Edit: The revised thread is posted on page 3, post #38. Please go to that one first. The original thread will remain up for now, but this is likely to be edited more then resubmitted. All input is still appreciated.


Sharing parody writing techniques/advice for "newbies".

EDIT: If you want to modify/contribute to this in any way, go ahead. This thread isn't locked. This list has already been edited heavily as, well, I am a "newbie" and have got quite a few pointers/corrections from others who know better.

These are no hard and fast rules set in stone. Just a contribution to help newer people. Any specific questions on this you may PM me. If not go ahead and post here.

I've scrolled through all 26 pages in this section and haven't come across this topic. I would like to share with you as a "newbie" what I have learned so far. I'll try to limit this to less than 10 trillion words. ;D

For FAQ see this first:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,10012.0.html

Thank you K1chyd and ChuckyG for this.

Lets get this out of the way first: Amiright abbreviations:

OS=Original song ( very commonly used )
TOS=The Original Song ( very commonly used )
TOA=The Original Artist ( very uncommon )
IKTOS= I Know The Original Song ( uncommon )
DKTOS=Don't Know The Original Song ( common but somewhat embarassing to use this ). This I use on parodies I find funny but have no idea how it paces. If others who know it have already rated the pacing then I can add my funny/overall to it.

DKTOS isn't meant to be used on every parody you read just to show you read it. More like this:

DKTOS but this is funny as heck. 555*.

*The written vote is optional.

DKTPL=Don't Know The Parody Language ( rarely used ). There are a few parodies written in foreign languages, that is non-English.

(SOTM)=Song of the Month. This means this parody has been entered into a contest before.

(ABC)= Letter contests. We are now on "G" at the moment, so any parody starting with the letter "G" can be entered.

( shameless plug )=This is where someone copies and pastes the http of a parody they wrote into your comments under your parody. Nothing wrong with it but don't do it too often. Usually that means that they liked your parody and have a similar one on a different OS that you may like.

1: It is bad to compose parodies on the submission box for several reasons. Accidentally hitting "submit" before you are done and for myself losing my internet connection and losing everything I have typed. I use a Notepad at the moment but am looking into Word Processor or equivalent to correct the enormous amount of typos and spelling mistakes my parodies usually contain.

2: As far as OS choices go, I went with my favorite band at first. The fact that I was new and Alice in Chains isn't very popular led to few votes.

3: Along the same lines, I made most of my earlier ones from memory alone ( on the submission box ) and left out parts of the song or had bad syllable counts on lines. I also wrote many with just downloaded lyrics which I have learned are usually horrible on the type of music I listen to, leading to more mistakes.

Now I use both downloaded lyrics/CD covers and listen to TOS to try to sing my parodied words over TOS while it is playing to see how it paces.

EDIT: See this if you want to know how I personally regard pacing ( and a few other things ).

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,9890.0.html

How you regard pacing is up to, well you of course. Those are just my own criteria, and some of those have changed a bit since they were written ( for the better ).

4: I moved to more well known/classic songs and did much better vote wise. I still enjoy writing on songs that will probably get few votes though.

5: I have also learned that you can write whatever you like, but if I think it is unfunny upon completion it gets scrapped. There are roughly 20 such parodies I have completed but will never see the light of day on www.amiright.com.

I have writen one that was blatantly unfunny to get a point across.

6: Peoples' sense of humor is very good here, something that is appreciated greatly personally. I have written a few I thought would bomb but did pretty well. And I have had a few bombs, a few meaning like, well more than 3 and less than 10.

7: Haste makes waste. Cliche but true. One I wrote in about 2 minutes and it didn't go over well.

8: Comments are important to most everyone here.

EDIT:Part deleted due to some confusion.

Without the comments left by everyone on my parodies I would not have grown at all as a parodist. Do not take criticizm the wrong way. Also, I try not to be harsh on others as you don't want to make someone quit writing or feel unwelcome.

9:I personally shy away from political and religeous topics as much as possible. Seems if you "take sides" so to speak you're going to tick someone off. It takes a master usually to pull these off without irritating someone. I have done ~4 such parodies and the only reason I believe they didn't draw low marks is because they were set to obscure songs.

Even the masters will get some 111s on these, especially religeon.

These are about the only 2 types of parodies I may vote on but not comment.

"Toilet humor/gross" and "double-entendre" type parodies are almost guaranteed to draw a 111 if TOS is well known. That said if they are written well enough the numbers of good votes will drown the occasional 111. Some of these slip through though unscathed.

YOU may make anything you wish regarding "racy" topics. This is just my personal taste.

EDIT: I have written probably 7 or so toilet humor/gross parodies and they do get 111d occasionaly but I will continue writing them if I wish.

EDIT: See Spaff's take on this below. He IS a master parodist.

10: Everyone has their "guilty pleasures" regarding certain things. I have had a few people dock me on funny for a single line in a parody before. I have done the same.

11: Sometimes humor can outweigh pacing errors. I have been told by several people that humor should not be compromised by exact syllable counts. I try to get both as good as I can now.


Now, to actually share what I know about writing parodies, comments and general observation:

EDIT A: I cannot believe I missed this one at first. How do I come up with a parody? Many times this is a parodied name of an OS title and then gets worked from there. Other times this is a single word/line or chorus in an OS around which and entire parody is constructed. Atleast 7 parodies I have made have come from comments on others parodies and occasionally a news story.

Basically, you can draw inspiration from anything.

EDIT B: Just as important to me is how the parody "flows".
Syllable counts, rhyming, stresses on the correct syllables, breaks/pauses, etc. are what I have termed "natural pacing", that is if the parodied words were karaoked there would be few problems in doing so.

I have seen ( and made ) a few parodies that had correct syllable counts but because of poor rhyming and incorrectly stressed words made the parody darned near impossible to sing.

Since K1chyd mentioned this to me a while back, you can check out rhymezone.com if you are stuck for a word that rhymes that is needed for a parody.

1: Write about what you know. Several parody ideas never get off the ground because I get a working title for it then find I do not know anything about the subject. What subject you write on is up to you.

2: I personally check to see if a parody idea/title on the OS I want to do has been done before. If it has more than about 2 times I scrap it.

One such one recently was "Love In An Elevator" called "Stuck In An Elevator". This happened to me at work and I know the song well, but it has been done before 2 times and quite well at that.

You can make any parody you want to, regardless of the number of times a similar/identical parody title has been made.

3: Along the same lines, if an idea seems obvious to you, then it stands a good chance of being obvious to someone else, hence the ~16 "Constipated" parodies of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" out there.

4: Crediting the wrong or multiple artists to an OS is not good ( generally ). Neither is misspelling the band/song name or getting the decade wrong. A few people are so hung up over this they will not vote you or 111 you despite ( to spite? ) the parody content.

If someone complains about a decade a song was released, use the "report innapropriate comments" tool on that comment if it bothers you. Same goes for excessive foul language or someone "spamming" you.

There is "Twit Control" that is a 5 minute timer so that this doesn't happen too often.

5: If you "go against the flow" on your vote i.e. you leave a written vote in your comment and explain where the parodist went wrong in your opinion, I haven't seen a single case where that is held against you ( well, actually a few but none to myself personally ).

I have voted as low as 312 ( a written and recorded vote, which I consider a horrible mark ) and left a LENGTHY explanation of that vote ( I think my comment was half as long as his parody ). That parodist and I are what I would consider friends and he has not "spiked" me for it.

That said there is no rule that says you must leave a written vote in your comment or comment on a song you vote. Everyone has their own preferences.

I like to put my vote into the "feel" of the parody, that is if the topic is say "time-related" I might say something like this:

I got up at 5:55 am this morning too.

6: I never "hold over" one parody to the next from the same author. If one was "not good" and the next one is brilliant I will say so. Many people have "off" days, especially newbies.

7: Parody titles grab my attention first, not TOS or the author's name. If you have a catchy parody title alone and the parody is clever it may get a 444+ ( and a comment ) despite the fact I DKTOS.

EDIT:That said, I do look at TOS name and parody author.

8: Everybody has a different sense of humor, thankfully. Otherwise we would probably come up with the same material and the site would be boring. I tend to write about things I know well or do but also write about very odd things sometimes as well.

9: Regarding songs I DKTOS but find funny I will generally wait to see how others rate the pacing then vote my funny/overall. If pacing is all over the place then I will generally give an average of what is already there then do the rest.

10: I try to read every parody every day now despite the fact I DKTOS on atleast 60% of them. This gives me ideas on what is doing well and what is not. I have drawn inspiration from many others comments and parodies. I have also had atleast 3 of my comments turned into parodies.

11: I also read the comments before I vote to see what is going on. I have had a few people make almost the same exact comment on my parodies before when I have already explained myself once regarding the same topic.

12: I make sure now I thank everyone who has voted my parodies. A thank you goes along way with me personally.

12a: For those that do not know how to separate paragraphs, this is how you do it: Type the <, capital letters BR, then >, twice in a row. It will show up here but is converted into code in the comments box. Basically you will type this:

<BR><BR>

Simply hitting the return/carriage key doesn't work, neither does the "Break" key on the keyboard.

