When you have a really brilliant idea for a parody, and you work on it, and work on it, and you're out of ideas, but you keep bashing your brains against the lyrics... and eventually you it down to 4 lines. And you can't finish it. Four freaking lines! I haven't submitted anything in ages, and I really want to get this one out. For the curious, they are...
Next to each other:
"tell me where did you go
you had the world inside you, man
but you did not seem to know"

And then somewhere else, "I will never be safe".

Out of curiousity, does this happen to everyone?

It totally happens to me all the time. 

I am working on one right now that I am determined to finish...but yeah...I'm down to just a couple of lines.

Other times I have what I consider to be a PERFECT verse...or chorus...whatever...but I can't get one single line of the rest of the song done. 

I feel your pain...it is more than a little bit frustrating... >:(

Not usually, but I'm in that kind of position with a current November Rain parody.  And a Bat out of Hell parody (well, that's more like fourteen lines than four).  And a Refugee parody.  Come to think of it, I've got a whole bunch waiting on a few killer lines to finish 'em off...

Remember that one I was so determined to finish?  It's a no go.  Usually in this situation, I make Ashkicksass take a look and we collaborate, but that ding-a-ling is on her honeymoon.

*sigh*

Sometimes the solution is to plagiarize yourself.  In the software biz, we euphemistically call it "code re-use".

It just happened to me about 10 seconds ago.

This is what I had so far. (This is to the tune of 'Be Our Guest'.)

Your scar-ee week of hell! Week of the seeping tide
and blatant seizures, cramps and swelling, bruises bite
And now...it incites pain in your back!
Uncontrolled, unaware
As your whining womb forcefully bends...your demeanor!

P...M...S.

And so, after 45 minutes of thought, I finally came up with the next line.

PMS.

And so, after 45 minutes of thought, I finally came up with the next line.

PMS.




Yes, but does that REALLY end with a period ?    ;)  (ducks for cover)

Yes, but does that REALLY end with a period ?    ;)  (ducks for cover)


Nah, you're right.  I'd have to kill at least 4 random men who piss me off with their insensitive wisecracks before the drag was over.  :P

Your scar-ee week of hell! Week of the seeping tide
and blatant seizures, cramps and swelling, bruises bite
And now...it incites pain in your back!
Uncontrolled, unaware
As your whining womb forcefully bends...your demeanor!

P...M...S.
PMS.

One of nature's little jests
Shout "I hate ya, mother nature"
'Cause it helps relieve the stress...

..damn, I love "Be our guest" parodies ;)

It just happened to me about 10 seconds ago.

This is what I had so far. (This is to the tune of 'Be Our Guest'.)

Your scar-ee week of hell! Week of the seeping tide
and blatant seizures, cramps and swelling, bruises bite
And now...it incites pain in your back!
Uncontrolled, unaware
As your whining womb forcefully bends...your demeanor!

P...M...S.

And so, after 45 minutes of thought, I finally came up with the next line.

PMS.




I would've thought that parody would just flow...

When you have a really brilliant idea for a parody, and you work on it, and work on it, and you're out of ideas, but you keep bashing your brains against the lyrics...

...Out of curiousity, does this happen to everyone?

Yup.  Just recently finished a parody that had been lying around for years. And it's not just parody writers - here's what Robert Palmer had to say about his song "Simply Irresistable":

"I had this lying around for three years and I wanted to finish it off but could never find the release line, the hook, until I hit on the line 'But now I find her...' with the pause and the resolution."

It happens to me alot as well, I'll be stuck on one verse or the chorus for 30 minutes or so.
(sometimes on and off for days)

Many of my rap parodies average about 800 words apiece, which totally sucks a** when you lose motivation after half a verse.
I'm sure you can relate, neminem.



P...M...S.

PMS.




It'll never work. The premise of the parody is M.T.
*suuuuuuuuuuh-wish*



..darn, I love "Be our guest" parodies ;)


I utterly agree, although I only know the tune. I did a parody of Mr Burns' 'See My Vest' for my Drama group perfomance thinking that it was an original, but after seeing how long the ORIGINAL original is and how much you can cram into the one song, I'm thinking of parodying the New Zealand accent as 'Speech Is Dissed'.
(Generally 'a' sounds like 'e', 'e' sounds like 'i' and 'i' sounds like 'u'. Hence 'Fet rid fushes', and no NZ sailors saying 'I'm sick on deck'.)

