Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|"Rickum, rackum, ruckum, ruckum! |
{{quote|"Rickum, rackum, ruckum, ruckum! |
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Throw that ball and really f...[[Last-Second Word Swap|fight]]!" }} |
Throw that ball and really f...[[Last-Second Word Swap|fight]]!" }} |
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** Which is just recent usage of a couplet that's been around for decades. In 1992, for example, a version or it appeared in Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. |
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* From ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' |
* From ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'' |
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{{quote|"Rah rah ree, |
{{quote|"Rah rah ree, |
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Rah rah rut, |
Rah rah rut, |
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Kick em in the...other knee" }} |
Kick em in the...other knee" }} |
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== Comics == |
== Comics == |
Revision as of 17:04, 2 October 2014
Para: We are villains who like to rhyme... |
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
- A famous Tokyo Mew Mew fanart piece released just after the Macekre of the English dub does the "cut off" version:
Ichigo: Mew Mew Style, think I'll pass, English dub can kiss my-- |
- The Samurai Pizza Cats closing does this:
Announcer: |
- One episode of Pokémon, "Hassle in the Castle", has Team Rocket doing this with their motto.
Jessie: To protect us from all that chafing and itching! |
- A commercial for Sailor Moon aired on the Canadian youth programming channel YTV did this:
"And Sailor Venus |
- The English version of Mahou Sensei Negima gives us this gem from the cheerleader trio in volume 1.
"Rickum, rackum, ruckum, ruckum! |
- Which is just recent usage of a couplet that's been around for decades. In 1992, for example, a version or it appeared in Disney's Aladdin.
- From Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
"Rah rah ree, |
Comics
- Etrigan is a Rhyming Demon who will occasionally break his station for comedic effect.
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. |
- 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:
The Maxx: It is different somehow, this land isn't mine! And my brain has been freed! I'm not thinking in ...poetry stuff. |
Electronics
- The voice sample for the "Boing" synthesized voice in Mac OS X uses a classic example of this:
Spring has sprung |
Fan Work
- Crawdaunt used The Assumption!
There was an old farmer who lived on a rock |
- Turnabout Storm: Derpy's poem regarding what she saw on the trial ends with this little verse regarding the prosecutor Trixie:
The prosecutor's put downs were quite rich |
Film: Animated
- In the first Shrek movie:
Please keep well off of the grass |
- Though they do complete a rhyme eventually:
Duloc is, Duloc is, Duloc is a perfect place! |
- Shrek the Musical makes a similar joke:
A princess full of sass |
- Cars: Lightning McQueen is trying to sneak out of his personal appearance:
Dusty Rust-eze: Winter is a grand old time |
- In Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree:
Narrator: Now, honey rhymes with bunny, and bunny rhymes with... |
- And again in the new movie:
Its toes are black, its fur is blue/ I swear all I tell you is not made up! |
- 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" }]
- 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:
You know the saying, born under Venus, look for a...(cell phone rings cutting her off) hello? |
Film: Live Action
- During the Weasel fight in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?:
Eddie: I'm through with taking falls |
- 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:
So 'till then, I'll have to master...my own fate. |
Some things in life are bad, |
- Done randomly in the new How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie:
"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." |
- Not to mention:
Why, for year after year |
- In the 1981 film The Private Eyes, the killer subverts rhyme in each note to the detectives. For example:
If Jock could talk, he'd give you a clue. |
- 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:
I came to help restore your pluck, |
- 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:
Tom: Let's step on the gas and kick some...butt! |
- From The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:
Pretty little fly |
I ate some bugs |
- Justified, considering his character is a Catholic monk.
- The Hot Chick had a little rhyme that went like this:
Boys are cheats and liars, They're such a big disgrace |
- In the movie version of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Thimbletack speaks in rhyme when he is a brownie, but not a boggart:
You looked, and looked, |
- The soundtrack version of the song "Cabin Fever" from Muppet Treasure Island has an extra verse, which goes like this:
My sanity is hanging by a thread, |
- Lampshaded in Matthew Patel's musical number in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Fireballs, Girls. Take this sucker down. |
- 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 think you're so great, but you're missing the point |
- In the Broken Lizard movie Club Dread:
But from that point on, Phil Coletti was known as...Machete Phil! |
- 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:
And never whirl with a three-toed girl |
- In Five Hundred Days of Summer, the main character Tom writes greeting cards. After he and Summer break up...