13: Space out your submissions. If you have just found www.amiright.com you are probably excited about it. You may have a lot of parodies already written. However, if someone sees 15+ submissions in one day from one person, chances are that many of them will be ignored. I have seen this happen atleast twice in the last 3 months.

14: If you are starting out don't expect masses of votes. If I get 6 votes on a parody on a given day I consider that very good.

If you are really new and you get 3 votes that is very good, IMHO.

I have seen one parodist on her 2nd submission garner 25 555s. This is HIGHLY unlikely to happen to you, or me for that matter.

15: I personally ALWAYS enable comments because without them this advice/techniques thread would have never started. There are too many people to thank who have commented on my parodies to list them all here.

Enableing comments is up to you. Most people leave them enabled all the time but some do not on more "controversial" parodies, and a few authors almost never enable them.

16: Always spell your name EXACTLY the same ( capitalization, punctuation, spaces, etc ) everytime you submit a parody or it will not be credited to you. If you have a long name or one that is likely to be misspelled, I would recommend having it in a NotePad so that you can copy/paste it every time.

There are some people who like psuedonyms and write parodies under different names. Strange but it is fine with me.

17: To draw more attention to your work, enter the parody contests that start every month. There are certain rules with these contests, so make sure you follow them.

EDIT:18: One thing I try to avoid now is putting ( repeat chorus ) vs typing out the chorus. If they are identical choruses, just copy/paste them in the right places. I say this because I personally enjoy trying to karaoke your parodied words over TOS while it is playing. This is difficult if I have to scroll up and down the screen to read the chorus.

19: Finally, nearly everyone gets Writer's Block from time to time. It's amazing how turning nothing into something can fare. ;)

Now for some site information:

1: You do not show up on the author's list untill you have 10 parodies
submitted. This takes a few days to a week to show up. Once you have 10 submitted and are on the list you get updated as frequently as the site does though. This is the link:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/

2: If you have questions you can e-mail ChuckyG at this address:

chuck@worcestermass.com

BEFORE you do that read this:

http://www.amiright.com/email.shtml

and this:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,8748.0.html

That link ^ is for asking ChuckyG whatever you want to.

3: Once you reach 25 submissions you can e-mail ChuckyG with a bio if you want to. This is completely optional. It takes about a month or so for your bio to be added.

4: If you wish to submit "adult oriented material" you can visit this site:

http://www.whatfreaks.com/

5: A new search feature under progress using band names is this:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/performers/

Thank you ChuckyG and MooRocca for a great job on this. :)

6: www.amiright.com is not updated 7 days a week, though this *may* be changing in the future. If you submit a parody over a weekend it may be buried under a horde of parodies on Monday. This happened about 3 weeks ago. Nearly 100 parodies were up.

Update time is "generally" between 10:30-11:30 am Eastern Standard Time, which is GMT-5:00 I believe.

EDIT: ChuckyG has commented on this below in more detail.

That's about it for now. Anyone may feel free to add or detract from this list as they wish.

Wow, Ant in Chains, that's quite a user's manual you've come up with there. Thanks for putting so much work into it - I'm sure that newbies (and not-so-newbies) will find it helpful.

May I make a suggestion? Your guidelines suggest avoiding controversial topics so as to avoid low votes. I disagree. I say write what you find funny - and let the buffalo chips fall where they may. And, by all means, do not let a fear of 111's inhibit your creativity. Amiright voting totals are anything but scientific, so try not to worry about 111's. Everybody gets them. Besides, you can't please everyone, and why would you want to anyway?

xoxox
Spaff

Wow, thanks for commenting Spaff. Glad you appreciate it. I would assume you are referring to this section:

9: I personally shy away from political and religeous topics as much as possible. Seems if you "take sides" so to speak you're going to tick someone off. It takes a master usually to pull these off without irritating someone. I have done ~4 such parodies and the only reason I believe they didn't draw low marks is because they were set to obscure songs.

Even the masters will get some 111s on these, especially religeon.

I consider you a master parodist. You are correct in that as you commented once before something to the effect of "It ain't satire untill it offends someone".

That section is just my own personal taste. I will modify it to include what you suggested. The MAIN reason I do not write much on politics and religion is because I do not know enough either way to pull it off.

Although you probably DKTOS, I have a fully completed parody ( not submitted ) of Soungarden's Ty Cobb ( Hot Rod Death Toll ) called George Bush ( Iraq Death Toll ). I basically slam Bush as hard as possible but after writing it it just wasn't funny, even to me.

I basically slam Bush as hard as possible but after writing it it just wasn't funny, even to me.


Good observation. There are funny parodies that slam Bush, but it's the humor, not the Bush slamming, that makes them work.

(Huh huh - he said "slam Bush.")

xoxox
Spaff

EDIT:See Spaff's take on this below. He IS a master parodist.


Thank you. Your conversion to the dark side is complete.

xoxox
Spaff

Ant man! Thanks for giving permission to modify/contribute...but you've done such a masterful job, there's bugger all left to say. Well done- when's the book coming out?  ;)
We lazy gits need people like you around to keep the wheels turning. Give yourself a big pat on the back!

i enjoyed reading them too, and i found a couple of the hints useful for myself! great job, red ant!

Thanks Kristof. As far as a book goes, as slow as I type THAT WAS A BOOK!!

Which emoticon is the pat yourself on the back one? ;D :-\\ :o ;)
I think that is it.

Thanks DAK, glad you got some help out of this.

Edit: Thank you Meerkal. Not sure how I missed you before. Master of the oblivious is I.

Awesome guide Ant! You know I can't help but think you were refering to me about not commenting since you been here.  ??? Anyway, this helps out quite a bit as I'm usually in a writing slump, as you could probably tell with the few amount of songs I have. Of which were written over the course of about 3 years before I came to the site. Aside from that, good job again, although I should probably be the last person posting anywhere near a writing advise thread.

- Update time is generally between 10:30-11:30 am Eastern Standard Time

Actually update time is between 6 AM and 12:30 PM Easter Standard Daylight Time.  Since some people don't do the jump like us weird Americans. 

I generally pick one weekend day to do an update, rarely both.  (The flood two weeks ago, is because I went away for the weekend)


Should this stuff be seperate from the FAQ? A lot of it seems to belong with it I think.

Nice job, Red!

My only caveat is that there may be too much about subject matter. Your advice, while sound, isn't going to stop anyone from writing crud. Let newbies know though, that potty humor and political subjects are a dime a dozen, and it takes some very keen writing skills to make something in those vein entertaining for everyone.

For that is why we come here...to gratify our egos and entertain each other (tell me if I am wrong ;)).

For that is why we come here...to gratify our egos and entertain each other...



Well, those are both great reasons...but I also think that the business networking opportunities are phenomenal...(or maybe that is just how I justify my at work time spent on the site...hehehe)... ;)

Very good, informative. I learned the hard way about the "Constipated" parodies, which you informed me about on our other thread. I hadn't checked that section in awhile which was partly why I was unaware of it(I think I didn't look down far enough either the first time). I feel if you do still want to use a topic that has been used to death, you still can, just check the other ones and see what you can do with it in a way that the others haven't done. Alot of the "Constipated" parodies I read are very amusing, but too many of them are way too similiar, but nobody thought of doing it the way I wrote it(yet) and once I get the other parody I writing done I'll sumbit it.

:)

Okay, I thank all who have commented. Spaff and Agrimorfee from what I gather are in some disagreement over subject matter, which is understandable. I did add in red color that those are my personal tastes and that you ( anyone else ) can write about what you wish.

For Agrimorfee: Of course we come here to entertain and gratify our egos ( Atleast I do  ;) )

Not sure if this should be modified or deleted. Anyone who can help a newbie on this let me know.

To ChuckyG, the update time I posted is from what I have observed in general as to when new parodies are posted, that is when the front page changes.

Some of this is redundant from the FAQ, however the original FAQ was locked and I know K1chyd had obligations to preclude him from doing much on the FAQ So far thread.

Is anyone willing to pick out the parts that should belong to the FAQ? If enough is moved to that thread, I can delete this thread altogether.

To ChuckyG, the update time I posted is from what I have observed in general as to when new parodies are posted, that is when the front page changes.


that's the average then...  it went up this morning at 9... if I do it tomorrow, it'll be by 7:30.

I'm thiinking not all of this is FAQ material though... maybe we should pull stuff that definitely belongs in the FAQ out of this, and you can write like more of a parody writing guidelines?  There are a few of those on amiright, but they're fairly old at this point:

http://www.amiright.com/articles/

near the bottom of the page

Some of this is redundant from the FAQ, however the original FAQ was locked and I know K1chyd had obligations to preclude him from doing much on the FAQ So far thread.

Is anyone willing to pick out the parts that should belong to the FAQ? If enough is moved to that thread, I can delete this thread altogether.


The "The only FAQ that matters - SO FAR" thread is at this point to be seen as a Demo or a Beta 1.0.0. I'd summon up the questions and answers from the original thread and gave them what IMHO was sort of a red line and some rephrasing so as to avoid the cut and paste mix of first, second and third persons perspective phrasing.