While we're digressing on brilliant OS's, Bohemian Rhapsody and American Pie were also tunes that had several parodies in the 2004 top 39 list. I'll have to get the original lyrics to them as well. Or wait until Eminem's 'Just Don't Give A F***' becomes universally loved.

When you have a really brilliant idea for a parody, and you work on it, and work on it, and you're out of ideas, but you keep bashing your brains against the lyrics... and eventually you it down to 4 lines. And you can't finish it. Four freaking lines! I haven't submitted anything in ages, and I really want to get this one out. For the curious, they are...
Next to each other:
"tell me where did you go
you had the world inside you, man
but you did not seem to know"

And then somewhere else, "I will never be safe".


What original song are you doing? I don't recognize it.






And I know all about the 800 word parodies. Some off them i've worked on on and off for months... occasionally years.

Out of curiousity, does this happen to everyone?

Out of curiousity, does this happen to everyone?


Most definitely. I'm staring one in the face right now. I have 54 lines of "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash done, and I can't get a fitting ending. It's a much more serious work than most of the stuff here, and it's about religion which is already a really sensitive issue for most people.

But anyway, in terms of a parody that you can't finish, just leave it and come back to it later, and I mean both in body and in mind. Don't just physically leave the parody alone, stop thinking about it for a while. Come back later in a different mind set and see what you can't come up with.

And now in the interest of annoying you all, I'll supply some of my lyrics from my first venture into parodies about religion, inspired by a true story of a comedian I saw recently. I mentioned it to my father, and he put on a confused look and said I should screen it before submitting it because of the subject matter. Since this is new territory for my, I'm not inclined to disagree with him.

My parents stayed home and raised me well
And they instilled in me a fear of hell
And dragged me to the same Catholic mass since I was two
Now I don’t wanna bash my dad’s belief
But I don’t know why it should cause me grief
That although he raised me Catholic, he’s a Jew

Well, let me explain before you go floggin’
There ain’t NOTHIN’ wrong with some Synagogue-in’
And those who eat Kosher are some of the finest I knew
But you must understand I was made a fool
By darn near everyone back at Catholic School
Who found out that half of the people who raised me were Jews

Well, the place I went was filled with nuns
An’ some were downright nasty ones
They’d beat you like a rug when you were bad
Now some were fat and some more were skinny
But most were fat and to say so was sin-y
And they said ‘Confess your sins’ or God gets mad

Well, I couldn’t tell them about my dad
So I told a friend, who I thought I had
He gasped and started praying hard for my soul
He prayed aloud to God, the boss
The nuns all heard and they got cross
And to this day I still think he’s an a**-hole

Some really great lyrics there.

... and said I should screen it before submitting it because of the subject matter. Since this is new territory for my, I'm not inclined to disagree with him.

Well, it made me laugh, even though I DKTOS. :D

Join the club, nem....I even write parodies ABOUT my writers block. My worst habit is coming up with great titles and absolutely nothing to go with them...I've got a file with about 70 titles that I love but can't do anything with. Usually when I get on a roll with a parody that I really like, I finish 'em off pretty quickly...but I also find that if I'm trying to be too clever or force an idea into a song structure, it doesn't work and I end up binning the lot. Good luck on finishing; I enjoy your stuff!  ::)

Some really great lyrics there.



Well, it made me laugh, even though I DKTOS. :D


THanks for the encouragement Leo and Phil. I've been working on it a little bit every day I go into work. It'll probably be up this Thursday.

No, absolutely not...never...always come up with something totally brilliant and original in short time...thanks for asking...

pr

Most definitely. I'm staring one in the face right now. I have 54 lines of "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash done, and I can't get a fitting ending. It's a much more serious work than most of the stuff here, and it's about religion which is already a really sensitive issue for most people.

