This week I have been reminded of a story my friend told me about a friend of hers who went into an audition and misread the script and said:
“I’m gonna be big, I’m gonna be the best, I’m gonna be A-One Pasino”,
NEXT,
It should have been, Al Paccino.
Comedy mishearings are the best.
Jo came up to me this week and I thought she said,
“yes that’s a great idea, lets send a star female”,
I thought wow I knew she thought I was good at my job, but that’s just flattery, but no, what she actually said was
“yes that’s a great idea lets send a Staff Email”
My friend Gabi was always misshearing me, I said to her once
“er, Shall we go?”
and she thought I’d said hollered
“er, Chubby Girl?”
Also I was leaning in to give her a concilliatory hug (I’m good at those) I said to her
“it’ll be alright”
and she thought I’d (rather sinsiterly(is that a word)) said
“Don’t fight it” oo er
There are loads from songs. Me and best friend Maria used to think that Banarama (hey! a certain Laundry customer’s record label has Banarama on their books at the mo (he sent me a free t-shirt(any free gifts for the Laundy team are welcome (well not any, no sharon O style gifts obviously)))).
Only you can set me free,
Coz I’m guilty, guilty, guilty as a gulkenby come on baby can’t you see, I’ve been acoooooosed of Love in the frist degree
ce-hem, just carried on for my own entertainment then. I think we thought a gulkenby was a mythical creature.
Also our innocent minds heard in Tory Amos’s song
Finally bring you close to my, finally bring close to my lips yeah
SATURDAY DAY, de de de ded de SATURDAY DAY
There’s a word for this:
A mondegreen (also sometimes spelled “mondagreen”) is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase in such a way that it acquires a new meaning.
The word “mondegreen” is itself a mondegreen. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined it in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen”,
“When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy’s Reliques. One of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They have slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The actual line is “And laid him on the green”,
Most come from mishearing song lyrics, it apparently happens loads when you translate songs example in Russian the song “Can’t Buy Me Love” roughly translates as “Throw a crowbar to the old woman
Jon Carroll from the Sanfransico Chronicle specialises in collecting them if you are hungry for more
tell me yours
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7 Responses to “Did I hear that right?”
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
This one is a bit sad……
When I was very young, first year at primary school, the class used to sing a song just before home time which started:
“Hands together softly so
Little eyes shut tight
Father just before we go
Hear our song tonight”
Which I heard as:
“Hand together softly so
Little Liza died
Father just before we go
Hear our song tonight”
With the mention of death in the second line, the third line “Father just before we go” took on a whole new sinister meaning. I discovered the happy truth, that Liza was alive and well many years later when I read the words to the song, which then sounded rather twee.
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
One of my friends is portuguese & although he’s lived in the UK for a few years he quite often still gets some of our phrases a bit muddled up.
Just the other week he & another friend were bimbling along in their little car when suddenly the portugeezer shouted out “hey, look at that trumpet” and pointed off somewhere in the distance, so the other chap follows the direction of his finger & spots a young lady with a rather curvy & attractive posterior and replies “no, you mean crumpet” as he burst into fits of laughter, he laughed even harder when his friend pointed again & there was a guy standing about ten feet behind the young lady playing a trumpet.
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Me and my brother argued about the Tracy Chapman song: “Drive a big expensive car, bag muffers on the ground…” Obviously now I know it’s “drag my furs on the ground”.
I think I got this one off Never Mind the Buzzcocks:
“For 40 days and for 40 nights I was on the slide
with all the sandwhiches, cheese and ham
were in demand
and we danced on the floor, in the round..”
Actually I don’t know what the real word to Billie Jean are.
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I love mondegreens. An old one from the early 70s - Creedance Clearwater Revival (now that’s a name and a half!) in their song Bad Moon Rising, at the line “there’s a bad moon on the rise” - I thought it was “there’s a bathroom on the right”. The giveaway really was in the name of the song. Still, I was only young.
Another bathroom related one - Doors song, the line is “the cars hiss by my window”. My friend thought it was “the karzi’s by my window”.
Posted: Feb 28th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
I had the same problem with Bananrama except I thought it was:
‘Cos I’m guilty, guilty as a drunken thief ‘
Which at least makes a little sense.
Posted: Feb 28th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Are you saying there is no such thing as a Gulkenby, Ali? Can i call you Ali, Ali?
Posted: Sep 10th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Edith and I always had trouble with Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’, singing for the chorus “Anna Friel, Brookside lesbian, Anna Friel..” It’s hard not to hear that once you start thinking about it..