When and/or if it ever becomes the real/official thing Chucky will give it an overhaul and cut some, add some, rephrase some, etc.

That's also why I've tried as far as possible to avoid to use URLs in it. There's a possible revamp of the site coming up for its 10:th birthday and some of the links that should be in a FAQ may get different URLs and have to be changed anyway.

That said, I did get some ideas for it from this and they will be included in the Demo/Beta shortly.  :)

I'd also appreciate it if you will let this thread live on until noone has posted to it for a week or two.

Thank you for a response K1chyd. I will leave this thread up as long as necessary ( indefinately at this point ). I was unaware of the possible revamp, and one of the links I posted is under construction at the moment.

Glad to see you got some stuff out of this. Once that is moved to the FAQ, I can delete those portions and just have my own "newbie" parody thread.

PS- There was one other question I had but answered myself:

How do you convert http into the blue clickable links in the parody?

The submission box tells at the bottom how to do this, but it is a bit confusing at first. I toyed with it on my last parody but decided against including a shameless plug.

Perhaps a detailed explantion on that *might* be a good thing, as the code on the box is much different than the code here.

Oh, but wait, there’s more, while I’m here, some comments, and yes, you should consider summoning this up for a separate “Writing advice for Newbies FAQ” thread.


1: Write about what you know. Several parody ideas never get off the ground because I get a working title for it then find I do not know anything about the subject…

Ahem… So that’s why you’ve got A WHOLE ALBUM about streaking coming up. ;D


11: Sometimes humor can outweigh pacing errors. I have been told by several people that humor should not be compromised by exact syllable counts…

I have mixed feelings about this subject. Syllable count is unreliable at many occasions. Some singers have a tendency to stretch out the last syllable in many of their songs long enough for you to get more than one syllable into that place in your parody (Example: “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains), especially if it’s two adjacent like in the word “roar”, whilst others have a tendency to cut/not pronounce the first letter(s) in a word even if there on the lyrics sheet (Example: “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival). This latter “problem” is of course also commonly seen everywhere when “because” is pronounced “’cos” and “around” is pronounced “’round”, etc.

That said I do think that syllable counting IS a good habit/technique for a newbie to acquire, it helps you to work on your UNFINISHED parodies whilst not near a computer or a set of pen and paper; in a queue at the mall, while getting to work, while getting a new angle from something said or done on the program you’re half consciously watching before falling to sleep, while you're doing the missus/hubby if you live somewhere where thinking of baseball is not the natural option, etc. Mainly because it helps in building lines from end to front which is as important to know/handle as building them from front to end. The last and the first word of a line is generally the most important to pace with the original, the part in the middle is (once again generally) the part were it’s somewhat easier to later on “fix/fill” the line if it doesn’t really work out naturally.

I think that what really counts in the end is whether or not the parody works as karaoke, if you can sing the parody over the original without it sounding obviously forced or stretched, you’ve done good and have at least a 4, most probably a 5, coming your way.


12a: For those that do not know how to separate paragraphs, this is how you do it: Type the <, capital letters BR, then >, twice in a row. It will show up here but is converted into code in the comments box. Basically you will type this:

<BR><BR>

Simply hitting the return/carriage key doesn't work, neither does the "Break" key on the keyboard.

This could go in the FAQ but I think we’ll keep it here. It’s not the type of question a first time(s) visitor would ask and generally becomes an issue first when you’ve started to post parodies of your own and want to comment on others more frequent or give listed answers to comments posted on your own. Then most of the time asking about it leads the questioner over here, to the community part of the site, and that’s good, isn’t it?



13: Space out your submissions. If you have just found www.amiright.com you are probably excited about it. You may have a lot of parodies already written. However, if someone sees 15+ submissions in one day from one person, chances are that many of them will be ignored. I have seen this happen atleast twice in the last 3 months.

Amen to that. I think it’s to go first if you summon this up for a separate FAQ for newbie submitters. Posting them all at once or over a very short period is probably the biggest and most common mistake newbies who already have a parody backlog when they find this place do. Posting just one or two per day from a backlog is a much better way to get started if you have that opportunity.


18: One thing I try to avoid now is putting ( repeat chorus ) vs typing out the chorus. If they are identical choruses, just copy/paste them in the right places. I say this because I personally enjoy trying to karaoke your parodied words over TOS while it is playing. This is difficult if I have to scroll up and down the screen to read the chorus.

If the chorus is repeated 4 times at the end of song it doesn’t matter that much if you write “repeat chorus” for the last 3, etc, but typing out the full chorus and then try to change a few words each time is a technique used to improve the parody (and as someone, I don’t remember who, said; a way to show that you are smarter than whoever wrote the original).

Also, if you’re familiar with the “giving three examples of your facts or your argument is the perfect numeral when you speak in public” technique you might be able to cross that over to the knowledge that a chorus is most often repeated three times throughout a song. Vary your choruses where possible and you will most likely improve your parody, even if just a tad. ;)

  //  Peter

Final Disclaimer: Somehow I have slowly come to be aware that whenever I think I know what my writing technique and philosophy is, and whenever I'm actually able to describe them in words, that's when I'm about to drift into what is for me new and uncharted territories of those aspects. All writers like to set little (new) goals for themselves. Expect that to happen to you too. :D :D :D

PS- There was one other question I had but answered myself:

How do you convert http into the blue clickable links in the parody?

The submission box tells at the bottom how to do this, but it is a bit confusing at first. I toyed with it on my last parody but decided against including a shameless plug.

Perhaps a detailed explantion on that *might* be a good thing, as the code on the box is much different than the code here.


Well, the explanation IS there, on site, so it might be a bit redundant. And just like with the linebreaks-in-comments thing I think that if someone has to ask it will lead to them being directed over here to the community, which in the long run will answer a lot more for them.  ;)

7: Parody titles grab my attention first, not TOS or the author's name. If you have a catchy parody title alone and the parody is clever it may get a 444+ ( and a comment ) despite the fact I DKTOS


Well, for me it is TOSes first, but I think funny titles tie for second with looking for the authors I’ve come to know best.

However, anyone with basic knowledge of psychology knows the importance of first impression and I think you are on to something here; from the view of a newbie visitor or a newbie AmIwriter, funny titles hinting of funny subjects are probably the first you look for at that stage.

Maybe someone (that means YOU, bwahahahahaha…) should start/run/try a FTOTM (Funniest Title Of The Month) competition parallel to SOTM. Site boost advantages would be that anyone, even a total newbie with 1 parody to his name, could win it, that a rule on mandatory commenting on the parodies wouldn’t be necessary since we’re formally only to judge the titles, and (assuming that our axiom that a funny title in itself leads to reading/voting/comments is correct) that participants (what kind of pants or ants is that anyway) would get normal exposure for their entire songs sort of by proxy anyway.

Thinking out loud here, it’s just an idea, do with it what you like.  8)

As far as streaking goes, lets say that is on hold untill I acquire more first hand knowledge. ;) The CD will be called Streak 'Em All.

As far as syllable counting goes, I have had to on one song write down the EXACT number of syllables per line, because they are all clearly heard and the song had 1 and 2 syllable words that could not be combined into a bigger word. The "pacing" on that song ( or "tempo" I suppose ) changes just enough from line to line to make syllable counting mandatory.

Many downloaded lyrics are different than what you hear in a song. On my submissions from now on I will include the "extra" words inside of parentheses for a "pacing aid", so to speak.

As far as "Them Bones" goes, that was one of my earlier parodies I made from memory alone. Yes, syllables are carried in that song. The first line look like this:

I believe, them bones are me.

It's sung more like this though:

Iiiiiiiii belieeeeve, them booones are meeee.

As far as "karaoke", that is exactly how I try to make parodies now, and rate others in general. I don't try hard raps or Mariah Carey though, for examples.

As far as putting "repeat chorus", this bothers me more than others. When I first started I didn't even use a notepad, just typed it into the submission box. Even copy/paste shows more effort than "repeat chorus" does. I still have done "repeat chorus" a few times since then, but do not like doing it and will likely not do it again.

Some songs you do not want to change up choruses much if at all, because:

A: There may only be 2 choruses in TOS.
B: You may compromise the "goal" of the parody.

Note: Since you mentioned it to me, I will mention rhymezone in the new thread when it gets started.

That said, on my American Pie parody which has 7 nearly identical choruses, I didn't repeat a single one of them, which was a major pain in the rear.

THAT SAID, many songs I parody personally have 5+ identical lines usually as the outro ( one as many as 20 ). There isn't much you can do with these other than "parodied words" (times X).

One final note: The song "Paradise City" by GNR if you put "repeat chorus" will get a pacing dock from me, because the choruses are not really all that close to identical. The chorus repeats twice at first, then changes a bit, then the syllable carrying happens, etc.

As far as parody titles go, usually they rhyme with TOS. Many do not however, because e.g. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" does not have those words in the song. A title that is appropriate ( to me ) for that song is "Smells Like..." because that alone is recognizable to most.

