I’m in the midst of typing my supervisor an email and decided to go with the phrase, “not to point too fine a point on it…”
This served to activate the uncontrollable urge to sing this identical line from Birdhouse in Your Soul from They Might Be Giants. In fact, if any poster is familiar with that song I would assume that this would bring about an identical reaction.
What words or phrases do you come across that force you to think of the lyrical interpretation of that phrasing? And then what do you do about it?
Do you immediately break out into song or simply allow it to rattle about mentally before it quietly dissolves until the next one arises?
I do it so often I think people are starting to wonder about me. I’ve gotten better at internalizing the urge to blurt out a song, but then it plays in my head anyway and often makes me giggle.
When anyone makes mention of a whole lot of something: Whole lotta love. Every. Freaking. Time.
Talk of surrender often brings on Never Surrender, complete with the Corey Hart “never surrender” fist of defiance.
I usually think of the word “lemon” as being sung by Bono in U2’s Lemon.
There are more, oh so many more, but I can’t think of them just now. They just sort of happen.
This is gonna really sound weird, but “Salmonella”. And I start hearing the Hallelujah Chorus, but with “SAAAALmonella! SAAAALmonella! Salmonella! Salmonella! Sal-mo-nel-la!”
Don’t know it if counts, but I spent countless hours internally singing Eric Clapton’s “Layla” because some chic in the football (soccer) team was named that and I could hear the couch. I only discovered the cause after a few days, though, it was pretty subliminal.
Whenever somebody says that somebody else is funny, I can’t help but say, “Everybody funny. Now you funny, too.”
(From George Thorogood’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer.”)
If I ask what time it is, my husband shouts “Four-thirty! It’s not late, it’s early!” I have no idea where that comes from, but he sure does like to say it.
Of course, if he asks me what time it is, I’m all too likely to announce, “The clock on the wall says three o’clock. Last call for alcohol.”
That’s from the Spin Doctors (of “Two Princes” fame).
What time is it?
4:30!!
It’s not late!
No, no, it’s early!
Anyway, my whole life is a sound track. I couldn’t begin to list every time I must break into song. Names, words, even rhythms that match up with songs in my head all tend to get vocalized. I’m weird that way.
And, for me, I think of “Vindaloooooo! Vindalooooooo! And we all like vindaloooooo! We’re - gonna score - one - more - than - you – ENGLAND!” from the unofficial World Cup song “Vindaloo” by Fat Les.
FTR I hate country, but whenever I hear someone mentioning “little” in a derogatory fashion I always think “Little and evil, just like a boll weevil” from some Dwight Yokum song.
“You have good reflexes” fle-fle-fle-fle-flex. Courtesey of Duran Duran.
I almost cannot hear a song parodied by Weird Al Yankovic without singing his version. Many of the songs I don’t know the original versions.
My friend Linda has a ringtone that sounds like an old fashioned dial phone and every time it goes off, I go into “Telephone is ringing, you got me on the run…”. It’s from Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels”, of course.
Whenever someone says “doobie” or mentions penguins, I immediately sing, “Doobie, doobiedoo . . . They were strangers in the night. . . .” The cause is of course the old Bud Lite commercials with the sinister beer-napping penguins.
Good thing I don’t hang out with stoner ornithologists, huh?
Reminds me of my first few days on World of Warcraft. I had made a tailor, and learned (at some expense) my first non-trainer pattern- the red linnen bag. I told my guild, “Now I can sing the red linnen bag song!”
“The what?”
“The red linnen bag song! It’s to the tune of Bethoven’s Fifth! Redlinnenbaaaaag… Redlinnenbaaaag…”
There was a long pause…
“Damn you! I can’t stop singing that now!”
But as for an answer to the OP… Happens to me all the freakin’ time. Normally I just sing it under my breath. Cos I don’t want to seem like a weirdo…
Although I’m not sure whom I’m fooling at this point!