Literature
- 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"):
"Now we sing this stupid song |
- Also, the warning in the magical equipment shop in A Hat Full of Sky:
Lovely to look at |
- 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:
A turner of phrases quite pleasin', |
- 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:
Roses are red |
- A long verse appears in Don't Pat the Wombat'
Mary had a little lamb, she also had a duck. |
- 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":
Clouds broke at evening, and the sun set red |
- Gleefully inverted in Wendy Cope's "An Attempt at Unrhymed Verse":
People tell you all the time, —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
- From the Musical Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once More, With Feeling:
You're the cutest of the Scoobies |
- Which is incidentally a callback to an earlier verse in which Xander dodges a crudity without breaking the rhyme:
She is the one, she's such wonderful fun |
- 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:
She's just going through the motions, |
- Another example of that:
Xander: She clings, she's needy, |
- And again:
Buffy: Will I stay this way forever? |
- The second season theme song for Slings and Arrows, where it's The Scottish Trope instead of an obscenity that's being obscured:
Every soul that plays this role risks injury or death, |
- From That 70s Show:
Michael Kelso: If this van's a rockin'...we're in there doing it! |
- 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:
The other day my girlfriend said 'Greg, you wanna thrill'? |
- 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 alimony, I don't pay child support, |
- 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 there I'll open a business, |
- Wayne Brady pretends to read a poem from an imaginary book:
My teacher was beautiful, a beautiful lass. |
- 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
Cory: There once was a boy named Cory. |
- The Amanda Show had an example of this, when a boy in a classroom full of superpowered kids had the power of super rhyming.
Teacher: Alright, get out of class! |
- 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,
Werewolf Bar Mitzvah! |
- Also:
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. |
- 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:
Robin Williams: (rapping) We wanna raise some money |
- 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:
But it doesn't matter what I'm paid, |
- The Two Ronnies had far too many to list them all. Particularly memorable is one of their Jehosophat and Jones songs:
Up in the loft where the lamp-light flickers |
- From The Gillies Report musical sketch "Maralinga, or Wise After the Event":
But will we act |
- 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:
The boy stood on the burning deck, |
- Parks and Recreation: Jean-Ralphio's rapping skills seem stuck on this:
It's K to the N to the O-P-E, |
- CSI had a non-singing one in an early episode that centered on a hockey player.
Catherine:This guy was about pucks,bucks and...chicks. |
- 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:
Rob Lee: We've all heard it: "Beans, beans, good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you"...er, produce flatus. |
- 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!"
- In Lexx, 790's attempts at love poetry are always interrupted just before the final word, but it is easy to guess how the poem would have gone.
Music
- The 1921 classic "Ain't We Got Fun" does the clean version:
There's nothing surer |
- 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':
Sometimes London don't seem too appealing |
- From 'Slip it To me':
And my Uncle thinks I'm barmy |
- From 'Black and White'
I woke up this morning, my head was full of rocks |
- From 'Genius':
This song doesn't make it's own luck |
- 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:
Did you come here to dance? |
- A clean classic from U2's "Some Days Are Better Than Others"
Some days you're quick |
- From Madvillain's "Great Day"
Spit so many verses, sometimes my jaw twitches |
- Tommy Tutone's memetic hit "Jenny (867 5309)" features this little gem
Jenny, Jenny, you're the girl for me |
- 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:
A little bit of this is all I need |
- Not where you thought they'd go with that, was it?
- From the Weird Al song "I'm So Sick of You":
You don't have an ounce of class |
- And from Al's not-officially-released track "Still Billy Joel to Me":
It's a big hit isn't it |
- From "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", which is about not being able to think of more lyrics for the song:
This song's got nothing to say |
- From Daphne and Celeste's cover of "School's Out"
"Sitting in 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"):
Well we got no class |
- Similarly with Camper Van Beethoven's Take The Skinheads Bowling:
Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes (got big lanes, got big lanes) |
- From Alice Cooper's I Love America:
I love my bar and I love my truck |
- Another Alice Cooper example in "Working Up A Sweat":
The bandages come off today |
- The MC Lars song "Internet Relationships":
Let me send you pics for your personal collection |
- And his "Space Game":
And I'm from Mars, and she's from Venus |
- Stephen Lynch loves doing this in his songs.
- "If I Were Gay":
"And if I were gay |
- "Vanilla Ice Cream":
"Just don't take it personally |
- And in his El Ray Performance...
"I thought college life was great. |
- And in "Gynecologist":
When your legs are open, I begin the gropin' |
- 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".
- Double-Subverted, as it is a rhyme. Just not the one everyone thought it would be.
- "Whittlin' Man":
Yeah, he'd whittle if it's light, he'd whittle if it's dark |
- 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:
Our baby fell out of the window |
- The Mora Tr äsk cover of this song, Skidvalla, substitutes ski wax for the shaving cream.
- An old friend of mine sang this charming version, a double example:
I think I'll break off with my girlfriend |
Down in Carolina |
- The Assumption Song by Vito Petroccitto Jr. is entirely based on this trope.
There was an old farmer who lived on a rock |
- However, subverted HARD at the very end of the song..
And then he'd spread whipped cream all over her |
- 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.