Final Disclaimer: As far as new territory, you are correct. Next parody will be submission 100 from me. I have quite a few newer ideas on the board already once I hit 100.

PS-Exactly when do I get the honor of not being a "newbie" anymore? Since 2 people mentioned that in the SOTM contest, I am extremely distressed over this. 200 parodies good enough? 2 years? Will I win the self proclaimed "Newbie Lifetime Achievement Award"?

WHAT IS THE MAGIC NUMBER!!! ;)

Many downloaded lyrics are different than what you hear in a song. On my submissions from now on I will include the "extra" words inside of parentheses for a "pacing aid", so to speak.



Personally I try to stay away from parentheses as much as possible but when I do use them it's for any of several reasons that I hope is obvious within the context. For example to mark out that a line is backing vocals in third person in both TOS and the parody (when the rest of the song is from first person), when it's "thoughts" from first person that really aren't to be spoken out loud to the imaginary counterpart(s) "on site" in the subject/imaginary scenery or to state things like "SPOKEN PART" or paragraph changes between "MAN:" and "WOMAN" etc.

Three (the magic number!) examples of this you'll find in my parodies:
"No more Mister Jedi"
"Vote for me 2"
"If I'm gonna be your lover you gotta get rid those kids".

Actually, I didn’t use parentheses on the last one (I would if it was written today) but it has the kind of changes between two people singing in it that I’m referring too.

I would definitely not use parentheses for what you're thinking of here, I've seen it done and it's mostly just confusing. If you feel you need to point out something about the originals pacing/varied chorus I suggest you do it in either the top or the bottom comment. It's up to you of course, but IMO that's better.



As far as "Them Bones" goes, that was one of my earlier parodies I made from memory alone. Yes, syllables are carried in that song. The first line look like this:

I believe, them bones are me.

It's sung more like this though:

Iiiiiiiii belieeeeve, them booones are meeee.



I've done that song myself, figured it would be a good example in your case.  ;)



As far as putting "repeat chorus", this bothers me more than others. When I first started I didn't even use a notepad, just typed it into the submission box. Even copy/paste shows more effort than "repeat chorus" does. I still have done "repeat chorus" a few times since then, but do not like doing it and will likely not do it again.

Some songs you do not want to change up choruses much if at all, because:

A: There may only be 2 choruses in TOS.
B: You may compromise the "goal" of the parody.

/.........../

THAT SAID, many songs I parody personally have 5+ identical lines usually as the outro ( one as many as 20 ). There isn't much you can do with these other than "parodied words" (times X).



Yes, agreed, there's always the exception(s), hence the use of "generally" in the previous arguments.

I've done AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" (as "Liberty Bell) and though you might find "Repeat chorus" at the end on internet lyrics sources I strongly remember that it's definitely NOT and how I had to work that part.



PS-Exactly when do I get the honor of not being a "newbie" anymore? Since 2 people mentioned that in the SOTM contest, I am extremely distressed over this. 200 parodies good enough? 2 years? Will I win the self proclaimed "Newbie Lifetime Achievement Award"?


After exactly 555 days!  ;)

Ahem, maybe not, let's see...  :D :D :D :D :D

Every day you post a new parody gives you 1 newbie point (more parodies per day does not give extra points unless one of them becomes an instant hit that gives you more than 10 votes and comments in the first 24 hours, then it's 2 newbie points).

Every day you vote and comment on at least 10 other people's parodies gives you 1 newbie point.

Every time you'll find that someone else has voted and commented on 10 of your parodies you get 10 newbie points.

If that number changes to voted and commented on 25 of your parodies you'll get another 15 newbie points.

Above that, nothing extra per voter/commenter, since he/she has probably already begun to think of you as beyond Newbie.

Participating in the SOTM contest gives you 25 newbie points once you've commented on everyone else and voted, 100 points if you get a medal, and instant veteran status if you win!

Posting parodies about poop gives the usual 1 point but also -9 points if people don't like it.

If your real name is Usama bin Laden and you add that and your current adress to strengten your claime for copyright you get -1'000'666 points and all the blame for causing the host server to crash in the days that follow.

Now count your points and compare them to this "What's my AmIright status" scale:

0-111 Points: Who?

111-222 Points: Prospect.

222-333 Points: Possible pun-addict.

333-444 Points: What, haven't we scared him off YET?!

444-555 Points: Incoming!!!

555-Infinity: VETERAN!

Okay, regarding parentheses, you are correct. I do usually state now something to the effect that downloaded lyrics are poor and if you rate me by them my pacing will look off, or in desperate cases that I made the parody from a sheet alone. I do use them for background vocals though, but state that in the foreword.

One example where NOT using parentheses is confusing is any "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" parody.

I know you did "Them Bones". And better I might add.

LOL on the newbie points section. That should be an entirely different thread altogether. I'll add them up roughly in my head:

Every day you post a new parody gives you 1 newbie point (more parodies per day does not give extra points unless one of them becomes an instant hit that gives you more than 10 votes and comments in the first 24 hours, then it's 2 newbie points).

1: This is roughly 70 parodies not counting duplicate postings per day. Add ~6 points for cracking 10 votes/comments 3 times in 24 hours.

Total:~76

However, I feel a need to add that if a parody was the most voted on parody that day ( as a newbie would check hehe ), give an extra 2 points per parody. This would add another 6 points roughly.

Also, if a "master" says something along the lines of "brilliant, clever, better than TOS, perfect, Weird Al quality, etc" in a parody comment to add another 2 points for that parody. This would add another 10 points roughly.

Edit: Add 5 points for every time you had dedicated/made a parody to/for another parodist ( singular ): This would be~15 points. This will be added at the end.*

Another edit: Add 1 point per parody that is a first submission of a song atleast 10 years old. This would add~20 points, added at the end.

Total: ~100 ( eek, not even close yet ).

Every day you vote and comment on at least 10 other people's parodies gives you 1 newbie point.

No way to remember all of that, but I'd say this is atleast 20 ( out of roughly 110 days )

Total:~120

Every time you'll find that someone else has voted and commented on 10 of your parodies you get 10 newbie points.

Again, off the top of my head I'd say that this is atleast 6 people, giving 60 points.

Total:~180

Done a SOTM contest, add 25. Total~205

What's with poop parodies? How about political stuff? Other gross stuff?

Since these were included in the original 100 points, and ~3 were not liked by more than one person ( people ), subtract 27 points.

Total:~178

You spell Osama as Usama over there? Lol. No matter, I am not him. OSAMA couldn't write a parody to save his life, that is if he isn't already dead.

A few more modifications:

Subtract 2 points everytime you have e-mailed ChuckyG with a stupid question. That would be about -16 points. Total:~162

Add 30 points for registering as a member on inthe00s: Total:~192

Add 1 point per each instance when you have admitted you are wrong on a position you took before. This would be roughly 20 points. Total:~212

Add 20 points ( conservatively ) for having Spaff comment on this thread first: Total:~232

Subtract 20 points for being a math dork. Total:~212

Add back 20 points for admitting you are a dork: Total:~232

*Add the 35 points before.

Looks as though it's ~267 points. By your original guildlines it is ~154 which would be "Prospect".

Status: Possible pun-addict. ;D I shall modify my sig here with your approval. ;)

You're actually counting points!? Wow, you take this way to serious!  :D

Or maybe we have accidentally stumbled upon something, I don't know... ???


You spell Osama as Usama over there? Lol.

It is my recollection that (as far as I know) almost the whole world spelled it like that during the first days after 9-11 and I've been told that it's more in tune with how middle east names are generally transformed into our alphabet. I guess peeps high up in the American news hieracy decided they didn't like the way the first three letters in the name of the worlds worst terrorist ever coincided with the name of their own country and decided to change its spelling. Can't say that I blame them, in their position I would have done the same thing. Now the "new" American spelling is however gaining ground over here too and a quick check with google shows that it dominates quite clearly on the worldwide scene.

You're not the first one to make that remark though, it's been done on one of my (metal) parodies, so maybe it's time for me too to change to Osama:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/accept2.shtml

You're actually counting points!? Wow, you take this way to serious!  :D

Or maybe we have accidentally stumbled upon something, I don't know... ???


Well, I HAD to know my place "in newbie kingdom" ( hey, I could see a parody of Europe's "The Final Countdown" from that ). Atleast I didn't dig through all my parodies to check this ( only a TRUE NOOB would do that ). ;D

Besides, YOU started the list, not me. ;)

I think I might have accidentally stumbled INTO something. What that is I do not know.

Modified my sig now with "newbie points", starting at ~267.

Also, in the contest section started what you suggested for FTOTM and one thing Kristof mentioned, perhaps jokingly. You'll have to see it there.

Well, I HAD to know my place "in newbie kingdom" ( hey, I could see a parody of Europe's "The Final Countdown" from that )


I'm sooo getting a related idea from that comment, you propbably have a dedication coming up man!  8)

The Final Countdown is kinda easy to parody (so it'll probably be rather soon), I've actually already done it once (during MY Newbie phase) but I never posted it ("The final asswipe"), probably for the better, be glad you never had to see THAT one...  8) 8) 8)


Besides, YOU started the list, not me.