But anyway, in terms of a parody that you can't finish, just leave it and come back to it later, and I mean both in body and in mind. Don't just physically leave the parody alone, stop thinking about it for a while. Come back later in a different mind set and see what you can't come up with.

And now in the interest of annoying you all, I'll supply some of my lyrics from my first venture into parodies about religion, inspired by a true story of a comedian I saw recently. I mentioned it to my father, and he put on a confused look and said I should screen it before submitting it because of the subject matter. Since this is new territory for my, I'm not inclined to disagree with him.

My parents stayed home and raised me well
And they instilled in me a fear of hell
And dragged me to the same Catholic mass since I was two
Now I don’t wanna bash my dad’s belief
But I don’t know why it should cause me grief
That although he raised me Catholic, he’s a Jew

Well, let me explain before you go floggin’
There ain’t NOTHIN’ wrong with some Synagogue-in’
And those who eat Kosher are some of the finest I knew
But you must understand I was made a fool
By darn near everyone back at Catholic School
Who found out that half of the people who raised me were Jews

Well, the place I went was filled with nuns
An’ some were downright nasty ones
They’d beat you like a rug when you were bad
Now some were fat and some more were skinny
But most were fat and to say so was sin-y
And they said ‘Confess your sins’ or God gets mad

Well, I couldn’t tell them about my dad
So I told a friend, who I thought I had
He gasped and started praying hard for my soul
He prayed aloud to God, the boss
The nuns all heard and they got cross
And to this day I still think he’s an a**-hole

Good stuff,  and that comes from a fellow Jew...of the non-observant variety, however...

pr

OH...uhh...by the way, that thing I said above about never having any trouble finishing parodies, uhh...and, uh...you know...iuhh...never having any trouble finding the perfect words?  Yeah, well that was a total lie in case you were wondering...stuck on one now and it will mostly likely join it's brethren in my parody's writers personal Guatanamo Bay holding camp...oh, the torture...the screams at night...it's just awful...

pr

...and to make matters worse, it be a "Pirate" parody...one that be given me by that blasted blaggard Kristof to try...I almost be finished...but I be stuck on the last 10 syllables...and what I have tried there so far is so far below the rest of the piece that I wouldn't even consider putting it up...Which means I may have to CHANGE the whole last verse and  do it differently...uhh...which, by the way, sometimes digs you out of that "can't finish this" hole...as odious as the thought of jettisoning a perfectly fine 80 0r 90% of a verse truly is...

once again...

pr

You know what really sucks?

Vacuum cleaners.

You know what really sucks?

Vacuum cleaners.


reuben!

You know what really sucks?

Vacuum cleaners.


Gonna have to doc ya for that one, Jeff.

Actually, what really sucks is the story that inspired the parody in the first place. I'm actually not Jewish, Paul. I'm just a Catholic who got sick of the fact that that kind of intolerance actually goes on and there's no excuse for it. It was inspired by a comedian who did a one-man-show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in NYC based around his experiences as a half-Jewish person in Catholic school. He spent most of the show bashing Catholics and anyone from a "Red" state. Now what happened to him really did suck, but to me turning around and just simply bashing others isn't going to do much but pass around more hatred. Now everybody has to vent, but there are ways to do it without stereotyping in the same way as the people who hurt you in the first place. "My experience with Catholicism was bad, therefore Catholicism is bad." This cannot be how we think if things are ever going to change. For things to change, we need to accept the past for what it is, something that at the end of the day no one can change or erase, and then use all the energy that we would use hating those who hurt us not to hate them right back, but to try and come up with a solution, so the hatred stops altogether. And so far the only thing I can think of as a Catholic is to admit the mistakes of some in Catholicism and promote taking ownership as a religion for those mistakes so they will not be repeated. As you can see, I feel rather strongly on this issue. And the fact that it's an issue at all, my friends, is what really sucks.

Gonna have to doc ya for that one, Jeff.

