Is there a name for these "bait-and-switch" sort of songs?

[Otto]

Songs where the songwriter, usually for comic effect, sets up an obvious rhyme and then goes with a completely different word? The only examples I can think of are novelty/comedy type songs, like: Shaving Cream (http://www.lyricsandsongs.com/song/202690.html)

I think I'll break off with my girlfriend
Her antics are queer, I'll admit
Each time I say, "Darling, I love you"
She tells me that I'm full of ...
Shaving cream, be nice and clean
Shave every day and you'll always look keen

Or a song about sodomy laws that includes the lyric "They think it's sinful / I think it sucks / Having laws that tell us how we should...fornicate!"

Or in a sorta kinda example, that old playground song about Miss Suzie and her steamboat where "Hell" gets blended into "Hello operator" and the like.

[Argent Towers]

Johnny Cash: The One On The Right Is On The Left


Now, the one on the left works in a bank
And the one in the middle drives a truck
The one on the right's an all-night deejay
And the guy in the rear got drafted


I always took that last line of the song to be a joke because the listener might assume he's going to say "got fucked." Not that Cash ever would have said that, but still. I could be totally wrong about this though.

[KneadToKnow]

Don't know if there's a name for the specific genre, though I've been curious for a while, too.

Well, I took her out to dinner, but on one thing she was firm:
She'd swallow almost anything, except for
Stories that her brother didn't like birds,
But hung around leather bars, and liked to eat
Fish and chips, and he still sucked his thumb.
I said, "I don't mind!" And she kissed me on my
Polka-dot undies!
My polka-dot undies!

[Gangster Octopus]

The Killers Mr. Brightside

Now I’m falling asleep
And she’s calling a cab
While he’s having a smoke
And she’s taking a drag
Now they’re going to bed
And my stomach is sick
And it’s all in my head
But she’s touching his chest
Now, he takes off her dress
Now, letting me go

[WF Tomba]

When a gentleman dapper
Stepped out of the . . . phone booooth

[Annie-Xmas]

A lot of children's songs do this. The only one I can recall is:

Lulu had two boyfriends.
Each was very rich.
One was the son of a millionaire
The other one was the son of a...

Ask me no questions.
I'll tell you no lies.
This is the story of how Lulu dies.

[Martha Medea]

Not rhyme-based, but the Who's My Generation
"Why don't you all F-F-F-FADE AWAY"

Another children's rhyme:

Mary had a little lamb
She thought him really silly
She threw him up into the air
And caught him by the...

Willy was a bulldog
Sitting on the grass
Along came a bumblebee
And stung him on the...

Ask no questions
Tell no lies
I once saw an old man
Doing up his...

Flies are a nuisance
Bees are worse
And this is the end
Of my silly little verse.

I can't believe I remembered all that. :o

[Scarlett67]

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs,
And told her that she had such beautiful
Manners that suited a girl of her charms,
A girl that he wanted to take in his
Washing . . .

-- "Sweet Violets" (which my mom taught me only a few years ago)

[xizor]

Aerosmith, Love in an Elevator

"Gotta get my timin' right
Its a test that I gotta pass
Ill chase you all the way to stairway, honey
Kiss your sassafrass"

And kinda fitting is Kid Rock Cowboy

"Cuss like a sailor
Drink like a mick
My only words of wisdom
Are RADIO EDIT"

[LurkMeister]

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs,
And told her that she had such beautiful
Manners that suited a girl of her charms,
A girl that he wanted to take in his
Washing . . .

-- "Sweet Violets" (which my mom taught me only a few years ago)
This was the one I thought of when I read the OP. We had it on a Mitch Miller Sing-Along album when I was a kid, and I thought it was one of the funniest songs.

and yes, sometimes instead of watching TV in the evenings the family would sit around play a Mitch Miller album and sing along.

[Kizarvexius]

I don't know if there's already a technical term for it, but if not I would suggest: implicit double entendre.

[thelurkinghorror]

The Doors - L'America

You know the rain man's comin' to town
Change the weather, change your luck
And then he'll teach ya how to...
find yourself

[tremorviolet]

The one in Family Guy with Frank Sinatra Jr. was pretty raunchy:

Frank Sinatra Jr

♪ We love it when the ladies squeeze us ♪


Brian

♪ That's an easy way to please us ♪


Brian, Stewie, and Frank

♪ But we feel like freakin' Jesus when we swing ♪


Brian

♪ I love the work of Allen Funt ♪

Stewie

♪ Or a nicely shaven leg ♪


Brian, Stewie, and Frank

♪ But nothing compares to the feeling that we get ♪ ♪ No, nothing compares to the feel we get when we swing! ♪

[BrainGlutton]

Roses are red and ready for plucking
You're sixteen and ready for high school!

