Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Difference between revisions

'''Para:''' ...You were supposed to say "ass," brother. I thought we rehearsed this.|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series]]''}}

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 Song|Bawdy Songs]]s on American network television -- thoughtelevision—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]].

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

* [[The Lion King|]]: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.]] {{spoiler|He wanted to say "farted" }}

And kick you in the...([[Anvil on Head|gets hit in the head]]) <br />

'''Roger''': Nose! <br />

'''Smart Ass Weasel''': "Nose"? That don't rhyme with "walls"! <br />

* 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:

* Lampshaded in Matthew Patel's musical number in ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. Thethe World]]''

* In ''[[500 Days of Summer|Five Hundred Days of Summer]]'', the main character Tom writes greeting cards. After he and Summer break up...

'''Tom's Boss:''' Well, your latest card reads: "[[Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue|Roses are red. Violets are blue.]] [[Precision F-Strike|Fuck you,]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|whore.]] }}

* 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.

** Also, the warning in the magical equipment shop in ''[[Discworld/A Hat Full of Sky|A Hat Full of Sky]]'':

* In ''[[GodelGödel, Escher, Bach]]'', the Crab puts on a record of himself singing "A Song Without Time or Season." Here's how it goes:

Cocktails, ginger alleale, fourty cents a glass.

'''[[Distressed Dude in Distress]]:''' How can I repay--

* The second season theme song for ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'', where it's [[The Scottish Trope]] instead of an obscenity that's being obscured:

* From ''[[That '70s Show]]'':

* Colin Mochrie, of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' fame, is very good at improv--butimprov—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--intimes—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).

** Also:

* ''[[Myth BustersMythBusters]]'' 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. [[The Narrator|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:

* Obscure British Art-pop band David Devant and his Spirit Wife and Mr Solo (the lead singers solo project) do this a LOT.

** 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'.

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

{{quote|"''Sitting in Class''

''Is a pain in the neck'' }}

** 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"):

*** Similarly with Camper Van Beethoven's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKfMlQ7KWFE Take The Skinheads Bowling]:

** ''"If I Were Gay"'':

* 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:

* [[Invoked]] and played by [[Voltaire (bandmusician)|Voltaire]] during the whole song: ''The Dirtiest Song That Ain't''.

* [[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":

* ''The Killers'', ''Mr. Brightside'':

* The obscenity-ducking is inverted in Jonathan Coulton's ''[http://www.jonathancoulton.com.nyud.net/songdetails/First%20of%20May First of May]'':{{Dead link}}

* Subverted rhymes aren't always obscured obscenities. From Brian May's song ''"'39"'':

* Popular cheer for cheerleaders:

* In Draco and the Malfoys' "Potions Yesterday":<br />We were teamed up in duelling class/But no one else believed that I could knock you on your bum

* The pirate-themed band The Jolly Rogers have recorded a song called [httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20131117114901/http://chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/a_clean_song.html "The Clean Song"] (possibly [[NSFW]]) whose lyrics consist ''entirely'' of this trope, except for the very end.

* [http://www.playgroundlaw.com/cgi-bin/browse.pl?sid=3537 Another kids' song]{{Dead link}}, to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It":

* Bowser and Blue's [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ5kHHl9U5M "Polkadot Undies"] is entirely built on this trope, and it even lampshades it in the last verse.

* Done in [[Jib JabJibJab]]'s latest{{when}} 'Year in Review' song, where the lyrics cut to the same word, only in a different context.

'''[[Dick Cheney|Dick]]''' needed a kickstart, the US needed gas<br />

[[Harry Potter|Harry]] showed the world his wand and [[Hannah Montana|Miley]] showed her<br />

'''As'''k me any question, I'll give it to you straight<br />

But me, I'd rather play [[The Residents|Residents]]<br />

'Cause I don't give a-<br />

{{quote|''C'mon, people, don't you look so down''

''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 kinda did a translation for English-speaking people, sorry if it's bad, ''Cálice'' is very hard to translate.

* Also from Brazil, but comedic: "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL31Skwq3vk Julieta]" is a raunchy [https://web.archive.org/web/20101002071026/http://www.muitamusica.com.br/2476-sandro-becker/105666-julieta-ta/letra/ succesion of those]. For one easy to translate:

** 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!"

** "I Met a Girl on [[My SpaceMyspace]]" is even better:

{{quote|It were from a lass in [[Oop North|Lancashire]], her page had loads of hits<br />

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

and:<br />

She said she had no transport, so a lift she'd cadge<br />

* 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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20131027150604/http://www.lyricstime.com/emilie-autumn-miss-lucy-had-some-leeches-lyrics.html here].

** The expected rhyme being "home".

* From Angelspit's "Kill Kitty"

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

== [[Musical Theater]]Radio ==

* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' the Forsaken have completely subverted a traditional rhyme with,

* In ''[[Banjo-Kazooie|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--JamjarsUS—Jamjars at one point rhymes the Z button with "red," which works in the UK--whereUK—where "Z" is pronounced "Zed"--but—but not the US, where it's pronounced "Zee."