I was thinking about a series of dreams |
- Sneakily averted in "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream":
I decided to flip a coin, like either heads or tails |
- Oscar Brand's "Clean Song" is probably familiar to devotees of Dr. Demento:
There was a young sailor who looked through the glass |
- 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":
Oh, I'm Melvin Rose of Texas, |
- The Killers, Mr. Brightside:
Now they're going to bed, |
- Also possibly the chorus.
Churning lovesick lullabies, |
- The obscenity-ducking is inverted in Jonathan Coulton's First of May:
Grass below you, sky above, |
- And in Chiron Beta Prime by the same artist:
That's all the family news that we're allowed to talk about |
- 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):
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a bad motherfucker |
- "The Future Soon", which has the following lines:
I'll end world hunger, I'll make dolphins speak, |
- 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 night followed day |
- 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...
Soon I grew, and happy, too |
- Popular cheer for cheerleaders:
Ra! Ra! Rhee! Kick 'em in the knee! |
- Ah, but don't forget the inverted version:
Ra! Ra! Rhass! Kick 'em in the ass! |
- Another cheer like this:
Rick em! Rack em! Rock em! Ruck em! Go out there and really fight em! |
- One more cheer:
We eat Wheaties! We are fit! The other team doesn't! They eat shhh...redded wheat! |
- And another!
Chocolate, Strawberry, Banana Split! We think your team plays like, SHIFT to the left, shift to the right... |
- Depending on your team's colours:
We're red! We're white! We're good! You're...not. |
- 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:
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. |
- Variation: In this performance of Roy Zimmerman's song "Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual", there is the following couplet:
Zimmerman: Now Ted's a little haggard, but he's thankful for the schism, |
- Also, in "Saddam Shame":
Now we've learned our lesson: it's hard to conduct |
- And again in "Summer of Loving":
Find a white dress or a tux; |
- And a cleaner, more subtle version in "Defenders of Marriage":
One summer evening when my woman was doing laundry |
- From Acid Bath's "Paegan Love Song":
You scream, |
- From the Bob and Tom Song "Snailman"
Sometimes he drives a big car, |
- Mitch Benn loves this trope:
- In "Apathy Song":
I really couldn't be bothered: |
- In "Boy Band":
And we've already had a hit, |
- Another one from a song he performed on The Now Show:
You gave us digital and satellite, |
- And from "Tabloid Journalists":
They'd exploit any tragedy that makes them a buck, |
- 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):
She knows very well she had the easiest job, |
- 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":
We heard your stories, we're here to bring the missing bit, |
- And once more with feeling:
Are you having a happy Christmas? |
- 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).
The tune don't have to be cle-ver, |
- 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.
- 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.
- They Might Be Giants' "Kiss Me, Son Of God:"
Now you're the only one here |
- 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 rich man once told me "Hey, life's a funny thing." |
- Fred Wedlock's 'Handier Household Help' [to name but one of his comic songs to do this]
And you can bung it down the toilet. You can spread it down your halls. |
- In Draco and the Malfoys' "Potions Yesterday":
We were teamed up in duelling class/But no one else believed that I could knock you on your bum- Sometimes inverted in concert.
- From Deirdre Flint's Cheerleader:
A cheerleader might not have her GED but she's pursuing one. |
- 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:
I pulled my groin, I pulled my groin |
- 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":
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and blunt |
- 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 big man |
- The second time was very much subverted:
Tell her that you're sorry |
- The profanity-ducking version is Subverted by The Pogues in "The Old Main Drag":
One evening as I was lying down by Leicester Square |
- The ending of Peter Gabriel's "Big Time":
Big time, my belly's getting bigger |
- 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.
- Certain versions of the song just end it after the last "big".
- 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:
This is the world we live in |
- They almost totally avert the trope at the end, though:
Stand up and let's start showing |
- Another obscenity free example comes from "I Wish I was a Hudson" by...ummmm...the Hudsons.
...Where I'd quickly learn the system, |
- From the Dead Milkmen
My Baby drives...a truck |
- In the song "Rehab Center for Fictional Characters"
Tony the Tiger:Every day I wake up |
- By the same artist, My Whole Family
My whole family thinks I'm gay |
- Also by Bo Burnham, Sunday School
Did you know that Satan wears a cape |
- Untitled
We'll love him and raise him, till he finally leaves us |
- For reference, here is (one version) of 'Miss Susie', which originated as a jump-rope rhyme:
Miss Susie had a steamboat |
- A somewhat similar nursery rhyme-type song:
Three little angels, all dressed in white |
- Another kids' song, to the tune of "If You're Happy And You Know It":
His name was Nobby Hall, Nobby Hall |
- Later verses include:
He went to rob a bank, and he stopped to have a...sandwich |
- A no-obscenity version for subtle emphasis in "Mad World":
All around me are familiar faces |
- The Magnetic Fields' "Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long" does this twice:
You scare me out of my wits |
- and later...
