I think we should have a general thread of good advice for parodists, both relative newcomers and pros alike.

My best advice if you're going to write spoofs is to get a rhyming dictionary, it's every parodist's best friend. Granted, mine isn't the most comprehensive, it's an old Scholastic book catalog version, but I know I'd be lost without it.

I personally advise against the rhyming dictionary. They seem to lead to the use of obscure words that make the parody inaccessible to the general public.

I've never used one and don't plan on it.

I strongly recommend using a rhyming dictionary.  Using a good rhyming dictionary can help when you're trying to come up with a simple rhyme but are having a bit of writer's block in the process. 

The words you take from a rhyming dictionary are more often than not words that most people who've had a halfway-decent secondary school education will recognize.

If you are so desperate for a rhyme that you decide to choose a word that would send Nobel Prize Literature Laureates running to their dictionaries, well, so be it, but don't be surprised if your readers complain in the comments!

One way around the obscurity-of-word phenomenon is to do what some authors do --- add a brief explanatory note in the top-comments-box when you post your parody.

For a printed, hard-copy rhyming dictionary, I recommend Langenscheidt's Pocket Merriam-Webster Rhyming Dictionary.

For free online rhyming dictionaries, I recommend any of the following:

http://www.rhymezone.com/

http://rhyme.poetry.com/

http://www.writeexpress.com/online2.html

It really depends on your audience. If your audience is the type of people on amiright who don't mind reading word explanations, or a mensa-type crowd, then using a dictionary decreases the challenge that helps strengthen skills, but probably won't hurt your end results. However, if you're writing for performance for a mainstream audience, you probably don't want people missing 5 or more seconds worth of lyrics racking their brains for the meaning of a word they came across occasionally in high school. If a line is absolutely perfect and you can't match it with a good rhyme on your own, use a rhyming dictionary if you must. But it shouldn't be a crutch.

Ethan, you're absolutely right --- to strengthen writing skills, it's good to first make your best effort to think of a rhyme on your own, from your own personal storehouse of word-knowledge. 

But, if you want to increase your own knowledge of words and rhymes, a good rhyming dictionary need not be seen as a "crutch", but rather as a useful reference for self-education.

If you're going to write for live performance, however, Ethan's point is well-taken --- keep it simple, so your audience can enjoy the song without having to puzzle over an unusual word.

About rhyming, I find that in many cases it is a relatively minor part of the overall parody concept. Slight misrhyming (ie, blue/shoes instead of blue/shoe, car/start instead of car/star, etc), etc does not bother me in the least and adds a ton more options that perfect or true rhyming.


To see a comprehensive guide to types of rhymes, check out this page:

http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/formsofverse/furtherreading/page2.html

Rhyming dictionaries (at least rhyme zone) do not list anything other than perfect rhymes, which don't exist for many 2+ syllable words and proper names (try doing a Major-General parody with a rhyming dictionary, you'll tear your hair out).

Also, while I'm in the minority here on this point, many songs I listen to have poor/no rhyme scheme (Pearl Jam and Faith No More songs come to mind). 


I wrote a 'guide' a while back that I never finished, it contains most of what I learned up through June of last year:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,10527.msg479959.html#msg479959

EDIT: Many songs known for their rhymes ala The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Major-General's song do not use perfect rhyme throughout.

Amen to Red Ant... also, know the song you're using. If you aren't familiar with the song, perfect pacing is practically impossible due to syllable stresses. It's also impossible to do a good live performance of a parody to a song that you don't know.

Personally, I think it's best to do well-known songs. Classics are good, but recent hit songs are better. However, making parodies of songs released in years starting with a 2 probably won't help you achieve success on amiright. Again, it depends where your priorities are.

Red Ant has one especially strong point, which is never do a parody with words alone. This mainly applies if you're not that familiar with the song, I did one with words alone once(and hadn't heard the song in months prier to writing it) and it ended up taking well over 5 hours writing it(because I didn't have the song to improvise to, which is usually what I do with over 70% of the parodies I write). The pacing ended up being WAY OFF as well, I found out from Dominic that the words were correct from the site I got them from, but they didn't format them properly(i.e., to where I would easily know where the verse ends and chorus begins).

I use Rhymezone, but sparingly...as it does tend to limit your creativity. However, sometimes Mr writer's block comes to visit; I'll get stuck with a killer line, but can't think of where to go with the couplet, and Rhymezone will sometimes (sometimes!) help lead me to new ideas. Everything in moderation, folks

Red Ant has one especially strong point, which is never do a parody with words alone. This mainly applies if you're not that familiar with the song


Dunno, maybe it doesn't work that way for some. The parodies that I wrote while merely listening to the song (ie., the early 1980s) are the ones I been docked most often for pacing. Most of my best works came from viewing a lyrics sheet while writing. I dont' fault lyric web sites at all, but it doesn't hurt to look at more than one to get a consensus of what is supposed to be "the correct" lyrics.

Still, all in all, it's best to test your "final" draft while listening/singing along to the real thing.

Dunno, maybe it doesn't work that way for some. The parodies that I wrote while merely listening to the song (ie., the early 1980s) are the ones I been docked most often for pacing. Most of my best works came from viewing a lyrics sheet while writing. I dont' fault lyric web sites at all, but it doesn't hurt to look at more than one to get a consensus of what is supposed to be "the correct" lyrics.

Still, all in all, it's best to test your "final" draft while listening/singing along to the real thing.


I meant if you have the lyrics, but you don't own the song that the lyrics go to. I did a parody of Avril Lavinge's "Complicated" and I don't own the any of her albums(thus not being able to test my final draft), I did it with lyrics alone. A major faux pas decision for me to do.

Dunno, maybe it doesn't work that way for some. The parodies that I wrote while merely listening to the song (ie., the early 1980s) are the ones I been docked most often for pacing. Most of my best works came from viewing a lyrics sheet while writing. I dont' fault lyric web sites at all, but it doesn't hurt to look at more than one to get a consensus of what is supposed to be "the correct" lyrics.



I've only written about 5 of my last 100 parodies by lyrics sheets alone and not having TOS handy for a karaoke (though I remembered them, it isn't like I never heard them before). On 4 of them I got hit on pacing numerous times.

The other 95 or so are written to both lyrics and TOS.

Many of my early ones (Feb, March 2005) I wrote as you did, by listening to the song or just by lyrics sheets. On two I missed repeated choruses because the sheets didn't repeat them and the ones that were by memory alone are fairly off paced.



Still, all in all, it's best to test your "final" draft while listening/singing along to the real thing.



Agreed.

BTW, I'm not against rhymezone or rhyming dictionaries, I do use them on occasion. I just wish they'd list more than perfect rhymes.

This thread (and the posts herein) represents all that I love about amiright.  I found every post here interesting - finding out how everyone approaches the process in their own individual ways is fascinating - it truly is a bizarre hobby we all have, and it's great to be among such like-minded souls - because there are plenty of unlike-minded who think we're all plain nuts!! :D

EDIT:  oh, and I used to use rhymezone.com, but some of their words have become overused in parodies, so now I use the Penguin Rhyming Dictionary 

Never used a rhyming dictionary - shows you how ignorant I am, I didn't really know that such an animal exists.  However, I do use a thesaurus like some people use the bible - religiously.

Certainly, everyone's creative approach is different.  I generally know what my message is - the challenge then becomes how to express it within the confines of a song (parody).  And that's where the thesaurus comes in.
Later,
bob