I don't think this topic has ever been brought up here before.

The topic is words that you have a hard time finding substitutions for when writing a parody.

~ One of mine is "every" and words that contain it (everybody, everything, everyone, etc.) Every is hard for me because, aside from having no usuable perfect rhymes, it isn't always pronounced the same way.

Most times it's "ev-ree", but in Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer", every is sung as "ev-er-ee", i.e., three syllables, all more or less equally stressed. Tommy James & The Shondells' "Crimson and Clover" has "everything" sung as "ehh-ver-EE-thing". What's more, in Nirvana's "About A Girl" (especially the Unplugged version), Kurt, to my ears, sings "every" somewhere between two and three syllables (2 1/2 syllables?*)

~ Proper names are usually a bear for me. In a few cases, I have spent hours trying to figure out what to
sub for some of them (e.g., "Caracticus's). As I found out recently when I did parody of "I've Been Everywhere", it's impossible to even come close to rhyming all of the 90 or so cities named in the song. Fortunately, I realized this early on, and didn't try to do so.

* What I call "half-syllables" are a phenomenon to which I cannot find any information. The best way I can explain these are by citing the -ire words, like "fire", which can be one syllable as in "fyar" or "fer" (roughly), or two syllables as in "fie-er", and possible somewhere inbetween; that is, 1 1/2 syllables. Thoughts?

Anywho, I don't think I'm alone in experiencing writing challenges when it comes to certain words, so prove me right.  ;)

"LOVE" is hard to substitute (ain't it the truth?  ;) ).  The best one can do is "glove", "dove", "a-bove" or some irregular rhyme like "stuff".

Anyone have trouble with "ORANGE"?  ;D
(if you do, just use "door hinge")

"LOVE" is hard to substitute (ain't it the truth?  ;) ).  The best one can do is "glove", "dove", "a-bove" or some irregular rhyme like "stuff".

Is that "enough"? ;D

I've written a few anti-Bush parodies (which I've only shared with family and close friends) in which I've substituted "Shrub" (which Bill Tong often uses).


Anyone have trouble with "ORANGE"?  ;D
(if you do, just use "door hinge")


I'll make a note of that! :D

I tend to find the half/blurred syllables to be a pain.

I'm not sure what other words tend to give me trouble..... It's been awhile since I wrote a full parody.

// or some irregular rhyme like "stuff".



Like Billy Joel:

"She'll say I'm not so tough
Just because
I'm in love"

Technically that ^ is misrhymed, but it works.


Anyone have trouble with "ORANGE"?  ;D
(if you do, just use "door hinge")



If you ever need a "rhyme" for orange, check here.  ;)

"LOVE" is hard to substitute (ain't it the truth?  ;) ).  The best one can do is "glove", "dove", "a-bove" or some irregular rhyme like "stuff".
It's not that "love" is hard to substitute (I mean the word, not the feeling (nor yet the making thereof)), it's just that there are hundreds of clich

In my parody-writing, I think the only thing that gives me regular headaches is "love" (and possibly "girl"), 'cause of overuse in the OSs.
:D


Great thread, Jack!

And while Phil's on the topic of gender, how about a sub for "woman" that's not "Mormon"

e.g. More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon

...if you get my drift.  :D

Great thread, Jack!

And while Phil's on the topic of gender, how about a sub for "woman" that's not "Mormon"

e.g. More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon

...if you get my drift.  :D


There's also Wolfman to rhyme with this

Great thread, Jack!

And while Phil's on the topic of gender, how about a sub for "woman" that's not "Mormon"

e.g. More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon

...if you get my drift.  :D

Where's Spaff to tackle one of these?

Great thread, Jack!

And while Phil's on the topic of gender, how about a sub for "woman" that's not "Mormon"

e.g. More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon

...if you get my drift.  :D


Thanks!

Never though about it, but you are right. I've done one parody with "woman" in the title (Always A Woman), and subbed "annoyin'" for "a woman"

London, moron and human work, too... well, sort of. "Virgin" would make some interesting and perhaps paradoxical titles as well (e.g., Once, Twice, Three Times A Virgin!).

There's one I'm working on that doesn't sub well rhyme-wise for "woman", but the title is hella funny, and it still paces. I hope to have it finished in a week or so.

How 'bout "Girl, You Beat This Rubix Cube" as a title?  ;D

Matthias, "wolf" is hard to sub for, even harder than "orange". Fortunately it isn't encountered too often.

