Mondegreens | The biggest slips, faux pas, mishaps, and fails on the Internet

BelVita Breakfast Biscuits

A cheesy breakfast treat?

Kraft Foods has recently introduced the belVita Breakfast Biscuit to the United States. The belVita Biscuit has been sold in Europe for the last ten years, and has been sold in the United Kingdom for the past year.

The belVita Biscuit is basically a breakfast cookie, made from whole grains and fiber. It is being marketed to Americans who don’t have time for a complete breakfast. The biscuits come in blueberry, apple cinnamon and golden oat flavors. Instead of placing the breakfast cookie in the breakfast aisle along side the cereals and the granola bars, Kraft plans to place the breakfast cookie in the cookie and cracker aisle along side the Oreo cookies and the Ritz crackers. Not a smart move in my opinion, if they are looking for the belVita biscuit to become the next go-to quick breakfast bar.

The placement of the belVita biscuit isn’t the only hurdle the breakfast has though. Every time I hear the commercial on television, I think they are saying “Velveeta”. Velveeta is another Kraft brand, but it’s not a breakfast bar. It’s cheese. Processed cheese that is sold in a block. It’s a great melting cheese, good for cheese dips, macaroni and cheese, or sliced and melted on a cheeseburger.

I don’t think that Kraft was going for the mental association of cheese whenever I hear “belVita”. The only thing belVita and Velveeta have in common, besides being Kraft Foods products, is that both are sold in the same aisle, at least in my grocery store. Velveeta processed cheese is not sold in the UK, so the similarity in the product names was probably not apparent when belVita was introduced there. I think Kraft needs to rethink their product name, or add the word “biscuit” to their belVita commercials.

Is It a Parody or a Mondegreen?

A parody can also be called a pun or satire

What is the difference between a parody and a mondegreen? According to dictionary.com, a parody is “a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing”, while a mondegreen is “a word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard”. In other words, a parody is intentional while a mondegreen generally is not. Mondegreens are often referred to as misheard lyrics. A parody can also be called a pun or satire.

Both parodies and mondegreens are common in music. Very often people mishear the lyrics to popular songs, such as “excuse me while I kiss this guy” instead of “kiss the sky”, or “secret Asian man” instead of “secret agent man”. Sometimes a mondegreen can be made up, or forced; if this is the case, then the mondegreen verges on a parody.

I’m sure everyone has heard a parody or two at one time or another. If you watch “The Simpsons” or “Saturday Night Live”, you’ve seen parody. Musical parody is quite common. “Weird” Al Yankovic is the king of musical parody. Al got his start by sending tapes of his parodies to the national radio show of Dr. Demento. Al garnered a small following from fans of the show. He also had a nationally-released single, “Another One Rides The Bus”. Al then signed with Scotti Bros. Records in 1982, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Interestingly, song parodies do not violate copyright laws. A parody falls under the fair use doctrine which allows limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. Artists who perform parodies do not need to get permission from the original artists, even though the parodies often use the original musical composition. However, artists such as Weird Al generally do ask for permission from the original artist before doing a parody. Asking for permission first helps Al maintain his relationships with a variety of artists. Most of the time, the artist is flattered the Al has chosen one of their songs to parody.

Here’s one of Al’s latest videos “Perform This Way”, a parody of Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way”.

Mairzy Doats

Or, Mares Eat Oats

I remember as a young girl both my mother and my grandmother singing the song “Mairzy Doats” to me at bedtime. A silly nonsense song, “Mairzy Doats” was most likely the first mondegreen I heard, although I didn’t know it as a mondegreen at the time. Heck, I didn’t even know what the word meant.

“Mairzy Doats” was written in 1943 by Al Hoffman, Milton Drake and Jerry Livingston as a novelty song. Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists first played the song on a New York radio station, and the version of the song recorded by the Merry Macs reached number one in March of 1944. Since then, numerous recording artists have recorded the song, and “Mairzy Doats” has also appeared as music in movies and television shows.

It’s said that the song was so popular that American soldiers used the nonsense words as passwords during World War II.

The words to “Mairzy Doats”, if you see them written, make no sense at all. Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey, a kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you? What the heck? However, if you listen to the song, the bridge to the refrain gives you a clue to what they are actually saying. Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy. A kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you?

“Mairzy Doats” was inspired by Milton Drake’s daughter, who, at four years of age, came home from school one day singing an English nursery rhyme. The nursery rhyme went “cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doisters” which translates into “cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oysters”.

However you say it, “Mairzy Doats” is a fun song to sing. Watch this version of "Mairzy Doats" from the Lawrence Welk Show.

He's Got What Where?

Another misheard conversation between my husband and I

Misheard conversations between my husband and I have become quite a normal occurrence. One night several years ago my husband and I went out for dinner to a Chili’s restaurant. As I have said before, one of our favorite pastimes when we are out is people watching. We were sitting there talking, waiting for our meal, and observing the people around us. We happened to be sitting at a table in the bar area, so we had a good view of the bar customers.