Channeling Steve Urkel: DID I DO THAAAT?



Also, in the contest section started what you suggested for FTOTM and one thing Kristof mentioned, perhaps jokingly. You'll have to see it there.


Been there, done that, supported it.

LOL on The Final Countdown. Go ahead. The only parts I remember from that song is the keyboard riff and the lyrics "The Final Countdown".

A parody title I had on that song that never developed was "The Europe Smackdown". One of those 'Bad Choices For Music' I suppose, in the same section as misheard lyrics.

The Final Asswipe? Doesn't scatn too well. Perhaps "The Anal Meltdown" would be better. ;D

Thanks for checking out the contest thread.

LOL on The Final Countdown. Go ahead. The only parts I remember from that song is the keyboard riff and the lyrics "The Final Countdown".

A parody title I had on that song that never developed was "The Europe Smackdown". One of those 'Bad Choices For Music' I suppose, in the same section as misheard lyrics.

The Final Asswipe? Doesn't scatn too well. Perhaps "The Anal Meltdown" would be better. ;D

Thanks for checking out the contest thread.


It's not really that good a song but it's catchy and it still gets airtime over here whenever there's a big sporting event coming up, kinda like ABBA's "the winner takes it all", they tend to come in a combo at such times. Also, I reckon there's a lot of local trivia around the band that keeps them in the papers here, being the first band to break through a nationwide talent contest in Sweden, the whole band moving to Bahamas for tax reasons and being hunted by the IRS whenever they came home, splitting up, fiendship among the members with instant harsh statements about one another (instant as in just add microphones), solo albums flopping, moving back home, going broke, getting back together, kicking off a big reunion tour... in Norway instead of Sweden, etc.  :D

And you're right, that old asswipe version doesn't rhyme with the original, but it did work as karaoke because at some of the repeats the singer stretches out the last syllable a bit; "aaaaaa(on)" run over by "aaaaaa(jp), if I'm to exaggerate a bit, and in tune with what we've discussed above about pacing. Hmm... Maybe I can rework it, there are cleaner ways to approach such subjects...

Well, actually, I LIKED the song ( even the keyboard intro ), just that in the time it was played here it was played to death locally ( didn't care for the video though ). "The Europe Smackdown" idea was that I believe that this song was on one ( or more ) of the all-time worst song lists over here. I have seen the parody of this song called "The Fans Were Let Down", so that idea went in the trash and I can't really bash a group for ONE song.

That goes to my "rule" #1, write about what you know. I don't know much about Europe, so I can't write such a parody.

From K1chyd:  "That said I do think that syllable counting IS a good habit/technique for a newbie to acquire, it helps you to work on your UNFINISHED parodies whilst not near a computer or a set of pen and paper; in a queue at the mall, while getting to work, while getting a new angle from something said or done on the program you’re half consciously watching before falling to sleep, while you're doing the missus/hubby if you live somewhere where thinking of baseball is not the natural option, etc. Mainly because it helps in building lines from end to front which is as important to know/handle as building them from front to end. The last and the first word of a line is generally the most important to pace with the original, the part in the middle is (once again generally) the part were it’s somewhat easier to later on “fix/fill” the line if it doesn’t really work out naturally.

I think that what really counts in the end is whether or not the parody works as karaoke, if you can sing the parody over the original without it sounding obviously forced or stretched, you’ve done good "



Suggestion re:  Changing repetitive OS lyrics in your parody

Good points, all, but more than that, it's just a lot more fun, creative, and INSTRUCTIVE for you to work with/on...it really improves your language skills and verbal agility - and I'm talking about a LOT...a whole lot...And it's much, more more fun for the reader...sometimes I read really good parodies, really good...that could have been really EXCELLENT by adding a little something extra...Myself, I really kind of start to 'tune' out when I can see repetitive parody verses all over the place...sometimes they ARE totally appropriate...depends on what they are saying...but if they are just repeating "filler text" than you are wasting my eyesight and lowering my overall enthusiasm for the piece...if you can, keep me going!  Raise the level of hilarity and see if you get close to the ceiling with it...if you can't it doesn't mean you have written a poor parody by any means, though...But if you try to do more I think you will find that you will often surprise yourself at what you finally end up with.

OH...Yeah...sometimes they will end up being the funniest part of your parody.


Thanks for the time & space...

PRobinson   ;)

Thank you Paul Robinson. I will include that section under the new "Parody Writing For Newbies" thread when it gets started, although a bit paraphrased.

Have I been PR'd? If so does that add or detract from newbie points?

Thank you Paul Robinson. I will include that section under the new "Parody Writing For Newbies" thread when it gets started, although a bit paraphrased.

Have I been PR'd? If so does that add or detract from newbie points?

Well, to the 1st paragraph - (a) Thanks for the acknowledgement,  you may have already received some accolades for this thread.  It's an excellent idea and something that is potentially useful to a lot of writers...not just the "newbies"...it's an honor to be able to contribute to it. (b) Of course you will have to paraphrase me...If for no other reason than the conservation of time & space available here...

As to paragraph #2 - Red, I don't think so...You certainly weren't being "dissed" at all, so the negative conotation isn't applicable.  And my note was only an addition to what was basically a very sound bunch of advice and obviously a whole lot of effort on your part to make a meaningful contribution to the site...I salute you...But I can't say you were "PR'd" on the side of "receiving undeserved favorable notice or applause", because any positive recognition you have or will receive for this is most richly deserved.  OH...if you want to paraphrase this into a more economical form and post it on your refrigerator door or forward it your folks you certainly have my complete permission...  8)

"newbie points"? - OH...I think that's out of my jurisdiction around here...lol...tell you what, just go the till and take what you think you've earned...  :P

Old Man River...or maybe that should be "Babbling Brook"...aka PRobinson   ;)
   

Thanks for the clarification Paul. This thread has already spawned 2 parodies from it ( mostly from K1chyd's Newbie Point Ranking ).

As far as being PR'd, I knew you weren't dissing me but I was unclear on the positive aspects of that. This did take alot of work and it is still ongoing.

I shall immediately post this on my refrigerator. ;)

I will leave this thread up for a while before I begin editing or create an entirely different thread, as K1chyd has kindly linked this to the FAQ SO FAR thread.

My inspiration for parodies comes from anywhere: A news article, a TV show, an idea that pops into my head, being irritated with a new singer's hit song, etc. Here's how I have come up with parody ideas:

1. For my "Stairway to Heaven" parody, "Gilligan's Island", the Little Roger & the Goosebumps' "Stairway to Gilligan" was what triggered the idea. I had never heard the song, but all I had heard was that they used the "Stairway" lyrics to the tune of "Gilligan" (Even though it was the other way around, and I misineterpreted it), so I figured I'd do "Gilligan" to the tune of "Stairway." Long story short, it worked out really well and became an Amiright classic.

2. For parodies like "Patrick Star" and "Night Court", I took the original song title and came up with the parody title and evolved the song from that. A catchy title is a good way to gain some attention.

3. If you give up on a parody, you might want to come back and do it later. It worked for "Night Court" (I thought that the "Night Moves" lyrics were kinda long and hard to pace well): I just looked up the lyrics on the Internet (again) and wrote the parody to the best of my abilities, and it fared really well, I think three or four 5-5-5 ratings and three comments.

4. If your parodies get poor ratings, don't give up hope. Keep writing and give it the best you've got! My earliest parodies were not very funny, and I'll admit that, but I thought they were kinda cute at the time. Then I took on a big challenge by parodying "The Thong Song" and thus, my masterpiece, "The Pong Song," was born. I put a lot of effort into the sendup, even if I had never heard the original song. The title was catchy, it was a well-known song, and the humor was dead-on, ...and my pacing was pretty good too, and it got a lot of 4's and 5's and became my first truly successful parody. I use my "Pong Song" formula a lot in creating some of my best parodies.

5. Work on your pacing. It's best to find the lyrics off of the Internet, copy & paste into a word document and then write your parody from that. Try singing the lyric you want to use and see if it makes pace. If it does, use it; if not, keep working on it until it does, but make sure the parody flows well, too. Also make sure your rhymes are good, otherwise it'll be hard to read the parody.

That's all the advice/techniques I have for now. Later! :)

Thanks Chris for the contribution.

For 1&2, I personally make most of mine from a parodied title of an OS, but of course inspiration can stike at any time, in any part of an OS ( sometimes a single word ). Agreed, catchy titles help quite a bit. A few of my "bombs" had poor titles amongst other mistakes.

For 3, I have several ideas on hold, and several that have been scrapped because they were based on news events that are now badly outdated.

4. If your parodies get poor ratings, don't give up hope. Keep writing and give it the best you've got! My earliest parodies were not very funny, and I'll admit that, but I thought they were kinda cute at the time. Then I took on a big challenge by parodying "The Thong Song" and thus, my masterpiece, "The Pong Song," was born. I put a lot of effort into the sendup, even if I had never heard the original song. The title was catchy, it was a well-known song, and the humor was dead-on, ...and my pacing was pretty good too, and it got a lot of 4's and 5's and became my first truly successful parody. I use my "Pong Song" formula a lot in creating some of my best parodies.

