It doesn’t take much to make me laugh. I am a very easy audience for even the worst comic. My sense of humor was born early in life; I no doubt picked it up from watching so many repeat episodes of television’s situation comedies such as The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Another one of my early influences was my father. When I was a youngster, I thought my dad was the funniest man on Earth. He could say something that I deemed comical, and I would come down what seemed like neverending hiccups. All the whoopla usually got out of hand with one joke after another. My mother would get nervous and insist that we “simmer down.” After all, once I got started kidding around, I didn’t know when to quit, and after a good while of fun and laughter, my father would be ready to stop all the silliness and move on with his day.
As a grown woman, I still find some television shows, especially ones that have been in syndication for years, to be hiccup-worthy. One of my favorite programs these days is The New Adventures of Old Christine featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the title character. The program aired its final show in May of 2010.
What I consider to be one of the funniest parts of any of the episodes was when old Christine is riding in a car and singing along with the radio. The song playing is “The Night That the Lights Went out in Georgia.”
The correct lyrics to one of the parts of the song are “that’s the night that they hung an innocent man.” Incorrectly, Christine very confidently sings “that’s the night that they hung an immigrant ham.” A few moments later, Christine once again misses the real lyrics. What should have come out as “a big-bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said ‘why’d you do it?” , our misinformed Christine croons “a pig-bellied sheriff grabbed his gum and said ‘why’d you chew it?'”
The first time I heard her belt out those words, I was right back to my youthful standard of laughter-induced hiccups. Now, as a woman more than 50 years of age, I have added tears and a touch of incontinence to that level of hilarity. Although I have no problem writing about the situation, I still can’t talk about it without nearly laughing myself into a stupor.
Wondering what lyrics are often botched by real people (the situation is called mondegreens, and is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song), I did a bit of an online search and found some pretty funny examples on the website amiright.com . Enjoy.
“Dancing Queen” by ABBA
Original lyrics:
Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah
Misheard lyrics:
Feel the beat from the tangerine, oh yeah
“Penny Lane” by The Beatles
Original lyrics:
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies, I sit and meanwhile back
Misheard lyrics:
And Elaine is in my ears and in my eyes.
Troll beneath the blue suburban skies I sit there, three wild ducks.
“Jack And Diane” by John Cougar
Original lyrics:
A little ditty ’bout Jack & Diane
Two American kids growing up in the heart land
Misheard lyrics:
A little ditty ’bout Jack & Diane
Two unremarkable kids growing up in a hot land
“Little Red Corvette” by Prince
Original lyrics:
Little Red Corvette
Misheard lyrics:
Pay the rent collect
Let us know if you have any favorite mondegreens that you would like to share with our readers.
