Welcome everybody.  This contest includes the top three finishers from each month's Song of the Month Contest last year, plus the Wild Card Round, just completed.  The rules are a little different, to encourage maximum participation.  Also, thanks to an enormonous benefactor, we have the original songs available for EVERY SINGLE ENTRY.  Very cool.

~~Anyone who's participated in a SOTM contest may vote.
~~Vote by choosing your seven favorites in order.  Seven points to your favorite, six points to your second favorite and so on.
~~You are NOT required to leave a comment on every parody. 
~~You're not allowed to vote for your own parody.
~~Once you vote, you're not allowed to change it.
~~Points do NOT count toward the Parody Author of the Year Contest.
~~Voting closes on March 31st.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


1.  A Bar Maid Fight by Jeff Reuben

2.  American Pie by Luke Brattoni

3.  Applied A Bunch Of Stickers To My S.U.V. by MooRocca

4.  Don't Whine At Me, Angelina by Rick Cormier

5.  Driveway  by Phil Alexander

6.  Duelling Mangoes by Stuart McArthur

7.  Dumb Blonde by EmiLoca

8.  Eat The French by Spaff.com

9.  88 Lines About 140 Discontinued Varieties at 31 Flavors by Spaff.com

10.  Extensively Remodelled, Now I'm Mostly Artific-ial by Kristof Robertson

11.  Farewell Allah, Hello Buddha by Kristof Robertson

12.  50 Ways to Lose Your Luggage by Spaff.com

13.  Gwyneth Has A Rethink by Stuart MacArthur

14.  I Always Seem To Injure You by Kristof Robertson

15.  I am the Very Master of all Errors Typographical by Red Ant

16.  If Shrek's Mom Had Only Been Sterile by John Jenkins

17.  I Got Crabs from Darth Vader by Spaff.com

18.  I Hereby Announce My Candidacy by Peter Andersson a.k.a. K1chyd

19.  I'm Pinned Beneath My Things by Rick Cormier

20.  I Scored A Catwalk Model With Some BS, Astrological by Kristof Robertson

21.  I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus by Spaff.com

22.  I Wok Alone by 2nz

23.  Kristof Robertson: Do Kris Kristofferson! by Stuart McArthur

24.  Lookin' Up My Back Door by Johnny D

25.  Meaning o'Life by Johnny D

26.  Me Depressed: Tarzan's Lament by Kristof Robertson

27.  Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel Fight! by Red Ant

28.  Pay THIS Fer Gasoline, Man? by Johnny D.

29.  Pedophilia! by Spaff.com

30.  Roddenberry's Lonely Star Trek Fans by Johnny D

31.  Santaclaustrophobia's My Psycho Diagnosis by Peter Andersson a.k.a K1chyd

32.  Shopping With a Weapon in My Hand by Rick Cormier

33.  Sixteen Sons by Dee Range

34.  That Don't Disgust Me Much by Claude Prez

35.  The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing by Stuart McArthur

36.  The Wreck Of The Latest Royal Wedding by Kristof Robertson

37.  Three-way by Claude Prez 

38.  Vatican City by Spaff.com

39.   Your Mother is Quite a Slut by Claude Prez

Gulp. :o

Sweet holy hell. How am I suppoesd to choose on THIS one?!

Oh well...I'll try...

Sweet holy hell. How am I suppoesd to choose on THIS one?!



Just take a deep breath and plow through 'em.  I usually automatically eliminate anything by that "Spaff.com" guy since his brain is clearly on steroids.  That cuts it in half right there.  After that it's "eeny meeny miny moe" time.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention to everybody:  I noticed that our hard-fought tie-breaker rule was not invoked for the Wild Card round, so at the risk of being an anal-retentive a-hole, I went ahead and determined that Luke Brattoni was the official third place winner for the WC round, and that Arwen is more than capable of handling a fourth place finish, which is why "You Can't Be Boba Fett" is not included in this contest.  My apologies to anyone who may or may not be distressed at this decision.  And thanks once again to Kristof for doing an excellent job running that round; I really do appreciate it.

Claude, you are a sheez of the first degree! :P (That's just my way of saying you're a silly goose, a little Cat-quirk.)