You've just run out of luck |
- Digital Underground's "Doowutchyalike"
Homegirls, for once, forget you got class, |
- From the same song:
If you're hungry, then get yourself something to eat |
- "The Freckle Song" contains several instances, including
She's like my Nellie |
- And then there's:
She was born in Hackensack |
- And, of course, there's:
She drinks until she gets plastered |
- Julie Brown's comedy song "I Like Them Big and Stupid":
I met a guy, who drives a truck |
- Bowser and Blue's "Polkadot Undies" is entirely built on this trope, and it even lampshades it in the last verse.
The moral of this story, like a jewel it is gleamin'. |
- Alanis Morissette, in a show of support, altered the lyrics of her song "Ironic" to:
It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife, |
- Lampshaded in Pink Floyd's "Cymbaline":
The path you tread is narrow and the trumpets sheer and very high |
- 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 metal by numbers! |
- Done in Jib Jab's latest 'Year in Review' song, where the lyrics cut to the same word, only in a different context.
Global market meltdowns, |
- "Flavor of the Month" by Black Sheep:
Just a brown fellow |
- Tally Hall presents a pseudo-example of this for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag in the song "Haiku":
I've never thought much of formulaic verse anyway |
- From "Backdoor Lover", the song-within-a-band-within-a-movie from the Josie and the Pussy Cats film (wherein the title is a metaphor for both secret affairs and, ah, "unorthodox" sexual relations):
Some people use the front door |
- Multiply double-subverted in Anthrax's song "I'm the Man":
"Drink the drinks, the drinks they drank |
- A lovely little song entitled Sweet Violets does this trope for the entirety of the song. A snippet:
There once was a farmer who took a young miss |
- 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):
I work all day |
- And in the second:
Work all night |
- Brook Benton's "Boll Weevil Song":
The boll weevil said to the farmer |
- Fairly common in the song Oh, You'll Never Go To Heaven:
Oh you'll never go to heaven on a blade of grass, |
- 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:
Your name is Clive, and you're forty-five |
- The Pixies' "Vamos":
They'll come and play |
- The Violent Femmes' "Gimme The Car", where the profane rhymes are suddenly interrupted by guitar slides:
Come on dad, I ain't no runt |
- Every verse of "The Air Is Getting Slippery" by Primus ends on one of these:
Now if you want an encore |
- Also from Primus; Mr Knowitall
They call me Mr. Knowitall |
- "Please Play This Song On The Radio" by NoFX (Written as 'rhyme' but pronounced another way):
Almost every line in sung in time |
- "Stutter Rap" by Morris Minor and the Majors uses this well in two separate ways:
And it breaks my heart that we're not on the chart |
- Another example from "Stutter Rap", in this case people expecting to hear 'nineteen'...
Well no-one's ever seen what I mean |
- ...and yet again from "Stutter Rap", misdirected 'No Sleep 'til Brooklyn' lyrics:
NO! SLEEP! 'TIL BEDTIME! |
- 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:
If the A-side makes a hit |
- 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:
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck |
- In the song "Into Your Arms" by The Maine, the first few lines go as follows:
There was a new girl in town |
- From L'America, by The Doors;
C'mon, people, don't you look so down |
- 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:
I've seen lightning blow a cypress tree in half |
- Another Country Music example from Blaine Larsen's "Chillin'":
I'm talkin' jet skis and inner tubes |
- And yet another, from "The Truth About Men" by Tracy Byrd:
If you wanna know what we're all thinkin' |
- 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).
De que me vale ser filho da santa |
- I kinda did a translation for English-speaking people, sorry if it's bad, Cálice is very hard to translate.
What's the worth of being son of the saint |
- Also from Brazil, but comedic: "Julieta" is a raunchy succesion of those. For one easy to translate:
I know a girl called Dorothea, |
- Mr. Brown by Glow:
Yes, Mr. Brown just doesn't look as if he's rich |
- The Lonely Island inverts using this trope for censorship in "We Like Sportz."
Single, double, triple, home run |
- 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):
When I was in Harvard I smoked weed every day |
- "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun |
- Del Tha Funkee Homosapien's "What Is A Booty?" includes:
On behalf of my behind |
- Some of the alternate verses to "Old Time Religion" play with this, but specifically Lampshaded in:
I will worship the great god Loki, |
They may tell you it's only their job, |
- 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:
I don't eat no ham n' eggs |
- Also "Can I kick it", 'hair' is forced to rhyme with everything else, but not 'wear' or 'air'
Make a note on the rhythm we gave ya |
- 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"
You're thinking too much |
- Toy Matinee's "Turn it on Salvador" contains this. Quoted directly from the lyrics insert:
Even tied, eggs you fried, out of luck |
- 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:
Her inspiration's Ready Steady Cook |
- "I Met a Girl on Myspace" is even better:
It were from a lass in Lancashire, her page had loads of hits |
- In Eric Bogle's "Introduction Song", in which the members of the band introduce themselves, the bass player gets this:
I play electric bass, |
- of Montreal's "My Favorite Boxer":
Hector Ormano is my favorite boxer. |
- 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.
