Lady Mondegreen, Who I Killed
A toddler introduced me to the video below:
And as we did the hand dance to the infectious chorus, I realized that I knew this song. The chorus comes from Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s Paradise:
i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie
to the hip hip hop, a you don’t stop
the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie
to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat
And is, in fact a Spanglishization of the lyrics, creating nonsense:
Aserejé ja de je de jebe
tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi
an de bugui an de güididípi
This is a perfect example of the trans-cultural Mondegreen.
Sylvia Wright described the linguistic phenomenon in her 1954 Harper’s essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen,” when she discussed mishearing part of the 17th-century ballad “The Bonny Earl O’Moray”:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl O’ Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.
The real last line is “and laid him on the green.”
I mishear song lyrics all the time: “Mama we broke the roux” instead of “…broke the rules” and “There’s a bathroom on the right” instead of “there’s a bad moon on the rise.” Another one I’ve heard is “we are we are the euthanization” instead of “we are we are the youth in the nation.” “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” you probably know already (go on and say it out loud). And, of course, there was the children’s song “Mairzy Doats”:
“Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?”
But it’s also fascinating when these Mondegreens cross continents, nest paw? Here’s a video popular from a few years ago, when Bollywood was becoming an international sensation:
And I even found one that moves from Lebanese to Swedish, “Hatten är din” (a nod to you, Asa):
But what’s homophonic transformation got to do with literature? Well, it’s funny, could make some excellent double entendres, and characterize someone (think Tennessee Williams’ “blue roses” in Glass Menagerie). Besides, if James Joyce was writing “if you see Kay” or “F-U-C-K” in Ulysses, maybe it’s time to start making notes on your own.
I love the Beny Lava video! I can’t remember when I first saw it, but it’s been in my Favorites for over a year and I click on it whenever I need a giggle. My brother sent me “Hatten är din” (The Hat is Yours) a while back, but we both a think Beny Lava is more fun.
I love these videos because I’m forever hearing the wrong thing when people speak, probably because English isn’t my first language, but it happens in Swedish too. I had lived in the US for more than a year before I learned that the piece of furniture I thought was named after its inventor (Chester Drawers) was in fact a *chest of drawers*–which makes a lot more sense. Song lyrics are horrible too. When I was a tween, my friend and I sang along to Wham with the words “Vi dricker Tuborg” (We’re drinking Tuborg) instead of “We do the jitterbug.” Not sure if that was a reflection of our parents’ alcohol habits or an indication of our bad language skills.