Eh, I don't have a Spaff-bias but at the same time I'm not going to be biased AGAINST him, so I'm going to try my best to judge these parodies as if they were written *gasp* anonymously.

...I went ahead and determined that...Arwen is more than capable of handling a fourth place finish...

You really don't know me at all, do you, Claude?

It's okay...I'm pretty sure I'll live.  For hell's sake...I've never placed in a SOTM contest EVER...so I'm USED to being overlooked... ;)

Okay...I think I can vote now.

My votes were pretty much based around humor, pacing, synchronicity with the original, creativity, and how much it meshed with my personal tastes. I tried to be as unbiased as I could, but somehow three Major-General parodies wound up in there, as did three of Stu's parodies. But this was a very hard field to winnow down, and there were a couple of crossings-off involved in the writing of my final list.

But I digress. Without further ado:

7 Points to Spaff's "I Swear This Is The Last Time I'll Go Boating With Odysseus." It's a proven formula: Spaff + world lit + challenging OS=SOTM/SOTY gold. Spaff, if you're open to suggestions and want to continue this, do something with King Arthur this year, that would be cool. I don't know of a hard enough OS you haven't done yet, but I'm sure you can think of one. ;)

6 Points to Stuart McArthur's "Dueling Mangoes." I originally bypassed this one due to the ridiculous title, but once I read it while listening to the original...amazing. Kudos to ANYONE who can do an instrumental parody, for that is something I could never accomplish.

5 Points to Stuart McArthur's "Kristof Robinson: Do Kris Kristofferson!" Proof positive that the idiots who want to ban ALL AmIRight tribute parodies (as opposed to the current rule just barring insults to other parodists) should be tarred and feathered. Real stunner here.

4 Points to Kristof Robinson's "Extensively Remodeled, Now I'm Mostly Artific-ial" I know it's a cliche, but this past year was such a breakout for Kristof. All the more respect to him for having done that, and here's hoping it'll happen for more people this year.

3 Points to Stuart McArthur's "The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing" I'm such a music trivia junkie, and seeing a parody dedicated to really bad songs is my brain candy, despite the fact that there were a couple of songs I liked reference in this.

2 Points to EmiLoca's "Dumb Blonde" This has been an old favorite of mine ever since I first came on the site, due to the fact that it's hilarious and has an OS that's also an old favorite of mine. Come back, Emi! We miss you!

1 Point to Dee Range's "Sixteen Sons" One of two very good redneck parodies in this competition, the other being Claude's "That Don't Disgust Me Much," but sorry Claude, I'm giving the edge to Dee here for his hysterical imagery and the synchronicity with the OS. That can make all the difference sometimes, especially if you DKTOS.

Whew...glad I got that off my chest. I hope all the people who I excluded don't kill me...

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention to everybody:  I noticed that our hard-fought tie-breaker rule was not invoked for the Wild Card round, so at the risk of being an anal-retentive a-hole, I went ahead and determined that Luke Brattoni was the official third place winner for the WC round, and that Arwen is more than capable of handling a fourth place finish, which is why "You Can't Be Boba Fett" is not included in this contest.  My apologies to anyone who may or may not be distressed at this decision. 

Apology perhaps or perhaps not accepted!

This had to be some of the toughest voting that I ever had to do... But after careful research and not being biased in any way, shape or form and least not trying to be (Somehow I still ended up with 3 Spaff songs)... I have done it!!!

7. 88 Lines About 140 Discontinued Varieties at 31 Flavors: By Spaff.com = Each word is pure hilarity in this song, I mean you don

So difficult...my candidates went from 39 down to 11, and then chopped off a few heads, carried 1 and divided by 2 to come up with my handicapping for

SONG OF THE YEAR

7pts=Spaff's 88 lines
6pts=Spaff's Odysseus
5pts=Kristof's Me Depressed
4pts=Claude's Three Way
3pts=Emiloca's Dumb Blonde
2pts=Jeff R. Bar Maid Fight
1pts=Spaff's I Got Crabs From Darth Vader.

(there...don't make me look again...I must live with this...Argghhh2ser;fgs rt9q0et...)