I’m looking around, and I notice one couple sitting at another table near the bar. The woman was drinking an iced tea, and the man had a beer. The woman squeezed a lemon slice into her tea, and then placed the lemon slice on a napkin. The man picked up the slice and placed it in his beer.

At this point I said to my husband, referring to the gentleman, “He put lemon in his beer.”

After a moment, my husband said to me “How do you know that?”

I said, “I can see it”, to which my husband replied, “Do you think he knows?”

Confused, I said “I think so”.

We then started talking about something else, but evidently, my husband was still thinking about the man’s beer with lemon in it.

In the middle of our conversation, my husband asks me, “Did his wife tell him?”

“Tell him what?” I ask.

“That he has lemon in his beard.”

Laughter ensued, and I choked into my napkin.

Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers

Poor enunciation can be the cause of misheard lyrics

Here is another oldie but goodie misheard lyric. I know I’m not the only one who hears the words to Johnny Rivers’ hit “Secret Agent Man” wrong. Admit it, you always thought he was singing about a “secret Asian man”, didn’t you?

In this case, I think it’s more a matter of enunciation, or lack there of, that causes the mishearing of the words to “Secret Agent Man”. Even knowing what Rivers says, I still hear him singing “secret Asian man” instead of agent, and “giving you a numbah, and taken way your name” instead of “giving you a number and taking away your name”.

At a time when James Bond ruled and television spy shows were popular, “Secret Agent Man” first appeared as the theme song for the CBS television program Secret Agent. “Secret Agent Man” was originally just one verse and the chorus; other verses were added later and the song was released as a single. It reached number 3 on the charts in 1966.

Johnny Rivers was born on November 7, 1942 as John Henry Ramistella. His name was changed to Johnny Rivers when he began recording music. Rivers’ first hit was a remake of the Chuck Berry single “Memphis”, which climbed to #2 on the charts in 1964, amid the onslaught of the British invasion, and Beatlemania. Many of Rivers’ early hits were covers; besides “Memphis”, he also recorded Berry’s “Maybelline” and Harold Dorman’s “Mountain of Love” among others. “Secret Agent Man” was one of the first of Rivers’ hits that was written for him.

American Pie by Don McLean

I was always confused by the chorus

I was listening to Pandora radio this morning while I was taking a shower. The song “American Pie” by Don McLean started playing, and I was singing at the top of my lungs. As the song went into the refrain, I was reminded of how I interpreted the lyrics to the refrain when I was younger. When I got out of the shower, I recounted the story to my husband, since I had never shared it with him before. It’s a cute story, at least in my opinion. It doesn’t involve a mondegreen in the strictest sense of the word. I didn’t mishear the lyrics, but rather interpreted them with my own definition.

I’m fairly certain that any music fan is familiar with “American Pie” and understands that it was inspired by the events of February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper J.P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash after a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa. This day is known as “the day the music died”, which is also a line in McLean’s song. It’s one of my favorite songs.

I was 10 years old when “American Pie” was released in 1971. My older brother was a Buddy Holly fan, as I am now, so I was familiar with what the song was about. However, the chorus always confused me. I couldn’t figure out why McLean would be singing about a bar that my parents frequently visited. Say what? I know now that he’s not singing about a bar, but it made perfect sense to me back then.

Let me explain. The chorus talks about driving a Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry. Well, the bar my parents went to was called “The Levee”, so driving a Chevy there was logical. And finding the levee dry was also logical. I just thought the bar was out of drinks. My grandfather owned a bar, so I knew at a very young age that people went to bars for drinking purposes. The next lines “Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye, singing ‘this’ll be the day that I die’” followed my bar logic as well, as I knew that you got whiskey and rye at a bar, and that oftentimes people who drank too much would sing. It was a few more years before I realized that Don McLean was not singing about The Levee, the bar, but rather a river embankment that helps prevent flooding.

Now, for your listening enjoyment, Don McLean and “American Pie”. And remember, he’s not singing about a bar.

"Rocket Man" Mondegreens Used in Volkswagen Commercial

The Elton John hit is used to highlight the Passat's stereo system

The 2012 VW Passat commercial “That What He Says?” uses Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and has been playing a lot lately. The commercial focuses on the Passat’s new crystal-clear Fender audio system. It shows a montage of people singing their interpretation of the lyrics “burning out his fuse up here alone.”

Misheard lyrics heard in the commercial include “burning out this useless telephone”, “burning up the room with cheap cologne”, “musty motor home”, and “all alone”. I’m not sure if these are real or made-up misheard lyrics, but I’m going to say the misheard lyrics were made up for the commercial. I checked two popular websites that list misheard lyrics, kissthisguy.com and amiright.com, and neither site includes any of the so-called mondegreens from the commercial.

There are plenty of misheard lyrics for “Burning out his fuse up here alone” listed on the sites that make more sense than any of the made up mondegreens in the commercial. I’ll admit that for years, I thought the line was “burning up the shores of Avalon”. I’ve also heard the lyrics as “Rocket man, running out of fuel and heading home.”

