# Lyrics that give you pause... In a bad way. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514 "2010-06-01T16:33:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/101 "2010-06-04T11:00:15Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Nametag: > > > [@Nametag](#): > > > > It was a common myth that if the woman was pregnant, the rabbit would die. > > It was the common idiom, but I don’t think anyone (other than Radar in that one episode of M_A_S\*H) was fooled into thinking that the rabbit would be kept alive regardless of the outcome of the pregnancy test. I think you misunderstand me. I don’t think most people knew how the test worked, only that there was a rabbit involved. They figured that if it died, the test was positive. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de0a6/32.png) [@Electric\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/102 "2010-06-04T14:16:25Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > "I would swallow my pride, I would choke on the rinds but the l_ack thereof_ would leave me empty inside. . . " I hadn’t thought of that godawful song in years, and _now_ it’s stuck in my head. Thanks. 😛 “Rendez-vous then I’m throuuuugh with youuuu…” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/103 "2010-06-04T18:56:49Z")
> [@BobArrgh](#): > > \ > > However, the part of that song that makes me go “Whaa?” is: > > We can try to understand > the New York Times’ effect on man. > > ===== > > Really? What does the New York Times have to do with anything related to the song? If I recall correctly (and there’s any truth to it), they were referencing a New York Times article. I ran into some lyrics that always give me pause yesterday - Neil Diamond from"I Am, I Said" - “I am, I said to no one there and no one heard, not even the chair.” That’s just really, really lame. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/104 "2010-06-04T22:50:27Z")
Joe Jones’s “You Talk Too Much.” Great song, but those opening lines! You talk too much. You worry me to death. You talk too much, You even worry my pet . . . Admitted, “What–are you strung out on meth?” would have been too controversial, but “You never run out of breath” makes _tons_ more sense–_and_ it actually _rhymes_! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/105 "2010-06-05T02:26:43Z")
As far as lame rhymes go, my teeth-grinder has always been dance/romance/take a chance. mmm ETA: Just once, I’d like to hear an ‘askance’ thrown in the mix. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/106 "2010-06-05T03:00:08Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > As far as lame rhymes go, my teeth-grinder has always been dance/romance/take a chance. > > mmm > > ETA: Just once, I’d like to hear an ‘askance’ thrown in the mix. Back when I was attending science-fiction conventions (or “cons”) a lot, I wrote: Just another con romance: Happened quite by circumstance. Discussed LeGuin and Clarke and Vance, She stuck her hand into my pants. Just another con romance . . . Maybe I’ll work on another verse, just so I can include Guildenstern and Rosencrantz . . . ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/107 "2010-06-05T03:27:59Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > I disagree. Any song referring to both the way someone ‘walks’, and then rhyming it with the way that person ‘talks’, is exhibiting a horrific level of lazy rhyming. I think that rhyming anything with “alibi” takes the cake, as in “Big Girls Don’t Cry” or “Hotel California.” It’s such an uncommon word, and is used in songs only because it’s a convenient rhyme for other much more common words (like “cry,” “lie,” or, in the plural, “surprise,”) making it sound forced every time. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/108 "2010-06-05T12:07:51Z")
I found the lyrics for Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5, and it’s confusing as hell. One, two, three, four, five Everybody in the car, so come on Let’s ride to the liquor-store around the corner The boys say they want some gin and juice But I really don’t wanna Beerbust like I had last week I must stay deep because talk is cheap I like Angela, Pamela, Sandra and Rita Ans as I continue you know They are getting sweeter So what can I do I really beg you my Lord To me is flirting it’s just like sport, anything fly It’s all good let me dump it Please set in the trumpet I’m not entirely certain it’s in English. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/109 "2010-06-05T12:54:35Z")
Ball of Confusion by The Temptations _Great googlymoogly Cantcha hear me talkin to ya?_ I always wondered if that was improvised or did someone actually write “Great Googly Moogly!” ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/110 "2010-06-05T13:42:16Z")
From “Nothing but a G Thing” > [@](#): > > Never let me slip, cause if I slip then I’m slippin’ You don’t say? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/111 "2010-06-05T14:24:49Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I always wondered if that was improvised or did someone actually write “Great Googly Moogly!” “Great Googly Moogly” is an old exclamation that has appeared in numerous songs (Howlin’ Wolf’s “Goin’ Down Slow,” the Cadets’ “Stranded in the Jungle,” Frank Zappa’s “Nanook Rubs It”). ---
**Author:** ![Homo\_litoralis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homo\_litoralis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homo_litoralis)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/112 "2010-06-05T16:08:40Z")
What’s this? No mention yet of the great Elvis Presley singing about that infamous co-ed prison? _Number forty-seven said to number three, “You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see!”_ I mean, that was indeed a co-ed prison, right? Right? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514/113 "2010-06-05T16:44:17Z")
> [@Homo\_litoralis](#): > > What’s this? No mention yet of the great Elvis Presley singing about that infamous co-ed prison? > > _Number forty-seven said to number three, “You’re the cutest jailbird I ever did see!”_ > > I mean, that was indeed a co-ed prison, right? > > Right? When Elvis performed the song on film his fellow inmates were clearly all men: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV\_0l5ILI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpzV_0l5ILI) That said, the song is explicitly about a county jail, and these facilities are normally “co-ed”. Not in terms of the actual cells of course, and probably not the cell block either, but male and female prisoners would typically be in the same building. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lyrics-that-give-you-pause-in-a-bad-way/541514.md?page=5)