Matthias, if I may ask...do your numbers designate points or places? I thought it was the latter, but I want to make sure.

First of all, a tremendous thanks to Spaff for providing every single OS to the contest. Much appreciated.

It was not easy narrowing it down to 7 picks since every song here was a medalist in 2005. At first my idea was to be lazy and simply re-pick the 7 I voted highest for in previous contests, however Jan-March entries wouldn't have had a chance that way, and in several months my top pick did not medal. Without further delay, here are my votes:

7 points to Duelling Mangoes by Stuart McArthur

Initially I tried to hide my excitement for this parody but the truth comes out here. This is my number one pick for many reasons; very high originality, humor, bizzare concept, imagery, difficult OS (that just happens to be an instrumental), pacing and overall 'wow' factor.


6 points to Vatican City by Spaff.com

This was, IIRC, my top pick in April SOTM for being crammed full of puns, timing and a great job on an OS that is much harder than it looks at first glance. It is also edgy and a bit un-PC which went a long way with me.

5 points to Extensively Remodelled... by Kristof Robertson

This for some inexplicable reason this missed my top 5 list in April SOTM. In no way is this a 'guilty-conscience' vote; this parody is flat-out awesome and very funny.

4 points to I'm Pinned Beneath My Things by Rick Cormier

IMHO this parody was the best improvement over an OS in the contest. It is also very funny and had outstanding imagery.

3 points to Your Mother is Quite a Slut by Claude Prez

Another OS that is harder than it looks. The ending of the parody was hilarious++.

2 points to I Wok Alone by 2nz

It isn't everyday that parodies are recorded; it is even less often that someone else considers them awesome enough to record (steal). But, that is not the reason my 2 points go here; hilarious throughout, imagining the accent boosts a somber OS into something that, well, just kicks ass.

1 points to Sixteen Sons by Dee Range

Very funny throughout, and NOT for 10 year-olds, heh heh.  Oh, the response to Prude was awesome+ too (though it didn't affect my voting). Yes, this one was also from April SOTM.


Although it wasn't my intention, in the end my 7 votes went to 7 different authors and all 3 April SOTM medalists made my list. Making those last cuts sucked as usual. Regardless of the final results, everyone should be damned proud of their entry(-ies). Great year everyone!

Red Ant

First, I'd like to announce that since I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow and won't be back til after the voting deadline, I'm officially extending it to early Monday, April 3rd.  This will also give people voting in the regular SOTM a few extra days to vote so I think it's a good idea. 

As for my voting, I went through and reread every song, commenting only on the ones I hadn't commented on before.  After as much agonizing as I have time for, here we go:

7 points to #9 (Spaff's 88 Lines)

6 points to #8 (Spaff's Eat the French)

5 points to #35 (Stu's Tunes)

4 points to #21 (Spaff's Odysseus)

3 points to #36 (Kristof's Wreck)

2 points to #26 (Kristof's Tarzan)

1 point to #32 (Rick's Shopping)


Again, great stuff everybody, and see you in a week or so.

Oh, dear. I think I need to change my pants :-
~~Anyone who's participated in a SOTM contest may vote.


Hang on, does that mean MAY vote, or HAVE to vote? 'Cause I'm not sure I can judge all this. Please reply quickly, it'll be March 31st soon.

Hang on, does that mean MAY vote, or HAVE to vote?



It means you have permission to vote.

7 points
I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus - Spaff
Just sheer brilliannce. Even conceiving some of the gags was brilliant, like the oink, and lamenting the repetition of "repeat," etc, but then to place them into context and pace them flawlessly too, and then to add more gags on, after that! Staggeringly awesome - and the tone was so funnily colloquial for the classical topic Eg. "dude" "guess who dragged me back on board? that SOB Odysseus!" etc.