[RealityChuck]

Tom Lehrer:

Her breakfast coffee tastes just Chammmmmmm-
poo.

It's the first of a couplet, but it has the same effect.

[faithfool]

Working Up a Sweat

Bandages come off today
Really feeling sick
The hardest part explainin'
All those blisters on my.............................nose!

Alice has quite a few of these. :)

[rowrrbazzle]

"In My Country" sung by the Lemon Sisters:

Captain, Captain, come and dock
And bring along your big fat cocktail shaker
We'll have a ball
In my country
...

But when it's frigid on the eastern front
It's nice and hot down in my country,
So baby, please,
Come again!

[Peter Morris]

Mary had a little lamb
she thought he was a silly
she threw him up into the air
and caught him by the

Willy was a sheepdog
lying in the grass
down came a bumblebee
that stung him on the

Ask no questions
tell no lies
I saw a policeman
doing up his

Flies are a problem
wasps are worse
that is the end
of my silly little verse

[BrainGlutton]

"A Clean Song": (http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/bawdy-songs/000039.HTM)

There was a young sailor
Who looked through the glass,
And spied a fair mermaid
With scales on her island

Where seagulls
Fly over their nests
She combed the long hair
That hung over her shoulders

And caused her
To tickle and itch.
The sailor cried out
"There's a beautiful mermaid,"

A-sitting out
There on the rocks,
The crew came around
A-grabbing their glasses


. . . and so on.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

Xander, to Anya, in "I'll Never Tell" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode "Once More With Feeling"):

"She is the one, so much wonderful fun
Such passion and grace!
Warm in the night, when I'm right in her tight
EMBRACE, tight embrace!"

And another fakeout (a callback to the same, actually) in the same song:

"You're the cutest of the Scoobies
With your lips as red as rubies
And your firm, yet supple
TIGHT EMBRACE!"

[Tool of the Conspiracy]

"Broken Record" by The Refreshments is funny, but I wouldn't describe it as a novelty song.
I took a walk around my neighborhood
To get you off of my mind like I knew that I ought to
<snip>
You took another guy on that Caribbean cruise
While I stayed home and cried into my bottle of pills

[Jragon]

The one in Family Guy with Frank Sinatra Jr. was pretty raunchy:
Awfully different from Road to Europe wasn't too good either, though it breaks the song to acknowledge the mishap.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4dTgRSNRTHE

Brian: Cause you get a kick out of carnage and guts
Stewie: And you get a kick out of stroking your...
Brian: woahwoahwoah you can't say that on TV
Stewie: What, Ego?
Brian: Nevermind... *song continues*

Obligatory link:
http://yout ube.com/watch?v=0VZXV7aTl24
(since it's meant to have that "flow" I broke it)

[Thudlow Boink]

Then there's the old cheer:

Rah rah ree!
Kick 'em in the knee!
Rah rah rass!
Kick 'em in the other knee!

And this little bit of verse I heard somewhere as a kid:

Spring has sprung
Fall has fell
Summer is here
And it's hotter than usual.


The only "non-dirty" bait-and-switch in a non-novelty song that I know of is from "Strobe" by Adam Again:

Remember when you laughed in my ear three times
I was waiting for more you said "who am I"
Now you're waiting in the shopping line
Saying here's two nickels will you give me a quarter

[Contrapuntal]

Asshole, asshole,
A soldier went to war.

To piss, to piss,
Two pistols by his side.

Fuck you, fuck you,
For curiosity.

[Kyrie Eleison]

Twenty-four posts and no mention of Miss Lucy? This is my childhood exemplar of this category, whatever it might be named:

Miss Lucy had a steam boat
The steamboat had a bell,
Miss Lucy went to heaven and the
Steamboat went to...

Hello operator
Please give me number nine
And if you disconnect me
I will chop off your...

Behind the 'fridgerator
There was a piece of glass
Miss Lucy sat upon it
And she cut her big fat...

Ask me no more questions
I'll tell you no more lies
The boys are in the bathroom
Pulling down their...

Flies are in the meadow
The bees are in the park
Miss Lucy and her boyfriend
Are kissing in the...

Dark is like a movie
A movie's like a show
A show is like a tv set
And that is all I know.

[RealityChuck]

At a rodeo, one of the clowns was talking about his car:

The fan belt won't fan
The carburator won't carb.
And the pistons won't --

[Tengu]

The Assuming song ( http:// humor.beecy.net/songs/assuming-song/ ) has always amused me. (Broken because it supposedly starts playing the song automatically. It didn't for me, but I've got my browser set-up rather securely.)

