Quoting:

Brainstorming some theme ideas....

(1) First, subjects/topics:

MEDICAL PROCEDURES (we already had "Rectal Exam Week")
STUPID HUMAN TRICKS
PET PEEVES
CONSPIRACY THEORIES
THINGS YOU FIND ON THE SIDEWALK
THINGS YOU FIND ON THE BEACH
THINGS THAT MAKE YOU ITCH
DOGS
CATS
WAYS TO ANNOY PEOPLE
PEOPLE WHO ARE ANNOYING
DOGS THAT ARE ANNOYING
CAR ALARMS
THE WEATHER
DIET FADS
FRATERNITY OR SORORITY HAZING
THINGS LITTLE KIDS SAY
TRYING TO GROW THE PERFECT LAWN
SHOPPING
HAGGLING WHEN BUYING A CAR
CHEATING ON EXAMS
HOW TO SUCCEED IN SCHOOL WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
HOW TO SUCCEED IN DATING WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
HOW TO SUCCEED, IN GENERAL, WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
SHORTCUTS AND TRICKS AND CLEVER WAYS TO BEAT THE SYSTEM

(2) Next, particular original artists...warning, warning, these are ideas comin' from a 45-year-old guy who's into the 60's/70's/80's/90's music primarily... you younger folks, come on, jump in here and let your voices be heard, too, please!

In absolutely NO particular order:

ELTON JOHN
BILLY JOEL
STING
REM
THE GRATEFUL DEAD
THE BEATLES
ELVIS PRESLEY
ELVIS COSTELLO
DEVO
BLONDIE
THE GO-GO'S
THE B-52'S
VARIOUS MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS
VARIOUS BROADWAY SHOW TUNES
VARIOUS TELEVISION SHOW TUNES
THE MOODY BLUES
THE FOUR TOPS
THE TEMPTATIONS
FOREIGNER
LED ZEPPELIN
YES
REO SPEEDWAGON (their name is so stupid, it's hilarious)
BOB DYLAN
ARLO GUTHRIE
PETER, PAUL, AND MARY
THE ASSOCIATION
THE BEACH BOYS
JAN AND DEAN
DURAN DURAN
J GEILS BAND
THE ALLMAN BROTHERS
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
THE EAGLES
TALKING HEADS
CROSBY STILLS NASH ( & YOUNG )
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE / JEFFERSON STARSHIP
ROY ORBISON
GEORGE HARRISON
PAUL MCCARTNEY
JOHN LENNON
RINGO STARR
THE ROLLING STONES
VARIOUS BRITISH INVASION/MERSEY-BEAT GROUPS

(3) And possible specific songs:

SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIUS (Mary Poppins) or however you spell that crazy word...perhaps the rule could be that you are not permitted to use anything that rhymes with that word, or that begins with "SUPER", but it must have the same exact pacing as that word (i.e. number of syllables and rhythm)

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Queen) (Oh Mama Mia, Mama Mia, Mama Mia, not again!)....this one has been done SO much by SO many people, myself included, that perhaps the rule could be that you are not permitted to use ANY WORDS FROM THE ORIGINAL SONG, AT ALL.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (Led Zeppelin).....again, perhaps the rule could be that you are not permitted to use ANY WORDS FROM THE ORIGINAL SONG, AT ALL.

LOSING MY RELIGION (REM)

BLACK MAGIC WOMAN (Santana)

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS (Arlo Guthrie)

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger)

CHIM CHIM CHER-EE (Mary Poppins)

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE (Procul Harum)

HELP (The Beatles)

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK (The Beatles)

FOOL ON THE HILL (The Beatles)

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS (The Beatles)

NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN (The Moody Blues)

MOONDANCE (Van Morrison)

BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE (The Doors)

LIGHT MY FIRE (The Doors)

WHIP IT (Devo)

JOCKO HOMO (Devo)

IN CARS (Gary Neuman)

PSYCHO KILLER (Talking Heads)

LIFE DURING WARTIME (Talking Heads) - this one could be extremely difficult

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE (Talking Heads)

TAKE ME TO THE RIVER (Talking Heads)

HAMMER AND A NAIL (Indigo Girls)

VENTURA HIGHWAY (America)

SISTER GOLDEN HAIR (America)

TIN MAN (America)

And ..... of course ......

AMERICAN PIE (Don McLean)








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QUICK NOTE of explanation - when I say that a rule could be that you are not allowed to use any words from the original song at all, I don't mean literally that you can't use, for example, the word "the" if the original song contains the word "the" .... what I mean is that you can't have words in your parody that are the same words in the same place as they appear in the original song (except for simple words like "the" and prepositions, etc).  

Example:  If you were doing a parody of Bo Rap, you would not be allowed to replace "Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth" with "Gotta leave your balls behind the plate, Babe Ruth", but you would be allowed to replace it with "Gonna cleave your ball-peen mind with laced vermouth".

Quoting:
Maybe I went too far into the detail: it'll be obvious how it works once it's running.

To summarize, there'll be no elimination - a Formula One-type scoring based on who "wins" each round

Also, there will be no separate judges: the criterion for entry in all except the first round will be to vote for all the songs in the previous round.

I've got very little time at the moment to get it moving, so I thought I'd put this up as a bit of a flyer to get some ideas in: I'd like to have the format completely sorted before starting, so everyone knows what's coming.

Firstly - how many rounds do you think we should have?  I'd suggest either 10, 13 or even a full F1 19 rounds (though maybe that is a few too many)...

Phil
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Having read both this and the inital explanation, I have to say, it looks like an interesting way of doing things. You mention that people can vote their own parody, but I don't think that's a very good idea, since most people are just going to give themselves a high score (if the person didn't think it was good, why would they submit it?).  

I like the idea that the people writing the parodies are also the only ones voting, it lessens the impact of people trying to game the votes by using bogus email accounts, or getting their friends to send in votes, etc.

I think 10 rounds is a good round number. It also wouldn't heavily penalize people who miss a week for one reason or
another.

Depending on the number of entries, it may be time consuming for the person running it, to tally the votes each week.

If this gets off the ground, make sure whoever is running it, submits each weeks posting to the news section of the front page of amiright so people know about it.

Quoting:
Depending on the number of entries, it may be time consuming for the person running it, to tally the votes each week.
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My intention was to write something to do it for me... in theory this would be completely automated - I will probably end up doing a simple email form and write something to parse the incoming emails; also automatic generation of the HTML for the subsequent week's submissions.

wrt the voting side of things, yes, people will probably vote their own ones highly - this will be the same for everyone, so it'll even out, and will be a spur to ensure you enter every round.  Besides, it'll be easier to write that way ;-)

Phil