6 points
Me Depressed - Kristof
Millions of great ideas.  It was like Kristof got the idea of Tarzan into his head, imagined every scenario, and then nailed every gag possible - and using the POV of both Tarzan and his girlfriend was very clever

5 points
Eat The French - Spaff
once again, so MANY funny plays on French placenames, phrases etc. and the rhythm of this song is so cool, it really helps to underline each punch

4 points
I Scored A Catwalk Model With Some BS, Astrological - Kristof
Just re-read this one, and elevated it into the top 7.  Typical Kristof brilliance, with self-deprecation taking centre stage (which was very funny) and the plays on words on the admittedly easy target of astrology were sublime

3 points
Three-Way - Claude
Again, just elevated this into the top 7, because of the degree of difficulty in working with the short lines, and mastering all of them without a hint of ambiguous pacing, and with its twists, turns, and pop culture references adding another dimension

2 points
Extensively ReModelled, Now I'm Mostly Artificial - Kristof
I remember thinking at the time this would be hard to beat for Parody of The Year, yet 4 later parodies (2 of them Kristof's) nudged it down - still brilliant stuff

1 point
Your Mother Is Quite A Slut - Claude
Claude's usual dry and politically-incorrect wit appearing in great unexpected one-liners, but the rat-a-tat pacing was so spot-on, you could hear Freddy singing it.



Sorry there were only 3 authors represented, but I reread all 36 (I'd already commented on all of them) and despite being determined to judge them all on parody-merit (as opposed to author-merit) it just panned out that way.  And apologies to Johnny D :( - two of who's entries just missed my final cut.

Well, I

It's taken a while but given a load of chuckles re-reading this lot, but it really brought home how much Spaff and Kristof were on their own plane this year: between them they had so many simply brilliant parodies... I can't help wonder if either can manage such consistency this year.  Part of me hopes they won't ('cause it'll give the rest of us a bit more of a chance), but on the whole I'd much rather have such a plethora of perfection to peruse this time next year.

Picking seven was kind of hard, and the order these come is more about the amusing concepts behind rather than their equally flawless executions.

7 points - # 8.  Eat The French by Spaff.com
6 points - #11.  Farewell Allah, Hello Buddha by Kristof Robertson
5 points - #38.  Vatican City by Spaff.com
4 points - #26.  Me Depressed: Tarzan's Lament by Kristof Robertson
3 points - # 9.  88 Lines About 140 Discontinued Varieties at 31 Flavors by Spaff.com
2 points - #21.  I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus by Spaff.com
1 point  - #37.  Three-way by Claude Prez 

I am listing my top pick first to bottom pick last:

#1...Spaff.com...#21...I Swear This is the Last Time
#2...Stuart...#6...Duelling Mangoes
#3...Kristof...#20...I Scored a Catwalk Model
#4...Dee Range...#33...Sixteen Sons
#5...Johnny D...#28...Pay This for Gasoline Man
#6...Claude...#37...Three-Way
#7...Red Ant...#27...Simon and Garfunkel Fight

7 points - #21 - I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus by Spaff.com

6 points - #13 - Gwyneth Has A Rethink by Stuart MacArthur

5 points - #36 - The Wreck Of The Latest Royal Wedding by Kristof Robertson

4 points - #20 - I Scored A Catwalk Model With Some BS, Astrological by Kristof Robertson

3 points - #26 - Me Depressed: Tarzan's Lament by Kristof Robertson

2 points - #37 - Three-way by Claude Prez 

1 point - #35 - The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing by Stuart McArthur

7 points for #19.  I'm Pinned Beneath My Things by Rick Cormier
6 ponts for #35.  The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing by Stuart McArthur
5 points for #23.  Kristof Robertson: Do Kris Kristofferson! by Stuart McArthur
4 points for #3.  Applied A Bunch Of Stickers To My S.U.V. by MooRocca
3 points for #1.  A Bar Maid Fight by Jeff Reuben
2 points for #13.  Gwyneth Has A Rethink by Stuart MacArthur
1 point for #21.  I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus by Spaff.com

It was great fun reading and rereading these. Y'all are a bunch of funny, intelligent people. No wonder I waste so much time here.