Miss Lucy had some leeches |
- Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden with "Big Fat John" (Prescott, that is):
He came from Hull, he was true grit. |
- Played straight in Bob Rivers' A Visit From Saint Nicholson:
And a stiff drink for Mommy in a nice tall glass |
- The bridge of Rin Barton's Favorite Tiny Cat has this:
Everything that happens, I know it's just bad luck —favorite tiny cat, you're my favorite tiny cat...
|
- "Almost Easy" by Avenged Sevenfold:
I feel insane |
- And later:
Shame |
- Barenaked Ladies' "It's All Been Done":
If I put my fingers here |
- Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans":
Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise |
- 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 kept real still and we had our eyes a-glued |
- Frank Zappa's "Father O'Blivion" has a rather prolonged one:
He was looking rather bleary |
- 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:
There's a tire around my gut |
- 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.
My lyrics are like the movie The Shawshank Redemption |
- The last verse of "The Games People Play":
Look around tell me what you see |
- Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"
I am just a poor boy, |
- Lady Gaga's song LoveGame:
I can see you staring there from across the block |
- Also the chorus:
Let's have some fun, This beat is sick |
- 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:
What is happening, and how have you been? |
- "Don't Forget To Remember" by TV's Kyle includes one:
Perhaps I'll look beneath the couch |
- From "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by Big & Rich:
I'm a thoroughbred |
- "Check Yes Juliet", by We The Kings, starts thus:
Check yes Juliet, are you with me |
- 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 had a chance to choose my own parents |
- Done acappella with mermaids here.
- Oded Gross's "Song That Doesn't Rhyme" is built on this trope:
This is a song I wrote, it's a song that doesn't rhyme. |
- The Zambonis do it in their hockey rock song Play to Win.
Well you and me |
- It may actually be unintentional, but the single stanza of The Ramones' "It's A Long Way Back":
You, by the phone |
- The expected rhyme being "home".
- There's this bit from Ludo's Rotten Town:
Heigh, heigh, yo-ho |
- 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":
It's Friday night |
- From Angelspit's "Kill Kitty"
I am the fire |
- Double subverted by "Down in a Ditch" by Joe Diffie:
I'm runnin' this shovel way down in a ditch |
- Jo Dee Messina's "I'm Done" subverts the rhyme because, if the word were there, it'd throw the meter off:
Oh, you had to scratch that itch |
- "One More Drinkin' Song" by Jerrod Niemann:
And here's to bartenders tryin' to get paid |
- A rather odd case in The Cave, by Mumford and Sons.
But I will hold on hope |
- Capitol Steps, "Sound Off":
Sergeant: Tell that mean Iraqi nut-- |
- Inverted in Warren Zevon's "Genius".
There's a a face in every window of the Songwriters' Neighborhood |
- "I Want Your Socks", a parody of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" by Mark Jonathan Davis (before he became Richard Cheese), has:
Socks are thin and socks are thick |
- Sykotik Sinfoney's "Manic Depresso", best known for its use in b-movie Bad Channels:
Grandma knits me a great big sweater |
- 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.
Love put me wise |
- Carcass' "Don't Believe a Word" has this few verses:
Fact and fantasy united as one |
- An example from Art Brut's "Ice Hockey" where Eddie Argos sings;
My time on earth was a lot of fun |
- 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:
Drinkin' beer in the hot sun |
- The W.A.S.P. song "Blind In Texas" has this verse:
Raisin' hell in Austin, just after sundown |
- From Bela Fleck's "The Message":
Taxes for the poor, none for the rich |
- "Fish" by Craig Campbell:
I had everything we needed in the back of my truck |
- "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.]:
Oh you can't get to Heaven on the Frankford El |
- Inverted in "Whiskey's Gone" by the Zac Brown Band:
Well I stumble my way into my local bar |
- In the Leet Street Boys song, "Lady And The Trap"
A J-pop song comes on we start to rock (wo-oh) |
- Eminem skirts this in "Criminal":
I drink more liquor to fuck you up quicker |
- Combined with Rhyming with Itself in Cracker's "Ms. Santa Cruz County":
The blue ladies rode the bikes |
- Two examples from Eric Bogle:
- "Plastic Paddy":
"When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and "The Mountains of Mourne" |
- "World Cup Fever":
And when some stupid damn committee gave the match to Melbourne City |
- From the Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers song "Counterclockwise"
Well the gringo boys got their dark sunglasses |
- There's one from a recent upoad by Anthony and Those Other Guys: Thormas Time
Thormas Time |
- 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:
Saying swears a whole lot, not a little bit |
- MF DOOM is fond of doing this. Just one of many examples:
As a few good men set sights to link with your chick |
- 1960s group Doug Clark & the Hot Nuts does this in their Double Entendre-loaded "Hot Nuts Theme #1"
Well roses are red and ready for plucking |
The fact that it is subverted makes this possibly one of the cleanest lines in the song.