Every itself I don't really struggle with, but when I struggle with a word, I instead become clever with the words around it so that it can be used. . .I find that sometimes certain words just don't have enough good rhyming words. . .I will say Everybody, Everything etc, that's a little more challenging to me.  Again though--as I did in "Every Call I Make" here on AmIRight, will often use the word, and instead parody the other parts of the sentence, after all making the song mask the original is very important and sometimes that means changing the other words and leaving definitive words like "Every" or "Everybody", Weird All Does that a lot, Like I'm Fat replaced bad but not I'm, or Pretty Fly For a Rabbi only replace White Guy, and then there's "It's Getting Hot In Here, So Take of All Your Clothes"  Became "It's Getting Rotten Here, You Better Hold Your Nose"

My thoughts exactly. Here's a fun game: listen to a song you've never heard before, and try to predict the next line based on the previous.



Yes, I mentioned to Rick Cormier recently, (or was it John Barry?) that I play that game whenever I hear the first line of a couplet end in "heaven"  - I predict, with 80% accuracy, how the second line will twist and turn its convoluted way into ending in "seven" -  with a 10% chance it foils me and ends in "eleven"

but there are lots of other options for heaven, so I just play that game to be a smartarse ;)

I often get stumped (mainly in Eminem parodies, obviously) when the original song has pretty much expired every possible combination of rhymes, and you're trying your best to keep every rhyme new but having to stretch for assonance just to fit.

Oh another word that stumps me is "Good"
There's only a few words that rhyme with it, and it's used a lot
The closest rhymes are "Wood", and "Hood"... Other than that there's not much

More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon


Congratulations, Kristof - you've just given us the track list for the next Robert Lund CD!

Don't forget "Man! I Feel Like a Mormon!"
http://www.spaff.com/poesy/mormon.html

xoxox
Spaff

e.g. More Than A Mormon
I Am A Mormon In Love
Once, Twice, Three Times A Mormon
Pretty Mormon
Girl, You'll Be A Mormon Soon

...if you get my drift.  :D


Good list Kristof, but you forgot a couple.

"Mormon Words" by Extreme
"Mormon Be Wild" by Steppenwolf

Be careful in any future Colorado visits. The songs might not be too popular there. lol

I'm Not Amish, Not Quite A Mormon  ;)

Easy like Sunday Mormon?

What's the collective noun for "Mormon", anyway?  I'd suggest "mormonagerie" ;)

I don't think this topic has ever been brought up here before.

The topic is words that you have a hard time finding substitutions for when writing a parody.

~ One of mine is "every" and words that contain it (everybody, everything, everyone, etc.) Every is hard for me because, aside from having no usuable perfect rhymes, it isn't always pronounced the same way.

Most times it's "ev-ree", but in Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer", every is sung as "ev-er-ee", i.e., three syllables, all more or less equally stressed. Tommy James & The Shondells' "Crimson and Clover" has "everything" sung as "ehh-ver-EE-thing". What's more, in Nirvana's "About A Girl" (especially the Unplugged version), Kurt, to my ears, sings "every" somewhere between two and three syllables (2 1/2 syllables?*)

~ Proper names are usually a bear for me. In a few cases, I have spent hours trying to figure out what to
sub for some of them (e.g., "Caracticus's). As I found out recently when I did parody of "I've Been Everywhere", it's impossible to even come close to rhyming all of the 90 or so cities named in the song. Fortunately, I realized this early on, and didn't try to do so.

* What I call "half-syllables" are a phenomenon to which I cannot find any information. The best way I can explain these are by citing the -ire words, like "fire", which can be one syllable as in "fyar" or "fer" (roughly), or two syllables as in "fie-er", and possible somewhere inbetween; that is, 1 1/2 syllables. Thoughts?

Anywho, I don't think I'm alone in experiencing writing challenges when it comes to certain words, so prove me right.  ;)


Half-syllables are a fielder's choice. You can use them as one or two as suits the need of the next rhyme or the pacing.
Yesterday
Child's play

Yesterday
Smiled my way

"Every" is a choice that you can make for the reader: Use "ev'ry" when it's  important to have only two syllables. Most of us Yanks default to two anyway, but context can demand three:

Every song
Cleverly wrong

If you want to hit people over the head, you could hyphenate ("Hyphenate" - there's a switch for "Yesterday"!!):
ev-e-ry

Proper names hard? You should see what I had to come up with for "Grosvenor"! :)

Re: "Love", what's wrong with "shove". (above, of, thereof, hereof, whereof, Guv for the Brits, etc.)

Easy like Sunday Mormon?

What's the collective noun for "Mormon", anyway?  I'd suggest "mormonagerie" ;)


Mormen, and Morwomen?

I could always do with Morwomen!

http://peterjoseph.com/images/2003/PeterJoseph-Ta-dah.jpg
BADA-BING!