It was reeeeeeally hard cutting my list of faves down to seven; I kept revising it last night until I finally gave up and went to bed. Sleeping on the decision, unfortunately, didn't help much. Oh well. I'm gonna go with:

7 points: #26, "Me Depressed: Tarzan's Lament"
6 points: #13, "Gwyneth Has a Rethink"
5 points: #37, "Three-way"
4 points: #39, "Your Mother is Quite a Slut"
3 points: #32, "Shopping With a Weapon in My Hand"
2 points: #18, "I Hereby Announce My Candidacy"
1 point: #1, "A Bar Maid Fight"

xoxox
Spaff

7 pts #39 Your Mother is Quite A Slut - Claude Prez
6 pts #35 The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing - Stu McArthur
5 pts #9 88 Lines about 140... Spaff
4 pts #26 Me Depressed Kristof Robertson
3 pts #12 I Got Crabs From Darth Vader Spaff
2 pts #6 Dueling Mangoes Stu McArthur
1 pt #14 I Always Seem To Injure You Kristof Robertson

It was reeeeeeally hard cutting my list of faves down to seven; I kept revising it last night until I finally gave up and went to bed. Sleeping on the decision, unfortunately, didn't help much. Oh well. I'm gonna go with:

Yeah, but it was *so* much easier for you and Kristof ;)

And the winner is:

I Swear This Is the Last Time I'll Go Boating with Odysseus by Spaff.com  -- 46 points

*********************************************************************

88 Lines About 140 Discontinued Varieties at 31 Flavors by Spaff.com -- 36 points

Duelling Mangoes by Stuart McArthur -- 32 points

Me Depressed: Tarzan's Lament by Kristof Robertson -- 31 points

The Tunes I Wish They Could Unsing by Stuart McArthur -- 25 points

Eat The French by Spaff.com -- 20 points

Your Mother is Quite a Slut by Claude Prez -- 18 points

Three-way by Claude Prez  -- 17 points

I Scored A Catwalk Model With Some BS, Astrological by Kristof Robertson -- 15 points

Gwyneth Has A Rethink by Stuart MacArthur -- 14 points

A Bar Maid Fight by Jeff Reuben -- 12 points

Vatican City by Spaff.com -- 12 points

Extensively Remodelled, Now I'm Mostly Artific-ial by Kristof Robertson -- 11 points

I'm Pinned Beneath My Things by Rick Cormier 11 points

Sixteen Sons by Dee Range -- 11 points

Kristof Robertson: Do Kris Kristofferson! by Stuart McArthur -- 10 points

The Wreck Of The Latest Royal Wedding by Kristof Robertson -- 8 points

Farewell Allah, Hello Buddha by Kristof Robertson -- 6 points

Dumb Blonde by EmiLoca -- 5 points

Applied A Bunch Of Stickers To My S.U.V. by MooRocca -- 4 points

I Got Crabs from Darth Vader by Spaff.com -- 4 points

Shopping With a Weapon in My Hand by Rick Cormier -- 4 points

If Shrek's Mom Had Only Been Sterile by John Jenkins -- 3 points

Pay THIS Fer Gasoline, Man? by Johnny D. -- 3 points

I Hereby Announce My Candidacy by Peter Andersson a.k.a. K1chyd -- 2 points

I Wok Alone by 2nz -- 2 points

I Always Seem To Injure You by Kristof Robertson -- 1 point

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel Fight! by Red Ant -- 1 point


Congratulations all, and thanks to everybody who voted, and everyone else who made this another great SOTM year.

Congratulations, Spaff!!!  And to everybody else who wrote great parodies and made him sweat.

Thanks to Claude for continuing to make these competitions look a lot easier than I'm sure they really are.

I am curious about whether the voters and the authors are in agreement.  For those authors who got more than one song into the final 39, did the song that you wrote that you liked the most get the most votes?

Congratulations, Spaff!!!  And to everybody else who wrote great parodies and made him sweat.

Thanks to Claude for continuing to make these competitions look a lot easier than I'm sure they really are.

I am curious about whether the voters and the authors are in agreement.  For those authors who got more than one song into the final 39, did the song that you wrote that you liked the most get the most votes?
Congratulations to the still Almighty Spaff. You deserved it, bro! That parody kicks ASS!

"I am curious about whether the voters and the authors are in agreement.  For those authors who got more than one song into the final 39, did the song that you wrote that you liked the most get the most votes?"