- Tom Smith's "Quit Freaking Out Over Boobs" has:
A couple nice girly bits |
- Los Campesinos!' "Baby I Got the Death Rattle"
And I chewed my only necktie from the metal frame of my bed |
- The Charlie Daniels Band's "Uneasy Rider" has this piece:
I called up the station down the road a-ways |
- And of course, there is the chorus line for "Last Kiss" by J. Franklin Wilson and the Cavaliers:
Well, where oh where can my baby be? |
- "Hot Problems" by Double Take.
They see my blonde hair, blue eyes and class |
Musical Theater
- "Fie on Goodness" in the musical Camelot contains the following lines:
Ah, my heart is still in Scotland |
Fie on Scotland, fie! |
- 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, dear friend, who talk so well, |
- Higgins' "Why Can't the English" has a very subtle one:
In France, every Frenchman |
- A clean example is used in the musical of The Wedding Singer:
Julia: So you're back where you started, |
- 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":
Mrs. Lovett: Is that just revolting, |
- 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":
There's no one |
- 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:
Is there a source for this congestion |
- From a sanitized version of "Beauty School Dropout" in a junior high production of Grease:
Well, they couldn't teach you anything; you think you're such a looker, |
- "When the Idle Poor Become the Idle Rich" from Finian's Rainbow:
And when all your neighbors are upper class |
- In the Lippa version of The Wild Party, Burrs sings in "Make Me Happy" (while waving a loaded pistol):
We've got a situation: |
- 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:
Mercury: There was Mélisande, |
- In Curtains, near the end of the song "It's a Business", after using several inappropriate words without qualms:
Carmen: Yes, green's my favorite color, |
- 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.
Cowboys: What's that music? |
- The original line?
Cowboys:What's that stirring? |
- It's not exactly a rhyme, since it's just the same word over and over again, but from The Book of Mormon:
"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..." |
- In Wicked, during Elphaba's birth in "No One Mourns the Wicked":
I see a nose! |
- The song "Random Black Girl" from "Homemade Fusion" by Kooman and Dimond:
The designers can't light me |
Radio
- 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:
He suggested the EU should lead from the front |
- Laura Shavin:
Twenty years ago, a man called John Gray, a genius, |
- 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:
Fosters: A brawl broke out outside Parliment House last night, during which Seanator Ros Kelly was punched in the belly... |
Theater
- From the play Saturday's Children by Maxwell Anderson:
Florrie: It's vain of its face |
- Used in the Reduced Shakespeare Company's "Othello Rap":
Now Othello loved Desi like Adonis loved Venus. |
- Even before that, they've already pulled a similar trick:
Their fate pursues them, they can't seem to duck it, |
- Used by Shakespeare himself in Hamlet:
Hamlet: (singing) For thou dost know, O Damon dear, |
- "Pajock" was a synonym for "peacock," and "was" would have been pronounced to approximately rhyme with "ass". Immediately Lampshaded by Horatio:
Horatio: You might have rhymed. |
- A Stanley Holloway monologue has this line:
And was George afraid? Yes, he was and he run, |
Video Games
- In World of Warcraft the Forsaken have completely subverted a traditional rhyme with,
Roses are grey |
- 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, Shantotto always speaks in rhyme during her cutscenes, except on one occasion:
A fairly decent job, even with all the fuss, |
- The gag here, of course, is that "B plus" would have been the more obvious grade.
- '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:
- The gag here, of course, is that "B plus" would have been the more obvious grade.
Yuffie: That's the way things go, you know. Without luck, you're...Uh, okay, moving on! |
- In Left 4 Dead, there is a room full of graffiti which includes
Alison, |
- 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.
Korvak: Magic makes me happy, magic makes me glad, magic makes the voices quiet, and nothing rhymes with purple. |
- 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 Pac-Man ghosts: Pinky, Blinky, Inky, and Clyde.
- In Dragon Age: Awakening, a clue for one sidequest reads as follows:
You are my hen, the mistress of my flock. You nourish my body, and tend to my...rooster. |
- In The Curse of Monkey Island, there's a point where Guybrush Threepwood has to subvert the rhymes of his crew.
Guybrush: We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange. |
- 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:
Homestar: Bleu cheese or ranch. We can dine in, or we can take it to go. |
- Fawful in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story delivers this gem:
Fawful sings a song of bad. |
- 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:"
It's hard to be sheep |
- 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.