There was an old farmer who lived on a rock.
He sat in the meadow just shaking his...

Fist at some boys who were down by the crick.
Their feet in the water their hands on their...

Obviously, it continues in that vein, until the end:

If you think this is dirty you can go **** yourself!

[Koxinga]

Welcome to Duloc, such a perfect town
Here we have some rules, let us lay them down
Don't make waves, stay in line
And we'll get along fine
Duloc is a perfect place

Please keep off of the grass
Shine your shoes, wipe your...face
Duloc is, Duloc is
Duloc is a perfect place!!!

[Mister Rik]

Current country song duet by George Strait & Kenny Chesney:

"Talkin' 'bout a bunch of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiift work
Big ol' pile of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiift work"

(Naturally, the radio stations are running it completely into the ground.)

'Weird Al' Yankovic, "I'm So Sick of You":

"You don't have an ounce of class
You're just one big pain in the neck"

[malkavia]

Now they’re going to bed
And my stomach is sick
And it’s all in my head
But she’s touching his chest



Wow, I've heard that song half a million times by now and I never caught that. Ha! Thanks. :)

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

The Killers Mr. Brightside

Now I’m falling asleep
And she’s calling a cab
While he’s having a smoke
And she’s taking a drag
Now they’re going to bed
And my stomach is sick
And it’s all in my head
But she’s touching his chest
Now, he takes off her dress
Now, letting me go
Eh, dunno. I can see where it's supposed to fit in the rhyme scheme, but the since the music changes on the word chest, and it sort of rhymes with dress, I don't think they really want you to hear it in the song. Not saying you're wrong about it, just that it works better written than heard.

I always liked "How's your whole family:"

Suck on a stiff cock-
tail with me.

Won't ya do my as-
trological charts?

How's your dic-
tation machine?

How's your whole
family?

[delphica]

I would love to know what these are called, if anything. In our family, we think this is the very height of humor, and call them Private Eye poems, because they are how the clues are delivered in The Private Eyes. Tim Conway would never steer you wrong.

I said when I died, that I'd come back.
If you believe in ghosts, you're on the right track.
I'm out of the grave, and roaming the moors.
If you want to be safe, you better lock all the windows and screens.

And for some reason I think they are even funnier when the scan gets messed up in addition to the rhyme.

In this house, it's hard to survive.
Some will be dead, who are now alive.
Mr. Uwatsum is gone, 'cause he knew too much.
Bye for now, but rest assured we'll keep in constant contact with each other.

[42fish]

No name, but yet another example. "The Walkin' Blues" by the Jesse Powell Orchestra with Fluffy Hunter. Featured on Rhino Records' compilation "Risque Rhythm: Nasty 50s R&B"

Sample lyric:
I got a man who is deaf and dumb
I got a man who is deaf and dumb
He couldn't say a word til I made him...
Walk right in, walk right out
Walk right in, walk right out
That's what this song is all about

[Talon Karrde]

"Vamos" by The Pixies:

We'll keep well bred
We'll stay well fed
We'll have our sons
They will be all well hung

They'll come and play
Their friends will say
Your daddy's rich
Your mama's a pretty nice lady

[Frylock]

Not really a good example but I'm posting it anyway:

"Which Describes How You're Feeling" by They Might Be Giants

You said "I'm feeling fine,"
but it didn't really rhyme.
It didn't rhyme. Overseas.
Which describes how you're feeling all the time.

-FrL-

[Frylock]

Eh, dunno. I can see where it's supposed to fit in the rhyme scheme, but the since the music changes on the word chest, and it sort of rhymes with dress, I don't think they really want you to hear it in the song. Not saying you're wrong about it, just that it works better written than heard.

I don't know the song, but I would imagine if the music changes right on the word "chest" then this heightens the effect of the broken rhyme scheme, rather than detracting from it.

-FrL-

[The Scrivener]

"1000 Umbrellas" by XTC has a couple, although only one avoids a profanity:

One thousand umbrellas
Upturned couldn't catch all the rain
That drained out of my head
When you said we were
Over and over I cried...

...So with a mop and a bucket
I'll just say forget her

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

I don't know the song, but I would imagine if the music changes right on the word "chest" then this heightens the effect of the broken rhyme scheme, rather than detracting from it.

-FrL-
Yeah, but the change makes it consistent with how it flows into the next line, making the "rhyme" between chest and dress seem like that's like what they were going for. Dunno, I just listened again today, and it was more obvious that the "trick" could have been what they were going for, but I think there's a reason I and another poster listened to this song for a couple years and didn't hear it.