For 4, I will probably quote in abbreviation this on the new thread and close to the top of the list. Very good advice.

For 5, Agreed, work on pacing/rhyming and try to sing the parodied words over TOS while it is playing. Even though I sing fairly well I cannot do raps or 'tongue-twister' type songs very well. :(

Downloaded lyrics are sometimes horrible, so I try to never make a parody on them alone if I have never or not in a long time heard TOS.

I agree that copying/pasting into a word document/processor and then opening a second "clean" document is best, that way I don't accidentally screw up the original lyrics.

Anyways, thanks again, especially on #4. :)

bumping this to the top, the newbies who submitted today really need to read this.

16: Always spell you name EXACTLY the same ( capitalization, punctuation, spaces, etc ) everytime you submit a parody or it will not be credited to you. If you have a long name or one that is likely to be misspelled, I would recommend having it in a NotePad so that you can copy/paste it every time.

1: You do not show up on the author's list untill you have 10 parodies submitted. This takes a few days to a week to show up. Once you are in the top 10 you get updated as frequently as the site does though. This is the link:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/authors/


Just to nitpick... it's "Always spell your name" in the first line and "Once you are in the top 10" is not what you wanted to say...  "Once you have submitted 10".

bumping this to the top, the newbies who submitted today really need to read this.


Thanks Agrimforee. This is still under revision and should be cleaned up considerably by tomorrow night.


Just to nitpick... it's "Always spell your name" in the first line and "Once you are in the top 10" is not what you wanted to say... "Once you have submitted 10".


Fixed the missing r in your and reworded that section differently.

Here is the preliminary draft for the Newbie Parody writing thread:

Sharing parody writing techniques/advice for "newbies". This is still under revision right now. Much of this is written from first person view as this is mostly my own take on writing parodies but this thread has been added to considerably by several people.

These are no hard and fast rules set in stone. Just a contribution to help newer people. Any specific questions/modifications go ahead and add on.

Here are 3 older links on parody writing "How To":

http://www.amiright.com/articles/article_1032288834.shtml

http://www.amiright.com/articles/article_1033407380.shtml

http://www.amiright.com/articles/article_1034595973.shtml

For FAQ see this first.

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,10012.0.html

Thank you K1chyd and ChuckyG for this.

For a few tips that have been deemed more important and moved since the original thread:

Space out your submissions. If you have just found www.amiright.com you are probably excited about it. You may have a lot of parodies already written. However, if someone sees a lot of submissions in one day from one person, chances are that many of them will be ignored. Since I have been here this has happened several times.

If you get low marks or no comments on a parody, do not give up. Many people get overlooked until they are more established.

If you are starting out don't expect masses of votes. If I get 6 votes on a parody on a given day I consider that very good.

If you are really new and you get 3 votes that is very good, IMHO

One way to help yourself is to e-mail the parody http to a few friends.

1: How do I come up with a parody? Many times this is a parodied name of an OS ( Original Song ) title and then gets worked from there. Other times this is a single word/line or chorus in an OS around which and entire parody is constructed.

Comments on others parodies are a good inspiration. So are news stories. Personal experiences can be a great source as well.

Basically you can draw inspiration from any topic.

As for topics, you can write about anything you wish and do not let a fear of low votes stop you. That said, if you write something unfunny, "racy", or "toilet humor", you might see a few low scores.

Picking more well-known songs/artists is a good start. Generally, classic rock or "golden oldies" do the best. You can make the greatest parody ever and if people don't know the performer/original song it stands a good chance of going unnoticed.

Write about what you know is best. Several parody ideas never get off the ground because I get a working title for it then find I do not know anything about the subject.

If a parody idea seems obvious to you, it is probably obvious to someone else, or several someone elses. A good example of this is Avril Lavigne's "Complicated", which now has ~17 variations called "Constipated".

2: Just as important to me is how the parody "flows". Syllable counts, rhyming, stresses on the correct syllables, breaks/pauses, etc. are what I have termed "natural pacing", that is if the parodied words were karaoked there would be few problems in doing so.

I have seen ( and made ) a few parodies that had correct syllable counts but because of poor rhyming and/or incorrectly stressed words made the parody awkward to sing.

Note: I do not expect everyone to be able to sing every song they know nor do I try to sing every song I know. "Natural pacing" just means that if someone were to try to karaoke your parodied words they should have few problems.

See this if you want to know how I personally regard pacing ( and a few other things ).

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,9890.0.html

How you regard pacing is up to, well you of course. Those are just my own criteria, and some of those have changed a bit since they were written ( for the better ).

3: Counting syllables alone does not always make for a great parody, though is a good technique many times. Many singers "carry", "stretch", or add syllables to a word. There are a few ways to deal with this:

A: Carry/stretch the parodied word in the parody. An example of this I hope most would know is Aerosmith's "Livin' On The Edge". The first time this occurs is with the word "eyes", which is more like "ey-i-ize".

B: For notes that are carried for a decent amount of time, adding periods to the end of the word can indicate a carried note. For some "Yeahs and Oohs" something like this may help:

Yeah.....

C: You can try to capture the exact vocal inflections by using capitalization and /or hyphens in the appropriate places. This is like for "Bohemian Rhapsody" where the "ooh" is more like this:

Ooh-oo-oo-ooh

D: Leave the parodied word alone and hope the reader recalls the word correctly. This may be best for a newer author.

4: Try to vary your choruses if possible ( or if necessary ), even just a little bit. This shows more imagination and effort on your part than "repeat chorus". Many people are turned off by or tune out for repetitive choruses.

5: Make it as funny as possible. How you do this is up to you. Puns, double-entendres, surprise twists, story-telling, etc. I can find humor in most parodies. Sometimes a single line in a parody can get me laughing.

6: I would strongly urge you to not make parodies from lyrics alone. Many times they are inaccurate, that means incomplete, missing background vocals, outro vocals, the "Ooohs, Ahhs, Yeahs" etc., and in a few cases the lyrics are not even in the proper order.

I would suggest downloading lyrics from an official website or one you have found to be "reputable" and copy/pasting them onto a Note/Word Pad and saving them, then opening a second form to make the parody. This way you do not accidentally mess up the original lyrics.

Even if the lyrics are 100% accurate, if you have never heard TOS ( The Original Song ), you are probably going to butcher it in the parody.

Along the same lines, I would again suggest you don't make a parody from memory alone either. This comes from personal experience.

I use both downloaded lyrics/CD covers and listen to TOS to try to sing my parodied words over TOS while it is playing to see how it paces.

7: It is bad to compose parodies on the submission box for several reasons. Accidentally hitting "submit" before you are done and for myself losing my internet connection and losing everything I have typed. I use a Notepad at the moment but am looking into Word Pad or equivalent to correct the enormous amount of typos and spelling mistakes my parodies usually contain.

8: Haste makes waste. Cliche but true. One I wrote in about 2 minutes and it didn't go over well. Which leads to:

9: Proof check/ proofread your work before submission. Try to keep typos to a minimum. I have forgotten choruses, misspelled band/song names, mistyped the parody title name, etc.

10: Comments are important to most everyone here. If comments are enabled I try to leave a comment in the "feel" of the parody. You may comment any way you wish, or not at all, but you will get more recognition in general if you comment on others' parodies.

Without the comments left by everyone on my parodies I would not have grown at all as a parodist. Do not take criticism the wrong way. Also, try not to be harsh on others as you don't want to make someone quit writing or feel unwelcome.

11: Everyone has their "guilty pleasures" regarding certain things. I have had a few people dock me on funny for a single line in a parody before. I have done the same.

12: Sometimes humor can outweigh pacing errors. I have been told by several people that humor should not be compromised by exact syllable counts. I try to get both as good as I can now.

13: Crediting the wrong or multiple artists to an OS is not good ( generally ). Neither is misspelling the band/song name or getting the decade wrong. A few people are so hung up over this they will not vote you or 111 you despite ( to spite? ) the parody content.

14: Since K1chyd mentioned this to me a while back, you can check out www.rhymezone.com if you are stuck for a word that rhymes that is needed for a parody.

15: If you "go against the flow" on your vote i.e. you leave a written vote in your comment and explain where the parodist went wrong in your opinion, I haven't seen a single case where that is held against you ( well, actually a few but none to myself personally ).

I have voted as low as 312 ( a written and recorded vote, which I consider a horrible mark ) and left a LENGTHY explanation of that vote ( I think my comment was half as long as his parody ). That parodist and I are what I would consider friends and he has not "spiked" me for it.

That said there is no rule that says you must leave a written vote in your comment or comment on a song you vote. Everyone has their own preferences.

16: I never "hold over" one parody to the next from the same author. If one was "not good" and the next one is brilliant I will say so. Many people have "off" days, especially newbies.

17: Parody titles grab my attention first, not TOS or the author's name. If you have a catchy parody title alone and the parody is clever/funny it may get a 444+ ( and a comment ) despite the fact I DKTOS ( Don't Know The Original Song ).