Goodbye, my only friend. |
Web Comics
- From Nedroid, Beartato's Night Before Christmas pastiche:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care |
Roses are red, |
- 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:
There once was a man from...schmonnerhea |
- Freak Angels 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.
That's enough; I don't feel well. |
- In Tweep, [[http://www.tweep.com/comic/?date=07-23-04 when the blender explodes
- From Housepets:
- 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
- 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.
Para: We are villains who like to rhyme... |
- Also, in the middle of that duel:
Para: You have tricked us with your magic box! |
- And at the end of the duel:
Para: It seems that we ran out of luck! |
- And in a flashback of the scene in a later episode:
Para: When we're through with you you will want to submit. |
- Also played straight in the second christmas special:
The Pharoh awoke the very next day, |
- And in "LEATHER PANTS~"
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." |
- A cult YouTube video parodies the Nickelback song Rockstar with new lyrics lampooning pop singers such as Britney Spears and Ashlee Simpson:
I'm gonna dress myself without an ounce of class, |
- Used cleverly on multiple occasions in Commentary! The Musical, the musical commentary to Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog:
Ten Dollar Solo. Not bad so far |
- and, as sung by Nathan Fillion:
My wonderful me-ness |
- In Zero Punctuation's review of Saints Row 2:
Roses are red |
- Cabel Sasser does this in Buggy Saints Row: The Musical:
My car door's freaking out; it seems to be forever |
- In this I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC 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 have a better plan |
- This video celebrating Stephen Fry reaching one million followers on Twitter.
- The Smosh video Transformers Rap does this.
Ian: The Transformers creators wouldn't pay us to make this rap |
- this one contains the lyrics
"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." |
- In the The Key Of Awesome parody of The Dark Knight, Alfred almost reveals Batman's identity to the Joker:
Joker, are you busy? Let's call a truce. |
- They also have this verse in their parody of California Girls
Nose jobs, tummy tucks |
Nachos, lemon head, my dad's boat |
- A Very Potter Musical's "Back to Hogwarts", Hermione sings:
But let's not forget that we need to perform well |
- And of course:
You're tall and fun and pretty |
- 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:
"Merry Christmas to everybody and also goodnight to everybody!" |
- 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.
Remember that time that I saved your life? You were happy, I could tell. |
- The YouTube video "Pale kid raps fast" has these lyrics:
I'm five foot eleven of sex |
- Jib Jab does this with "The Year 2008 in Review", sung to the tune of "Miss Susie". One example:
Baby Year 2008: Barrack [sic] defeated Johnny |
- The Friendship Is Witchcraft episode "Neigh, Soul Sister" features a couple of these in Sweetie Belle's song about the big race:
[[AC:The race has begun |
- and
[[AC:Making tacky jelly |
- The opening line of her earlier song might qualify, depending on where she was going with it:
[[AC:Just because you feel upset |
- In The Nostalgia Chick's The Lorax episode, she speaks in rhyme several times throughout, the final verse being:
It burns me like this cheap whisky, |
Western Animation
- Billy and Irwin sing a song like this in the Billy and Mandy episode "Go Kart 3000":
We built this car |
- There's also this classic gem.
Sassy Cat, Sassy Cat, full of sass, full of sass, if you don't like it you can kiss her BUTT! |
- Animaniacs did this in a segment of "Dot's Poetry Corner".
Dot: Beans, beans, the musical fruit. |
- 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:
Chorus: Come on back; farewell, Attila |
- 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."
Dot: I never am vain |
- From the Family Guy episode "Brian Sings and Swings":
Brian: I love the work of Allen Funt. |
- And again, in "Road to Europe":
Brian: Cause you get a kick out of carnage and guts. |
- "I Need a Jew" was Bowdlerized into this, rhyming "Jew" with "light," "slap," and "Lord."
- In Stewie and Brian's song at the Emmys:
Brian: Now, The Sopranos is a show I recommend. |
- Peter does this in a scene where he is imagining he's in an 80's sitcom.
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... |
- Wendy Testaburger did a version of the "Miss Susie" song in one episode of South Park.
Mrs Landers was a health nut. She cooked food in a wok. |
- 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:
When Brian Boitano traveled through time |
- The second verse of the My Gym Partner's a Monkey theme song:
Adam: Bull shark! Porcupine! I don't know what! |
- 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:
Overlord: We'll do what we always do, blow the planet up and move on to the next one! ISN'T THAT CUTE? |
- 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:
Garfield: And now, this tale I must suspend / For I have come to...the finish.
—"Fit For A King"
|
- The Simpsons in "30 Minutes over Tokyo":
Homer Simpson: I once knew a man from Nantucket... |
- 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, it was me.
- Also from "Fat Man and Little Boy" with its own verson of 'Miss Susie' with Homer eavesdropping:
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-" |
- And from "Bart Sells His Soul,:
Sherri and Terri: Bart sold his soul, and that's just swell, |
- In "Homer Loves Flanders", there's a football player named Stan "The Boy" Taylor.