Give it a listen and see what you think, though I guess having read this now it's hard to know how you would have heard it otherwise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnwLf88t_Wc

[Chefguy]

Two songs I remember:

"She's Got The Biggest Parakeets In Town"

"She's Got Freckles On Her Butt: She's Pretty"

And a line from the song "How Come My Dog Don't Bark When You Come Around?": "He bit my brother on the leg, bit my sister on the arm, bit my mother on the front porch".

[WF Tomba]

Rule Britannia
Three monkeys on a stick
One fell do-o-o-o-own and broke his

Rule Britannia
Two monkeys on a stick
One fell do-o-o-o-own and broke his

Rule Britannia
One monkey on a stick
He fell do-o-o-o-own and broke his head.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Johnny Horton, "Battle of New Orleans"

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets 'til we looked 'em in the eye
We held our fire 'til we see'd their faces well.
Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em

Well we fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

[wolfman]

"She's Got Freckles On Her Butt: She's Pretty"



The reminds me, there is a song I used to hear on a classic rock station, but I can't remember much of the lyrics, or singer, in the vein.

All I can remember is "I appreciate her but,...."

Familiar to anyone

[Thudlow Boink]

All I can remember is "I appreciate her but,...."

Familiar to anyoneNo, but it reminds me of "Big Bottom":
[Spinal Tap]How can I leave this behind?[/Spinal Tap]

[Ludovic]

Strut, Bob Seger.

[wolfman]

Strut, Bob Seger.


AHh thank you sir, I have been wondering for a while.

[panache45]

From my far-distant elementary school daze in the '50s (and how in hell has this stayed in my brain after more than 50 years?):

Frankie and Johnny were digging in a ditch,
Frankie called Johhny a dirty son-of-a-

Beaver, beaver, sitting on a rock,
Along came a bumble bee and stung him on his

Cocktail, ginger ale, five cents a glass,
If you don't like it shove it up your

Ask my no questions and I will tell no lies,
Frankie hit Johnny and now he's paralyzed.

[Otto]

Twenty-four posts and no mention of Miss Lucy?
mentioned "Miss Susie" in the OP, which is the same song.

[BrainGlutton]

Oedipus and Jocasta would pucker
And out of her clothes he would shuck 'er
'Till he got a surprise
And he gouged out his eyes
The pitiful, sad, Freudian archetype!

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Oedipus and Jocasta would pucker
And out of her clothes he would shuck 'er
'Till he got a surprise
And he gouged out his eyes
The pitiful, sad, Freudian archetype!
f'ing brilliant. Where did this come from?

[Dr. Rieux]

"The Freckle Song" by Larry Vincent (from a Dr. Demento collection of '40s novelty songs):

She's got freckles on her, but she is nice
And when she's in my arms it's Paradise
When she gets drunk she gets plastered
She gets drunker than my brother
She's got freckles on her, but she is nice

[matt_mcl]

Asshole, asshole,
A soldier went to war.


Similarly, there's a protest chant here in Quebec (actually, a line that can be appended to most any protest chant) that goes Aucu-, aucu-, aucu-ne hésitation (no hesitation, where aucu- sounds like au cul, 'in the ass')

[mbh]

Not long ago, there was a song on the country-western charts called "Hillbillies". I don't remember the name of the group that sang it.

One verse ended with the line, "Hillbillies like to do it in the hay." Slightly risque, but nothing the censors could cut.

Although, given the song's rhyme scheme, you were expecting to hear something that would rhyme with "grass".

[BurnMeUp]

There's also a Dead Milkmen song called Serrated Edge that goes

"My baby sure drives a truck
My baby has a pet duck
My baby sure is good luck
And My baby is one heck of a fffffriend"

[rayh]

Lest we forget - My Ding a Ling (http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/dingaling.htm).



Once I was swimming cross Turtle creek
many snappers all around my feet
Shure was hard swimming cross that thing
with both hands holdin' my ding a ling

[Otto]

Not seeing the bait and switch in that one. What's the obvious other rhyme that's set up in the lyrics?

And come on people, there's gotta be a name for this genre!

[Lisa-go-Blind]

Have you heard that Mimsie Starr
Just got pinched in the Astor Bar?
Well, did you evah? (http://www.jumbojimbo.com/lyrics.php?songid=4262) What a swell party this is.

[RealityChuck]

And come on people, there's gotta be a name for this genre!Why?

Things like this aren't given a name until someone notes and categorizes them.

On the bright side, nothing's stopping you from coining a term for it.