Actually, what really sucks is the story that inspired the parody in the first place. I'm actually not Jewish, Paul. I'm just a Catholic who got sick of the fact that that kind of intolerance actually goes on and there's no excuse for it. It was inspired by a comedian who did a one-man-show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in NYC based around his experiences as a half-Jewish person in Catholic school. He spent most of the show bashing Catholics and anyone from a "Red" state. Now what happened to him really did suck, but to me turning around and just simply bashing others isn't going to do much but pass around more hatred. Now everybody has to vent, but there are ways to do it without stereotyping in the same way as the people who hurt you in the first place. "My experience with Catholicism was bad, therefore Catholicism is bad." This cannot be how we think if things are ever going to change. For things to change, we need to accept the past for what it is, something that at the end of the day no one can change or erase, and then use all the energy that we would use hating those who hurt us not to hate them right back, but to try and come up with a solution, so the hatred stops altogether. And so far the only thing I can think of as a Catholic is to admit the mistakes of some in Catholicism and promote taking ownership as a religion for those mistakes so they will not be repeated. As you can see, I feel rather strongly on this issue. And the fact that it's an issue at all, my friends, is what really sucks.


Agreed.

You know what really sucks?

Vacuum cleaners.



guy: Hey, you know what sucks?
otherguy: vaccuums
guy: Hey, you know what sucks in a metaphorical sense?
otherguy: black holes
guy: Hey, you know what just isn't cool?
otherguy: lava?

Gonna have to doc ya for that one, Jeff.

Actually, what really sucks is the story that inspired the parody in the first place. I'm actually not Jewish, Paul. I'm just a Catholic who got sick of the fact that that kind of intolerance actually goes on and there's no excuse for it. It was inspired by a comedian who did a one-man-show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade in NYC based around his experiences as a half-Jewish person in Catholic school. He spent most of the show bashing Catholics and anyone from a "Red" state. Now what happened to him really did suck, but to me turning around and just simply bashing others isn't going to do much but pass around more hatred. Now everybody has to vent, but there are ways to do it without stereotyping in the same way as the people who hurt you in the first place. "My experience with Catholicism was bad, therefore Catholicism is bad." This cannot be how we think if things are ever going to change. For things to change, we need to accept the past for what it is, something that at the end of the day no one can change or erase, and then use all the energy that we would use hating those who hurt us not to hate them right back, but to try and come up with a solution, so the hatred stops altogether. And so far the only thing I can think of as a Catholic is to admit the mistakes of some in Catholicism and promote taking ownership as a religion for those mistakes so they will not be repeated. As you can see, I feel rather strongly on this issue. And the fact that it's an issue at all, my friends, is what really sucks.

well, I think I gotta agree with you, especially on the last part...My first recognition of the fact that there even WERE different religiions and that ignorance and intolerance were sad, foolish folly was when I was maybe 6 or 7...I had a good friend down the street..."Zeppy"...we played together a lot.  He was over at my house one Friday and it got to be time for lunch...so my Mom said, "Would you to have lunch with us, Zeppy?"...And Zeppy said,  "I don't think I can...I'd have to call my Mother"...At my Mother's urging he called her and was told "No" because it was Friday and he had to eat fish...my Mom took the phone and said that was no problem,  she could make tuna fish sandwiches...but Mrs. Z said "Nope"...I was bummed...a bit later inquired of Mother about it...and she explained - in a pained manner, but without doing any bashing, a little about what happened...seemed stupid to me then...still does...but I hold no grudge...it was just how some people thought then...and still do today sometimes.  I have never really thought it was that huge a deal - what happened that day - but I still remember it quite well...so it must have been bigger to me than I supposed...and that's how I ended up with this terrible Inferiority Complex...(boo-hoo)...

pr

pr

...and to make matters worse, it be a "Pirate" parody...one that be given me by that blasted blaggard Kristof to try...I almost be finished...but I be stuck on the last 10 syllables...and what I have tried there so far is so far below the rest of the piece that I wouldn't even consider putting it up...Which means I may have to CHANGE the whole last verse and  do it differently...uhh...which, by the way, sometimes digs you out of that "can't finish this" hole...as odious as the thought of jettisoning a perfectly fine 80 0r 90% of a verse truly is...

once again...

pr

OH...by the way...I took my own suggestion and scrapped the last verse and completely re-wrote it...and, guess what?  I think it works now...Guess we will find out when folks read and comment on it...

pr