September 30, 2011

It’s all about the mondegreens

It’s been a rough couple of months for aging celebrities, with comedians Dick Martin and Harvey Korman joining director Sydney Pollack, sportscaster Jim McKay, dancer Cyd Charisse and the legendary Bo Diddley as permanent guests on Tim Russert’s new afterlife chatfest. (See a comprehensive list here.)

While the passing of Larry Harmon, best known as Bozo the Clown, and former Sen. Jesse Helms both over the Independence Day weekend offered a certain cosmic symmetry, I’ve been thinking most about George Carlin and his famous “Seven Words” that now carry a crippling fine for a radio station should any chuckleheaded college DJ such as your faithful correspondent decide to play the famous routine on the air.

Carlin’s point was all about language and how we hear it. So it’s fitting that Merriam-Webster’s new edition will include “mondegreen,” which means mishearing song lyrics, as in “The Lady Mondegreen” for “they laid him on the green.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

Business Cares: March 2024

WomenGive, a program of United Way of Larimer County, was started in Larimer County in 2006 as an opportunity for women in our community to come together to help other women.

My personal mondegreen moment involved the song now used to hawk the lady-leg shaver called Venus. I knew the correct anatomical term for the male appendage wasn’t on Carlin’s list, but why would a girl group like Bananarama be singing that that’s what they were, anyway? And who’s this George character, that they were supposedly his ire?  Like another comic great gone on to her reward, Gilda Radner, used to say as Emily Litella, “Nevermind.”

Something I wish I’d misheard, but didn’t, was of the passing of Fort Collins’ own Johnny Schou, a talented kid on the cusp of celebrity — and life. That’s way beyond rough.

It’s been a rough couple of months for aging celebrities, with comedians Dick Martin and Harvey Korman joining director Sydney Pollack, sportscaster Jim McKay, dancer Cyd Charisse and the legendary Bo Diddley as permanent guests on Tim Russert’s new afterlife chatfest. (See a comprehensive list here.)

While the passing of Larry Harmon, best known as Bozo the Clown, and former Sen. Jesse Helms both over the Independence Day weekend offered a certain cosmic symmetry, I’ve been thinking most about George Carlin and his famous “Seven Words” that now carry a crippling fine for a…

Categories:
Sign up for BizWest Daily Alerts