That said, I do look at TOS name and parody author.

18: Regarding songs I DKTOS but find funny I will generally wait to see how others rate the pacing then vote my funny/overall. If pacing is all over the place then I will generally give an average of what is already there then do the rest.

19: I try to read as many parodies as I can now despite the fact I DKTOS on at least 60% of them. I do not comment or rate every parody I read though, and I'm not on the site everyday either. Just because a parody has not been voted/commented on doesn't necessarily mean it has been ignored.

20: I also try to thank everyone who has voted or commented on my parodies.

21: If you have an easily misspelled pen name, I would suggest keeping it in a Notepad and copy/paste it in the field. If the name is not entered the exact same way every time, it will not be credited to you.

Some parodies are written by more than one author, and some authors choose to use different pen names occasionally.

22: To draw more attention to your work, enter the parody contests that start every month. There are certain rules with these contests, so make sure you follow them.

23: Although most parodies are in English, many parodists speak other languages or have different pronunciations of words than typical "American English". Some of these parodies you may notice odd punctuation. This is due to several factors. Just ignore the punctuation and rate the parody.

24: Finally, nearly everyone gets Writer's Block from time to time. It's amazing how turning nothing into something can fare. ;)

If you get stuck on a parody idea, just save it and come back to it later. Also handy is carrying a old fashioned traditional pen and paper with you.

Murphy's Law of parody writing:

You will always come up with a perfect idea for your parody when you have no physical means to record it, and then promptly forget the idea when you do.

If you have questions you can e-mail ChuckyG at this address:

chuck@worcestermass.com

BEFORE you do that read this:

http://www.amiright.com/email.shtml

AND this:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,8748.0.html

That link ^ is for asking ChuckyG whatever you want to.

That's it for now.

Red Ant

You’ve put a lot of work down and done a good with this, having promised you rough and honest feedback though I must say that there is one thing I have a bit of a problem with, and that is the way you (at least to some degree) jump between first person and third person perspective. Sometimes the phrasing is very neutral and sometimes it’s ”Me” and ”I”. It’s a hard thing to avoid, especially when you partially cut and paste from different people’s input, that can come in either form, but becomes more important the longer the text is.

I have no strong opinion whether you should go with first or third person. Generally, if you go with first you might want to highlight (shortly) in the intro that these are your personal takes on the subject, if you go with third it may look a bit more professional as a FAQ but also a bit more tedious and not as fun/personal to read all way through. Thus, it’s not an easy choice. Maybe first person suits your writing style (as it is of now) a bit better, and since it's the dominant form here so far it'll make less work to rewrite the rest as to be consequent.

I will now move on to point out a few missing words etc, to show that I’ve read it all through.



However, if someone sees a lot submissions in one day from one person, chances are that many of them will be ignored. I have seen this happen atleast 3 times in the last 3 months.



a lot OF submissions  //  AT LEAST

Also, time references are tricky, another 3 months from now this might look a tad strange. Maybe “I saw… during…” for first person take or “It’s a common mistake seen almost every month…” for third.



If you get low marks or no comments on a parody, do not give up. Many people get overlooked untill they are more established.



UNTIL



If you are starting out don't expect masses of votes. If I get 6 votes on a parody on a given day I consider that very good.



Personal take: When I was new at this I tended to send links to my parodies to family and friends etc. Thus I got more votes back then compared to what I get now. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s good PR for the site, hence it can be recommended for a newbie. However, I recently saw Phil making a comment that I could relate to about how it can backfire; one parody/link per fortnight and they think you’re a funny guy/gal, ten per month and they start to think you might need a psychologist (I’m not saying they’re wrong, at least not in my case…) and you might get the mail/link back with the response “Get a life”.

(I will, once they come downloadable).  :P



Atleast 7 parodies I have made have come from comments on others parodies and occasionally a news story.



AT LEAST again and you have the word “Have” close/twice in the same sentence, that’s a thing you should work around even if it’s grammatically OK. Maybe “…I’ve written come from…”

AT LEAST also comes as one word further down on #19, twice.



Picking more well known songs/artists is a good start.



The grammar/spell check in my Word program tells me this sentence is wrong and marks down the “more well” bit. I can’t see why though, but it doesn’t roll of the tongue real easy.  ???



Murphy's Law of parody writing: You will always come up with a perfect line for your parody when away from the computer, then promptly forget it when you return.



Same as above, for the “, then” bit, but I’m not sure why.  ???

You could however replace “computer” with “writing tool” (or a 3 - the magic number - list of “when not near a computer, notepad or pencil) and take this part and merge it with the part about having pen and paper available.  :)



5: Make it as funny as possible. How you do this is up to you. Puns, double-entendres, suprise twists, story-telling, etc.



SURPRISE



6: I would strongly urge you to not make parodies from lyrics alone. Many times they are innaccurate,



INACCURATE, I think…



9: Proof check your work before submission.



I’d prefer the word proofread, but maybe that’s just me.



Without the comments left by everyone on my parodies I would not have grown at all as a parodist. Do not take criticizm the wrong way.



CRITICISM, I think. Even if it comes from “criticize”



17: Parody titles grab my attention first, not TOS or the author's name. If you have a catchy parody title alone and the parody is clever it may get a 444+ ( and a comment ) despite the fact I DKTOS.

That said, I do look at TOS name and parody author.

18: Regarding songs I DKTOS but find funny I will generally wait to see how others rate the pacing then vote my funny/overall. If pacing is all over the place then I will generally give an average of what is already there then do the rest.



This whole part should IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) come earlier. Also, you might want to rethink the idea of not explaining these abbreviations, one way to introduce such in a longer text is to explain them in brackets right after having used them for the first time in that text, the way I’m doing with IMHO in this paragraph.  8)



There are some people who like pseudonyms and write parodies under different names. Strange but it is fine with me.



Here you might want to add that if the author name is “A room full of (insert something here) it generally indicates that it has been co-written by two or several writers and/or that it is a parody from a writer who for one reason or another doesn’t want it to be on his regular list of contributions.

And while we’re on that subject; Yes, it was me who wrote “How will I know if I’m still a newbie / It’s in this list”, inspired by our previous exchange on this thread.  ;)

http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/whitneyhoustoncher0.shtml

Thank you K1chyd. The perspective will be switched mostly 1st person, since this was mainly started by myself, though has had considerable additions by several people. To address things other than the spelling corrections:


Personal take: When I was new at this I tended to send links to my parodies to family and friends etc. Thus I got more votes back then compared to what I get now. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s good PR for the site, hence it can be recommended for a newbie. However, I recently saw Phil making a comment that I could relate to about how it can backfire; one parody/link per fortnight and they think you’re a funny guy/gal, ten per month and they start to think you might need a psychologist (I’m not saying they’re wrong, at least not in my case…) and you might get the mail/link back with the response “Get a life”.


I will include much of this, paraphrased.



The grammar/spell check in my Word program tells me this sentence is wrong and marks down the “more well” bit. I can’t see why though, but it doesn’t roll of the tongue real easy. 

I think it's because the word I was looking for was "better".


This whole part should IMHO (In My Humble Opinion) come earlier. Also, you might want to rethink the idea of not explaining these abbreviations, one way to introduce such in a longer text is to explain them in brackets right after having used them for the first time in that text, the way I’m doing with IMHO in this paragraph. 

Will do on both. Not sure where up on the list this should be right now.


And while we’re on that subject; Yes, it was me who wrote “How will I know if I’m still a newbie / It’s in this list”, inspired by our previous exchange on this thread.   ;)



That thought did not once cross my mind. Under the pseudonyms section I was thinking of one person in particular who uses many different pen names.

Jeez, how many people are involved with that?

I did follow much of the story to some degree, but I was obviously confused by the parody.

Picking more well known songs/artists is a good start. I can tell you that Alice in Chains in not popular /well known. Generally, classic rock does the best. You can make the greatest parody ever and if people don't know the performer/original song it stands a good chance of going unnoticed.

Red Ant



The grammar/spell check in my Word program tells me this sentence is wrong and marks down the “more well” bit. I can’t see why though, but it doesn’t roll of the tongue real easy.  ???




It was probably wanting the phrase to read "more well-known"

Under the pseudonyms section I was thinking of one person in particular who uses many different pen names.

Jeez, how many people are involved with that?


I really can't tell. What I do know is that Claude started to use the name as a personal alias (I don't know why though) and stopped at 25 for a while. Then the name somehow became common property, mostly for coop parodies (I'm in on two of them) but also for anomalies like the one I wrote over the weekend.

The whole thing also spawned "A Room Full of Donkeys" that were very active in october last year, and from there on we've seen variations, "A Room Full of Wombats" being the latest. And if you should ever see the nick "A Street Full of Polar Bears" it's either a sign of a Scandinavian writers group forming or a sign of the A(polka)lypse.  :o

Suggestion (if it hasn't been mentioned previously in this thread...there is so much really good advice here) - write a parody about a personal experience - it really limbers up and stretches your writing technique.  I try to find something to write about whenever I am doing something that is out of my ordinary, everyday experience...going to a concert, performing somewhere, traveling out of town...whatever...Of course, the quicker you write it after the "episode" the more vivid the piece (well, at least for me)...embellishment encouraged and occasionally required...