John, in my case, the answer is no. I actually thought "Shopping With a Weapon in My Hand" would get more votes than "I'm Pinned Beneath My Things". (not that either was good enough to land anywhere near the top with some of the genius writers around here).

Well Rick, you know what? Before I actually read it and I just read the title "I'm Pinned Beneath My Things," I actually thought the subject matter had to do with...uh...wearing a girdle. But it doesn't make much sense as of now, since who says "things" instead of "clothes?"

I am curious about whether the voters and the authors are in agreement.  For those authors who got more than one song into the final 39, did the song that you wrote that you liked the most get the most votes?



Firstly congrats to Spaff.  Odysseus was easily my number one, and it was the only decision out of my seven that was easy.

But John, thanks for asking, because it is interesting.  Neither of my top-ranked two ("Duelling Mangoes" which came 3rd, and "Tunes Unsung" which came 5th) won their respective monthly contests, so it just shows how arbitrary these things can be.

And of my 4, I would have ranked them: 

equal first:  "Duelling Mangoes" and "Gwyneth Has A Rethink"
third:        "Kristof: Do Kristofferson"
fourth:      "Tunes Unsung"

but what a fantastic list we now have representing 2005's finest

Good on you Claude - your whole SOTM/SOTY concept is awesome

:)

Congratulations Spaff!  :)



I am curious about whether the voters and the authors are in agreement.  For those authors who got more than one song into the final 39, did the song that you wrote that you liked the most get the most votes?


Yes, I liked 'Paul and Art Fight' better than my 'Typo-Master' song, and it picked up more votes...er, a vote (thanks Rick!).

Good on you Claude - your whole SOTM/SOTY concept is awesome



Thanks.  I have to say, the whole thing long ago exceeded my wildest expectations, thanks to the consistent participation of a large and growing number of outstanding writers.  And as always, many thanks to Chucky for making it all possible.

Well, this is quite the birthday present. And here I thought that the best thing that would happen to me today would be the DVD release of "Brokeback Mountain." Heh heh.

Tremendous thanks to those of you who read and/or reread the 39 entries and  lost blood, sweat, tears, and pee in picking seven out of that hat. Very very very cool of you.

To answer John's question: Out of my own dogs in the race, I'd put "Odysseus" first and "31 Flavors" second; the rest also came out pretty much the same way I would have ranked them. (I will admit to having a soft spot for "I Got Crabs from Darth Vader," but that's due in large part to Robert Lund's recording.)

I have a number of parodies that I've written in minutes. "Odysseus" is not one of them. I worked on that one on and off for close to six months. Along the way, I even read "The Odyssey" cover-to-cover. Oh yes, I suffer for my art.

Kudos to Rick Duncan, whose wonderful "Media Celebrity" first got me thinking about "Major-General," and Kristof Robertson, whose also-wonderful "Extensively Remodeled" motivated me to get off my butt and do it. Props also to the also-also-wonderful Phil Alexander, who, I've since discovered, was the first Amirighter to parody that bad boy.

Congratulations to all the guys whose stellar stuff filled out the big ol' Top Ten, i.e., Stu, Kristof, Stu, Claude, Claude, Kristof, and Stu. Diversity, yo!

To Cat's suggestion about doing a King Arthur parody for 2006: Thanks for the encouragement. I'm afraid, however, that any humorous treatment of that topic would be compared to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Unfavorably compared. I wouldn't dare.

Ditto Stu's note to Claude 4 Prez for coming up with the SOTM & SOTY concepts and for managing them for all this time. IMHO, that one idea is pretty much solely responsible for dramatically raising the quality of parodies on Amiright. And thanks, of course, to Chucky, without whom...

This has been lotsa hotsa fun. Thanks y'all for indulging me in 2005. I'll be cheering you from the sidelines in 2006.

xoxox
Spaff

^And your cheers performed with pompoms and short skirt will still be lyrical masterpieces.  ;)
Congrats to Spaff, Stu, Kristof and Claude for your overflow of parodying brilliance, and kudos also to everyone else who scored some pointypoints or made it at all.

Sorry, I started on voting but sorta got distracted.
Any one of my friends will vouch for how utterly unusual this is for me.
Keep up the awesome work, folks!
;D