with little tea and just rice for all.}}

* In the novel ''The Prisoner of Pineapple Place'', set in an invisible alley of invisible residents, the protagonist believes the words of the Pledge are "One nation, ''invisible'', with liberty and justice for all". The story suggests this might be an intentional [[Mondegreen]] on the teacher's part, given the residents' own invisibility.

* There's a running joke in ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' about how all cassette tapes left in cars will eventually metamorphose into tapes of "The Greatest Hits of Queen". Crowley listens to the song "Radio Ga Ga", hearing the lyrics "''All we need is Radio Ga Ga''". It's actually "''All we'' hear ''is Radio Ga Ga.''"

* "Olive, the other reindeer ..." (''[[Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer]]'': "...[[All of the Other Reindeer]]..."). Inevitably, a book called ''Olive, The Other Reindeer'' was published in 1997, and was turned into a [[Christmas Special]] in 2003 by [[Matt Groening]] of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' fame.

{{quote| ''Ofay can you pee<br />

''By the dong's surly blight<br />

''What you probably inhaled<br />

''At the toilet's last cleaning. }}

{{quote| '''Gunray:''' Palpatine promised to leave us in peace!<br />

* The title ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]'' comes from an in-universe Mondegreen, Holden mishears the song "Comin' Thru the Rye" and adopts this mistaken phrase as his future purpose in life, forming a mental image of himself catching kids who are running around in a rye field (which is inexplicably placed on "some crazy cliff," which to him is symbolic of [[Moral Guardian|protecting them from adult themes]], especially sex. The song is actually, very ironically, about two lovers meeting to have sex in a rye field.

* "Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly" was mondegreened in the television series ''[[V (TV series)|V]]'' by none other than Robert "[[Nightmare On Elm Street|Freddy Krueger]]" Englund himself.

{{quote| '''Willie:''' Deck the halls with lousy folly/Fa la la la la, la la la la/Tis the evening scruffy molly/Fa la la la la, la la la la/Don't we know how gay a carol/Fa la la, la la la, la la la/Holy moly Yule Tide carol/Fa la la la la, la la...}}

{{quote| "I just want to know who Bruce is."}}

* [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] had fun with ''[[Pod People]]'' "Idiot control! Bees on pot! Burning rubber tires!" The funny thing is some of the ridiculous lines Joel and the bots sang ''are the real lines''. Also, one must remember this is a dub of a Spanish movie so it's bound to have major issues.

* [[Six Feet Under]] - [[In -Universe]] pop-star Celeste's song ''Set My Loving Free'' is sung by Keith as ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEk18HUlphc&list=FLjzW69sgd5CZAx4pzozg8XA&index=7&feature=plpp_video Shave My Legs For Free]''.

* In [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]], Greg Proops confuses the title of Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby got back" with "Ladies got back.

* In the TV show ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'' one episode's subplot revolved around Antonio becoming a busker in the airport, singing a song he learned back in Italy (his introduction to English): "My Goat Knows the Bowling Score, Hallelujah." After everyone gets sick of him singing the same line over and over they suggest he go on to the next verse, which he does: "Sid's new hair is in the mail, Hallelujah." (That is, "Michael, row the boat ashore" and "Sister, help to trim the sail", respectively.)

* The main character of ''[[Victorious]]'' mistook the ''[[Fresh Prince of Bel Air]]"'' theme song lyric "shooting some b-ball outside the school" as "chewing some meatballs outside the school."

* A game on ''[[Never Mind the Buzzcocks]]'' called "Indecipherable Lyrics" is based on the teams trying to deliberately come up with entire verses' worth of mondegreens for particularly mumbled songs. See also [[Something Something Leonard Bernstein]] and [[Perishing Alt Rock Voice]] (the latter a common cause of [[Mondegreen|Mondegreens]].

* "Slow Uncle Walter/The fire engine guy" ("Smoke on the water/A fire in the sky", ''Smoke on the Water'' by [[Deep Purple (Music)|Deep Purple]]). The Barenaked Ladies pay homage to this Mondegreen in their song "[[Tear Jerker|The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel]]":

{{quote| ''Rubberneck traffic and passers-by/ And Slow Motion Walter the fire engine guy / Stand around with their mouths open wide...''}}

* [[Electric Light Orchestra (Music)|Electric Light Orchestra]]'s "Don't Bring Me Down", is frequently mondegreened as "Don't bring me down, Bruce!" The actual lyric is "Don't bring me down, groose", which is a made-up word. ELO realized so many people were hearing this that they actually started singing it live.

* Doug Ingle's slurred and/or drunk/stoned mispronunciation of "In The Garden of Eden" has likewise become the official title of the famous [[Iron Butterfly (Music)|Iron Butterfly]] song, "Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida".

* "Seven Nation Army" by [[The White Stripes (Music)|The White Stripes]] has the line "And the feeling coming from my bones...", but it sounds ''exactly'' like "And the feeling coming from my balls..."