{{quote|AA? fairly decent job, even with all the fuss,

* In ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]]'', you can get a rune pouch repaired by Wizard Korvak, who already [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|went mad from the revelation.]] When you get it repaired, he drops this little gem.

* 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 DOSGLaDOS]] proves to be...well, [[G La DOSGLaDOS]], and subverts it to make it more insulting.

* From ''[[Nedroid]]'', Beartato's [https://web.archive.org/web/20090319135537/http://nedroid.com/2008/12/a-very-beartato-christmas/#more-824 Night Before Christmas] pastiche:

{{quote|''There once was a man from... schmonnerhea''

''[[Dead Baby Comedy|You have AIDS]]. Ucket.'' }}

I fall down; You go to ugh... *''collapses''* }}

* In ''[[Tweep]]'', [[http://www.tweep.com/comic/?date=07-23-04 when the blender explodes

** [[http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/02/13/cut-on-the-dotty-line/ ''Roses are red'' <br />''Violets are blue'' <br />''And so is this card''<br />''Red, I mean'']]

* Lampshaded in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', in the duel against the rhyming Paradox Brothers.

* Used cleverly on multiple occasions in ''Commentary! The Musical'', the musical commentary to ''[[DoctorDr. HorriblesHorrible's Sing -Along Blog]]'':

* ''[[YoutubeYouTube Poop]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Pj7obyMZY THE EPIC MOVIE]'':

* [[Jib JabJibJab]] does this with "The Year 2008 in Review", sung to the tune of "Miss Susie". One example:

{{quote|'''Baby Year 2008:''' [[Barack Obama|Barrack]] ''[sic]'' defeated Johnny<br />

So long to the far-right.<br />

Now McCain has many houses,<br />

But none of them are...<br />

White men got passed over,<br />

From Wasilla [[Sarah Palin|she]] was plucked;<br />

When the maverick tapped a hockey mom<br />

The press said, "What the..."<br />

Truck bombs in Islamabad;<br />

Bill Gates up and quit.<br />

Putin stuck his chest out,<br />

Told the Georgians to eat...<br />

Ships were seized by pirates,<br />

Ike and Gustav hit,<br />

Johnny's honey had a baby,<br />

But he said it wasn't...<br />

HIIIIISSS-tory's now littered<br />

With more famines, floods and wars.<br />

If there's one thing I am grateful for,<br />

* Billy and Irwin sing a song like this in the ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and& Mandy|Billy and Mandy]]'' episode "Go Kart 3000":

* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' did this in a segment of "Dot's Poetry Corner".

{{quote|Mrs. Landers was a health nut. She cooked food in a wok.,

** 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 ParentsOddParents]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|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 [[Planet of Hats|as a hat]]. When Timmy inquires to their overlord about what they will do to their planet:

{{quote|'''Overlord:''' We'll do what we always do, blow the planet up and move on to the next one! [[Evil Sounds Deep|ISN'T THAT CUTE?]]<br />

'''Timmy:''' That's horrible! And it didn't rhyme!<br />

** And from "[[The Simpsons (animation)/Recap/S7 E4S07/E04 Bart Sells His Soul|Bart Sells His Soul]],:

* The Musical Recap of ''[[Re BootReBoot]]'''s 3rd season features these lyrics:

'''Actor Bob''': [[Big No|Noooo!]] }}

* An episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain|Pinky, ]] [[Retool|Elymra]] [[Pinky and The Brain|and the Brain]]'' contained a song with these lyrics:

* Also [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the 'Ghost Bride' episode of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' when Arnold reads the tombstone:

* ''Roses are red'' <br />''Violets are blue'' <br />''I'm schizophrenic'' <br />''So am I!''

** ''Roses are red'' <br />''Violets are blue'' <br />''I've got Multiple Personality Disorder''<br />''And so do we!''

*** ''Roses are red'' <br />''Violets are blue'' <br />''I've got Dissociative Identity Disorder''<br />''For goodness' sake settle on a bloody name for what we've got already!''

** ''Roses are red'' <br />''Poppies are red'' <br />''The grass is all red'' <br />''[[Mock the Week|SHIT THE GARDEN'S ON FIRE!]]''

*** ''Violets aren't blue'' <br />''These poems are lazy'' <br />''Political correctness''<br />''Is driving us mad.''

[[Double Subversion|Don't you dare to spoil my rhymes!]] (Note: in Russian it rhymes better)<br />

''[[Subverted Trope|SHAGGING!]]''<br />

Don't you dare to spoil the merries!<br />

{{quote|"[[wikipedia:Lincoln J. Beachey|Lincoln Beachey]] thought it was a dream <br />

To go up to heaven in a flying machine. <br />

The machine broke down, and down he fell, <br />

Instead of going to heaven he went to-- <br />

* 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 -- calledwhich—called "High Above a Coopie's Garter" -- employed—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''."