Paul R

Thanks again PRobinson. Included the first line you said up near the top.

...I try to find something to write about whenever I am doing something that is out of my ordinary, everyday experience... going to a concert, performing somewhere, traveling out of town...


So... with your reoccurring periods away from this place, and all your intermittent parodies about pirating... can we draw the conclusion that you are a regular "visitor" of the Nigerian coastline?  ;D

So... with your reoccurring periods away from this place, and all your intermittent parodies about pirating... can we draw the conclusion that you are a regular "visitor" of the Nigerian coastline?  ;D

Well, I didn't say ALL my parodies were based on real-life experiences...only a few, actually - some day I should go through my 'Author Page' and see how many are 'reality-based' (a phony-sounding phrase if I ever heard one).  I usually put an extremely long, somewhat redundant explanation in the "pre-comments" to so designate...Have never actually visited the Nigerian coastline...not that there is anything wrong with it. 

pr   :D

Maybe I missed it, but as far as finding accurate OS lyrics, you might consider plugging top40db.net as an excellent resource.  Certainly, if one can find lyrics on the artist's official site, that's great, but ever since someone (sorry, don't remember who) was kind enough to mention top40db on these boards a while ago, I haven't used anything else.  I think you can pretty much find lyrics for any pop tune from the last 50 years there.  And if a song was recorded by multiple artists, it indicates that and shows the release dates.

Thanks Leo Jay. I will consider the link and I checked out the site. Aside from a "log in" it looks good.  Perhaps great for classics, but even they butchered this: Here are their listed lyrics for "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" ( only edited out the website name in the middle ):


Are you going to Scarborough Fair
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

On the side of a hill in the deep forest green.
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested brown.
Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Without no seams nor needle work,
Then shell be a true love of mine.

On the side of a hill a sprinkling of leaves.
Washes the grave with silvery tears.
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun.
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call.

Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
Then shell be a true love of mine.

War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions.
General order their soldiers to kill.
And to fight for a cause theyve long ago forgotten.

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
Then shell be a true love of mine

What!!!


Knowing this song quite well I must say that is the poorest example of any "Scarborough Fair" lyrics I've seen. They are incomplete, not in the correct order, and without the parentheses to separate the "canticle" apart it is even worse.

Here is the correct version from a google search of "Lyrics scarborough fair canticle" that appeared on the first page:

Are you going to scarborough fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(on the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
(tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
(sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land
(on the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
(washes the grave with silvery tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
(a soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(war bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
(and to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine

Are you going to scarborough fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

I had thought perhaps the lyrics they listed were a "scrambled" set so that you had to log in to get the "correct" ones, but they had the most accurate lyrics of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" there I have seen, without a log in.

These 2 I personally recommend:

http://www.lyricsfreak.com

http://www.lyrics007.com

They aren't always correct either and are harder to search.

This is the reason I never make parodies from downloaded lyrics alone.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.


Well, I will say The Sound of Silence was dead accurate, and your parody was excellent.

Well, I will say The Sound of Silence was dead accurate, and your parody was excellent.


Sank you.  I leesten to seedy to be sures.  Now back to regular schedule programmings.

Maybe I missed it, but as far as finding accurate OS lyrics, you might consider plugging top40db.net as an excellent resource.  Certainly, if one can find lyrics on the artist's official site, that's great, but ever since someone (sorry, don't remember who) was kind enough to mention top40db on these boards a while ago, I haven't used anything else.  I think you can pretty much find lyrics for any pop tune from the last 50 years there.  And if a song was recorded by multiple artists, it indicates that and shows the release dates.


I believe it was me

Red Ant: Thanx to a remark from you somewhere else I came to remember this one from me two years ago. Apostrophes etc have been transformed into questionmarks since (unfortunately) but being aware of that makes it readable anyway. I'll think you'll find it acceptable to plug for it on this thread, and hopefully amusing too. :-)

http://www.amiright.com/parody/90s/bazluhrmann0.shtml

Red Ant: Thanx to a remark from you somewhere else I came to remember this one from me two years ago. Apostrophes etc have been transformed into questionmarks since (unfortunately) but being aware of that makes it readable anyway.


Yep, that happened as well. There is another thread currently up that says something to the effect that Microsoft Word programs are slighty incompatible with the script here and that may still happen, turning ... into a ?

Yep, that happened as well. There is another thread currently up that says something to the effect that Microsoft Word programs are slighty incompatible with the script here and that may still happen, turning ... into a ?

It's more than Word that is incompatible.  Any program that knows how to use Unicode text is a risky choice.

This advice thread will be finalised in the next week or so. Anyone who has any contributions/corrections please post them in the next few days if you would. The updated thread is post #38 on page 3. Thanks to all who have posted here.

This missed the deadline by 120 days, at least, and I haven't read the whole thread, but I decided to post anyway. 

I, personally, write vague and emotion-filled parodies, besides my regular parodies.  I would say to any newbie to just concentrate on the comments on your vague parodies and not votes. I still get a varied reaction to those.  You will be able to tell how well they go over if the majority of the authors seems to like them.

As said before, syllable counting is very important.

As said before, syllable counting is very important.



I second what Adagio says about the importance of syllable counting.

In addition, something I like to attempt from time to time in some of my parodies is syllable matching or syllable rhyming --- writing the parody so its syllables rhyme as closely as possible to the corresponding syllables of the original song.

Syllable matching/rhyming can create an entertaining effect and make the parody very easy to sing along with a recording of the original song.

I agree with that, Johnny!  ;)

This advice thread will be finalised in the next week or so. //

Hmm, seems that "or so" means 7+ months. Oh well, maybe one day I'll get off of my butt, finish this and submit it as an article as I originally intended.

Thanks Pat and Johnny D for the replies.

Here's some advice.


NO BASHING OTHER PARODY ARTISTS, LIKE ME, IF YOU DO I'LL BRING YOU CAN OF.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................MOUNTAIN DEW. I like M.D. it's nice and sweet, like me.

This may be a "little" late, but something that I've found that may hone parody writing skills is to take a totally obscure, but interesting to you song, even in a foreign language as long as you know the pronouniation and try to rhyme most words, making some kind of sense. Try it sometime, it's interesting and doesn't have to be submitted.

I agree one hundred percent, my best parodies use words that rhyme with the original song (Crazy/Lazy Flaunts/Wants ETC) and even though most of mine don't use that method, it's a good method in general as far as writing the song. . .

(It's Tearin' Out My Heart When I'm With You
Please Don't You Even Start You Smell Bad Too

  Don't Sleep He'll Get You When You're Dreaming
  and You Will Be Screaming

  I Eat Meat Always Forever
  Nice and Sweet It Sticks Together
  Everyday I'll Eat At Checkers
  If It's Grilled It's Always Better

)

I keep almost using ones that haven't been posted yet as examples. . .Rhymes come to Parody Authors as A Habit though--well I'll refrain from making that a general statement, but yes trying to come up with rhymes that are similar to the OS is usually a good way to go--Weird Al almost always does

( Don't Go Making Phony Calls (WA)
  Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls (TLC)
 
  It's Getting Rotten Here (WA)
  It's Getting Hot In Here (Nelly)

  Pretty Fly For A Rabbi (WA)
  Pretty Fly For A White Guy (Offspring)

This may be a "little" late, but something that I've found that may hone parody writing skills is to take a totally obscure, but interesting to you song, even in a foreign language as long as you know the pronouniation and try to rhyme most words, making some kind of sense. Try it sometime, it's interesting and doesn't have to be submitted.


I've actually submitted a parody from a song that came from an anime show called "Urusei Yatsura".

It got no votes or comments, the idea mixed the Digi Charat anime with the Flintstones.

Step-chan--most of my songs get no comments, most get some votes. . .usually good unless someone is mad at me for what my song topic is.  I think it just takes a long time to build up fans here who want to give a song a read. . .I mean most of my parodies get little or no attention, at least the attention it has gotten is good and I'm doing very well on Soundclick and JibJab. . .it's just a matter of time.

5: If you "go against the flow" on your vote i.e. you leave a written vote in your comment and explain where the parodist went wrong in your opinion, I haven't seen a single case where that is held against you ( well, actually a few but none to myself personally ).

This has happened to me. In the long run and the great grand scheme of things (to mix metaphors), it just does'nt matter, but it still hurts when people take out a vendetta on you just for your (sometimes correct) opinions.  :-[

Not sure if this fits here,but how do you chnage a parody author name?

Like Peter orignally went bu "Know 1 can hear you dream" now he's "Peter Andresson a.k.a K1chyd" I submitted a parody under my now known nickname here, "Local Celebrity", and it didnt chnage my other stuff to that , its up today BTW

To echo what Johnny D said and maybe even further it a little bit I've found that sometimes using some of the original song's lyrics in my parody lyric and then branching off to my own ideas can provide funny twists for songs. Beware overusage though.