Crowd: STAN! STAN! HE'S OUR BOY! IF HE CAN'T DO IT, NO ONE...(Beat) WILL! |
- The Musical Recap of Re Boot's 3rd season features these lyrics:
Actor Dot: But Megabyte betrayed Bob and |
- The Maxx does this after becoming trapped in a cartoon. He speaks in rhyme throughout the entire sequence, until:
To be first in the soil which erupts in a coil |
- 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:
Yak:You sure are a clever guy. Now just follow Nob and I |
- In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Unfair Science Fair", Dr. Doofenshmirtz recalls the time he tried writing poetry:
Doofenshmirtz: The movies are gray |
- 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:
Romance, |
- Also Lampshaded in the 'Ghost Bride' episode of Hey Arnold! when Arnold reads the tombstone:
Epitaph: Here lies Cynthia Snell. |
- 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":
...Two mice came up from somewhere behind their Royal chum |
- Beached Az has the song sung to the stingray.
So now you know your problem you can deal with your emotion, |
- At the end of Dan Vs. "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre," Dan gloats over his victory thusly:
"I've made you cry, your theatre is burnt! |
- Beavis and Butthead has one episode when the boys visit a cafe with a stage, and Butt-Head steps in and saying some rhymes.
There was once a man from Venus, with a rocket ship for a...uhh...wiener. |
- And there's another episode, "At the Movies", when a cop shoots his foot and Butt-Head picks up the toes:
This little piggy went to market, |
Miscellaneous
- From a birthday card, with the last word on the inside:
Jack wasn't nimble. Jack wasn't quick. |
- Inspired by the classical nursery rhyme:
Mary had a little lamb |
- A similar rhyme:
Mary had a little lamb |
- 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
Violets are blue
I'm schizophrenic
So am I!- Roses are red
Violets are blue
I've got Multiple Personality Disorder
And so do we!- Roses are red
Violets are blue
I've got Dissociative Identity Disorder
For goodness' sake settle on a bloody name for what we've got already!
- Roses are red
- Roses are red
Poppies are red
The grass is all red
SHIT THE GARDEN'S ON FIRE!- Violets aren't blue
These poems are lazy
Political correctness
Is driving us mad.
- Violets aren't blue
- Roses are red
- A piece of bathroom graffiti, riffing on a classic piece of bathroom graffiti.
Here I sit, |
- Songs that avert naughty words in this manner are called "teasing songs". Yet another example:
Suzanne was a lady with plenty of class |
- Here's a limerick:
There once was a lady from Brunt |
- Another one:
There once was an old man named Chuck |
- A non-limerick by Trad (or his brother Anon)
There was a young lady from Bude |
- Or how about:
There was a young poet of Mainz |
- In a similar vein:
There was a young man of Arnoux |
- And taking this train of thought until it hits the buffers:
There was a young man of Verdun, |
- Of course, we won't even mention the limerick about Emperor Nero.
- Similar:
There was a man from Rome |
The limerick, peculiar to English |
- Going with the Florence (second verse)
- The Dragon's Lamentable Love
- A camp song:
Little Miss-Miss, went out to pi-- |
- Then of course, there was the song about the 'Three Jolly Fishermen', and one verse has them,
'All going down to Amster--SHHH! |
- Gleefully subverted in the next verse, however:
'We're gonna say it anyway; |
- 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:
There's a statue on a rock, |
- Translated another one:
Lo! The bushes are a-wagging! |
- There are also many rhymes/songs of the following type; for example:
I'm a di-- |
- There are also so called "Eve Verses". A bit hard to translate (or, rather, compose new ones), but here is an attempt:
Old Lady Jill was out of luck |
- A cheer that goes like this:
Rah Rah Ree! |
- And similarly:
Cigarette ashes! Cigarette butts! |
- And yet again:
We like warm beer and cold duck! |
- That playground classic "Charlie had a Pidgeon":
Charlie had a pigeon, —Charlie had a pigeon...
|
- 30 Days hath Septober
April, June and No-wonder |
- Australian comedy group The Axis of Awesome, in their song "What Would Jesus Do?"
Can you heal a leper |
- 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.
Now you can make a tasty dish |
- Another Mary poem:
Mary had a little skirt, |
- We must not forget:
Ms. Lucy had a steamboat |
And so on.
- This is also the Miss Susie poem mentioned in the beginning of the article.
- Popular jump rope game a while ago;
There was a man named Tiger Woods. |
- An older jump rope rhyme:
"Lincoln Beachey thought it was a dream |
- 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:
Q, R, S |
- A military cadence:
Lulu's got a boyfriend |
- When I was in year 5 this was going around the school:
Holy Nellie I am dying |
- 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."