* "Wrapped up like a douche" ("Revved up like a deuce" (coupe) in the Manfred Mann's Earth Band version of [[Bruce Springsteen (Music)|Bruce Springsteen]]'s ''Blinded By The Light'')

* [[Pink Martini]] actually ''recorded'' a Mondegreen not realizing it was the wrong lyric. In "Amado Mio," a cover of another song, China Forbes sings "I want you ever, I love my darling, wanting to hold you and hold you tight" - and only later did the band realize that the words are "My one endeavor, my love, my darling."

* [[They Might Be Giants]]' John Linnell wrote a song called ''Olive, The Other Reindeer'', named after a ''[[Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer]]'' mondegreen of "...[[All of the Other Reindeer]]..."

* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] got the idea for "Like a Surgeon" from [[Madonna]] Mondegreening her own song "Like a Virgin" while talking to a friend.

== Web ComicComics ==

* In ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s article "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131026113913/http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-new-years-ruins-everything-great-about-drinking_p2/ 5 Reasons New Year's Ruins Everything Great About Drinking]", number 2 is "The Music", because nobody really knows the lyrics to "Auld Lang Syne":

{{quote| Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never yab to bye, adaaa dada banana boat, and auld lang synnne.}}

* In the [[RifftraxRiff Trax]] for ''[[New Moon]]'', the commentators joke that one of the songs on the soundtrack seems to say "Armed with your staring fly." The song is ''Roslyn'' by bon Iver and [[St Vincent (Music)|St. Vincent]] and the real words are "Aren't we just terrified?"

* O-Zone's ''Dragostea din Tei'' has been intentionally 'misinterpreted' in other languages, the [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/maiyahi Japanese version] even includes [[Shout -Out|Shout Outs]]s to ''[[One Piece]]'', ''[[Street Fighter]]'', and ''[[Sazae-san]]''.

* "O Fortuna" [https://web.archive.org/web/20170314153450/http://www.briankaneonline.com/2010/02/24/oh-four-tuna/ Godspeed.]

* [[That Dude in Thethe Suede]] chose [[Rob Zombie (Music)|Return of the Phantom Stranger]] as the theme song for his ''Fandom Stranger'' series because of this trope.

* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qayDROc-dkE Rum Stein]'' by [[Rammstein (Music)|Rammstein]].

* Yumi Kawamura and her [[Engrish|Engrishy]]y songs for ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]]'' are full of this. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Pn8y-odQ4&feature=related Here's just one example.]* In an episode of ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', an exhausted and desperate Donut tries to deliver the important and cryptic message "It's under the sand" to Caboose, but because Donut is on the verge of passing out, his words come out as "It's under....thessssssand". Caboose hears it as "It's under this, and...", and [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080915175223/http://www.z0l0pht.com/mathas/videos.htm Andrew Mathas] purposely mondegreens songs to make humorous videos.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=978cHrm5fvk This] [[YoutubeYouTube Poop]] mondegreens a line from ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''. (In case you're wondering, they're actually saying "gangway", as in "clear the way" or more bluntly "get out of the way".)

* Slowbeef of ''[[Retsupurae]]'' once made a video called "A Public Service Announcement to all Lets Players" wherein he attempted to read ''[[American Gods (Literature)|American Gods]]'' by [[Neil Gaiman]] whilst ZoopSoul [[Let's Play|LPed]] ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]''. Everytime ZoopSoul dies, Slowbeef interrupts himself and says "[[Memetic Mutation|Please Stop Lets Playing I Wanna Be The Guy.]]" At one point he gets to the part where Shadow "was (secondly) going to towel himself off" and ZoopSoul ends up dying at that moment. It is commonly misheard as "Second he was going to tell himself, Please Stop Lets Playing I Wanna Be The Guy." In reality it's, "Second he was going to towel himself - Please Stop Lets Playing I Wanna Be The Guy."

* Angelica once mondegreened the entire song, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" on an episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'', something like this: "My country tears of thee, sweet land of lizardy, of thee I see. Land that my father buyed, land of my chill and pie, From every mountain slide, let freedom ring." She also did something similar with "America the Beautiful" on another episode, which started out "O beautiful, for spaceship eyes..." Later substituting "America, America..." with (what else?) "Angelica, Angelica" And in case that wasn't sufficiently self-centered: "...from me to shining me!"

* ''[[Histeria (Animation)|Histeria!]]!'' did a number on the Pledge of Allegiance, with Toast messing up ''every line''. It included the "Richard Stands" mistake and ended, "One naked, undergarments, invisible man, with Liberace and puffed rice for all!"

* In ''[[Ben 10 Ultimate Alien (Animation)|Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]'', when Jimmy Jones is naming some of Ben's aliens, he incorrectly identifies Jetray as "Jeffrey". Ben corrects him.

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