Thanks, Speedy God (And Other Misheard Things)

mondegreen: (n) a word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard. Origin: 1954; coined by Sylvia Wright, U.S. writer, from the line "laid him on the green," interpreted as Lady Mondegreen, in a Scottish ballad

when ramona quimby (of the beverly cleary books) was learning the "star spangled banner" in school, she thought she had learned new vocabulary words. she asked her parents to turn on the "dawnzer," meaning the lamp. they were confused. ramona explained that it gave "lee light". beezus, her older sister, burst out laughing as she realized what ramona meant: instead of "the dawn's early light," ramona had heard "the dawnzer's lee light."

we've all been a victim of this at some point in our lives. i mentioned "la isla bonita" in the previous blog; and though i am well aware that the words are, "last night i dreamt of san pedro," i still hear "some bagels" to this day. when i was little and sitting in church, i tried to say the responses as best i could, although since i couldn't yet read, i just had to go by what i heard. the actual words said after a reading from the bible are "thanks be to god," but at 3 or 4, what i heard was, "thanks, speedy god." i thought we were thanking him for a quick reading so we could get on to the rest of mass. (hey, when you're a little kid, an hour-long mass goes on forever.)

remember that (bad) chumbawumba song, tubthumping? (they did actually have better songs, but that was the only one that caught on over here.) anyway, the song happened to come on during a gathering in college, and i remember a friend of tony's singing along, "i get knocked down, but i'm an opera fan!" after the hysterical laughter, we told him the actual words. he admitted that he thought "opera fan" didn't make much sense, but then neither did the rest of the song, so who was he to question?

there are the classics of course: "excuse me while i kiss this guy" instead of "the sky"; "blinded by the light's" "rolled up like a douchebag" (it's "revved up like a deuce"); several sections in "it's the end of the world (as we know it)" and "we didn't start the fire"; and - probably my favorite - "there's a bathroom on the right" instead of "bad moon on the rise". one of my friends, as a kid, thought "she's got a ticket to ride," was actually "she's got a chicken to hide." that would have been an interesting video...