While “burning out his fuse up here alone” is the most common misheard line in “Rocket Man”, there are a couple more lines of lyrics that are often misheard. “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids” has been heard as “Bars ain’t the kid of place to raise your kids”, and “I’m not the man they think I am at home” has been mistaken as “Not that many think I am at home” and “a muscle man let me die in my home”. That last line makes no sense to me, but it must have made sense to someone.

Olive The Other Reindeer and Other Christmas Mondegreens

Misheard lyrics in Christmas carols and songs

It’s that time of year…time to sing about Olive, the other reindeer laughing at poor Rudolph, and Round John Virgin with his margarine child.

The words to Christmas songs and carols have been misheard throughout the years, and there are some pretty funny interpretations. Olive, the other reindeer and Round John Virgin are probably the most common, or at least the most well-known of the Christmas mondegreens.

In the song Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the line “all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names” has been heard as “Olive, the other reindeer, used to laugh and call him names”, while in the carol Silent Night, “Round John Virgin, margarine child” is often substituted for the line “Round yon virgin, Mother and child”.

Some people must think that a 50s Rock ‘n Roll singer helped decorate at Christmas, based on the words “Deck the halls with Buddy Holly” instead of “Deck the halls with boughs of holly”. Then there’s the hobo’s Christmas song, “Chipmunks roasting on an open fire” rather than “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”.

When I was a child, I sang Jingle Bells like this:

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh;
O'er the fields we go,
Laughing all the way.

Bells on Bob's tail ring,
Making spirits bright;
What fun it is to write and sing
A slaving song tonight.

I have a brother named Bob, but I had no idea what a bobtail was, so “bells on Bob’s tail” made much more sense to me than “bells on Bobtail”. And, I heard “slaving song tonight” rather than “sleighing song”, not that slaving song made any sense.

Other Christmas misheard lyrics:

Get dressed ye married gentlemen

Let nothing through this May

instead of

God Rest ye merry, gentlemen

let nothing you dismay

Hark, the harried angels sing

Glory to the New York king

rather than

Hark, the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn king

Then there’s my personal favorite:

We three kings from Oregon are

Bearing gifts, we’ve traveled so far

Instead of

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts, we traverse afar.

Do you know of other Christmas mondegreens? Send me a comment.

They Took Out Their What?

Misheard words can lead to funny conversations

I promised to share some of the misheard conversations between my husband and I. Some of them are pretty funny, or at least they were when they occurred.

When we go out to eat, one of our favorite things to do is to observe the other diners and try to figure out what their relationship to each other is. We usually focus on couples or a group of adults dining together. If it's a couple, we'll try to figure out if they are dating, married or just friends; and we'll make up scenarios and stories about how they met or what they are doing. It's a game, and a way to pass the time until our meal arrives.

Several years ago, when we lived in Kansas City, we had this particular favorite restaurant, The Corner Cafe. We went there so often, the hostess and the wait staff knew us by name. We were there one night observing another couple that was seated across the dining room from us. By their body language and the conversation we could hear, we surmised that they were on a first date, and probably a blind date at that.

They were older, and we figured one or both of them were either divorced or widowed. Throughout the meal, they both looked uncomfortable, like they didn’t want to be where they were, or maybe they didn’t like each other, but felt like they owed it to whomever set them up to stick it out.

After 30 minutes or so, they got up to leave, each removing their car keys...him from his coat pocket and her from her purse. As they did this, I said to my husband that the date must not have been successful as they were both taking out their keys. My husband looked at me and said, “They’re taking out their teeth? Why would they do that on a date?” No wonder the date was unsuccessful.

I guess you had to be there.

The History of the Mondegreen

Mondegreens can occur in everyday language as well as in song lyric interpretations

According to dictionary.com, a mondegreen is a "word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard." The word "mondegreen" was coined by writer Sylvia Wright in the 1950's.

As a young girl, she had heard the Scottish poem, "The Bonny Earl of Murray", written in the 17th century. The first verse of this ballad is:

Ye Higlands and ye Lawlands,

O where hae ye been?

The hae slain the Earl of Murray

And hae laid him on the green

Sylvia Wright heard this ballad, and thought the last line was "And hae Lady Mondegreen". It wasn't until many years later that Ms. Wright discovered that Lady Mondegreen did not exist, and that, in fact, the Earl's slain body was put on display. In an essay that appeared in Harper's Magazine in November 1954, titled "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", Ms. Wright wrote, "The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original." Sometimes, but not always.

While most commonly used to describe misheard song lyrics, a mondegreen can be used when referring to any misheard word or phrase. Columnist Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle refers to a mondegreen as "the breakdowns in meaning that occur somewhere between the sound source and your ear". Mondegreens can occur in everyday language as well as in song lyric interpretations. "Dog eat dog world" can be misinterpreted as "doggy dog world", no holds barred" becomes "no holes barred", and "out of harms way" is heard as "out of arms sway".

Mondegreens happen all the time in our house. I'll share some funny misinterpretations and misheard words between my husband and I as time goes on. In the meantime, if you have a mondegreen to share, send me a comment.

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