Mondegreen

A mondegreen (also sometimes spelt 'mondagreen') is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase, such that it acquires a new meaning.

The word 'mondegreen' is itself a mondegreen of "They hae slain the Earl o' Murray and laid him on the green", from the anonymous 17th century ballad 'The Bonnie Earl O' Murray', the last five words being misheard as "Lady Mondegreen". Sylvia Wright is thought to have coined the word to describe all such mishearings. While a common occurrence for children, many adults have their own collection, particularly with regard to popular music.

Examples:

• Australians all are ostriches (from the opening line of the Australian national anthem - "Australians all let us rejoice")
• O Canada, our home's on native land (from the Canadian national anthem - "O Canada, our home and native land")
• Excuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze", by Jimi Hendrix - "Excuse me while I kiss the sky")
• This guy is cryin (from a lyric in the song "The Sky is Crying", by Stevie Ray Vaughan)
• The girl with colitis goes by (from a lyric in the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", by The Beatles - "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.")
• It is hard to wreck a nice beach (from a story, perhaps apocryphal, about one of the earliest speech recognition programs being presented, at a demo, with someone saying "It's hard to recognize speech" and producing that phrase as the output)
• There's a bathroom on the right (the payoff line at the end of each verse of the rock song Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival — "There's a bad moon on the rise")
• Climb every woman (from the Whitney Houston song I'm every woman)
• Play that f---ing music right boy (from the Wild Cherry song Play that funky music)
• Spare him his life from his pork sausages from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen - spare him his life from this monstrosity
• It's a hard egg from It's A Heartache by Bonnie Tyler
• Bullshit! from Push It by Salt-N-Pepa
• Kodály "Buttocks-Pressing Song" - a mishearing of "Could I But Express in Song"
• Me Ears Are Alight - a mishearing of "The Israelites" in the Desmond Dekker song of the same name.
• Sue Lawley! - a mishearing of So lonely by The Police

And some children's ones:

• ... and lead us not into Penn Station... (from the Lord's Prayer - "... and lead us not into temptation...")
• ... blessed art thou, a monk swimming ... (from the Hail Mary phrase "... blessed art thou amongst women ...")
• ... Gladly, the cross-eyed bear... ("Gladly, the cross I'd bear...")
• I am the Lord of the Dance settee ("I am the Lord of the Dance said he...")
• Olive, the Other Reindeer ...' (from the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer "... All of the other reindeer ...") (this mondegreen has become the title of a children's book, which was later made into an animated holiday program featuring the voice of Drew Barrymore)
• Barney's the king of Israel... (This mondegreen was featured on the comic One Big Happy, and comes from The First Noel, when it goes "Born is the king of Israel."
• Hao Long is a bay in China. (try this one on your friends, they'll think your asking, "How long is a bay in China?")

Quite a few mondegreens may be seen in captioned live TV broadcasting of impromptu speeches, interviews, etc.

Some mondegreens arise from false friends. A phrase in one language may be misheard as a semi-sensical phrase in another language. The humorous aspect of these has given rise to a music video genre known as animutation, in which music in a different language (typically Japanese) is "misheard" into English, and illustrated.

Publications

• Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy - Gavin Edwards, 1995. ISBN 0671501283
• When a Man Loves a Walnut - Gavin Edwards, 1997. ISBN 0684845679

External links

• KissThisGuy.com - The Archive of Misheard Lyrics (http://www.kissthisguy.com/) - Based on Jimi Hendrix's lyric, this website is a collection of many mondegreens of popular songs
• amiright.com - The Archive of Misheard Lyrics (http://www.amiright.com/misheard/) - A large collection of misheard lyrics
• Mondegreens Ripped My Flesh (http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml) - Another rich resource
• Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as 'mondegreens' (http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/humor/mondegreens.asp) (from Snopes.com)
• The webcomic Angst Technology (http://www.inktank.com/AT/index.cfm?nav=182) is notorious for its frequent mondegreen jokes.