# Ohruwurms
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [October 15, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913 "2009-10-15T16:21:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@NewsworthyGAB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NewsworthyGAB)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/1 "2009-10-15T16:21:27Z")
In the _Chicago Reader_’s October 15 The Straight Dope, a woman named Meg complains about songs being stuck in one’s head. Her personal “stupid tune” that she reports she’s “getting really sick of” is Soft Cell’s wonderful yet bitter “Tainted Love,” which happens to be one of my favorite songs because, sorrowfully, I can so readily identify with its lyrics. (I even once attempted to “sing” it at a karaoke club, but horrifically butchered the ditty.)
But if one is going to be plagued by an _Ohruwurm_, I can’t think of a better one than “Tainted Love.” :rolleyes:
* * *
Link: [Why do songs get stuck in your head? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2901/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-your-head)
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/2 "2009-10-15T16:37:06Z")
This is the upcoming column – it’s already out in print – online very soon. 🙂
Moving to CCC.
(I’ve been plagued with several of these over the years, including “Brandy, you’re a fine girl.” Guess there’s something about bubblegum pop songs that make them particularly sticky. ☹ )
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/3 "2009-10-15T18:16:00Z")
I won’t torture you by mentioning “Tie a Yellow Ribbon”.
Oh damn. My bad.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/4 "2009-10-15T18:16:55Z")
Just want to point out the correct spelling is “Ohrwurm” - no extra U in the middle.
Now I’ve got Soft Cell’s _Tainted Love_ stuck in my head. Think the Marilyn Manson version might chase it out…?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/5 "2009-10-15T18:22:32Z")
[Here’s an Ohrwurm about an Ohrwurm](http://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/servlet/content/2794320). Cute.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/6 "2009-10-15T23:46:25Z")
\*Elephants
I like elephants
I like how they swing through trees
\*
I’m so glad my daughter discovered [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihq8BIhL9c). It’s been stuck in my head for a fricking month now.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/7 "2009-10-16T02:18:41Z")
The worst I ever had was from a kiddie record (non-Disney) of “Pinocchio”.
Pinocch-, Pinocch-, Pinocchio,
We’ll find you if we have to go to Tokyo…
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/8 "2009-10-16T03:30:15Z")
Don’t you just hate the ones that stay in your head [BECAUSE THEY NEVER END!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0)
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### Author:  [@James\_Polichak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Polichak)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/9 "2009-10-16T05:41:16Z")
I have found that the best way to combat the earworm is to start rehearsing a preferable earworm song. I use Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me.
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### Author:  [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/10 "2009-10-16T09:28:35Z")
> [@James\_Polichak](#):
>
> I have found that the best way to combat the earworm is to start rehearsing a preferable earworm song.
I’m not sure it’s preferable, but I use Oops I did it again. Works every time. Plus I get to imagine Britney in a tight red space outfit.
Of course, then I end up with a troubling image of Bald Britney in a tight red space outfit…
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### Author:  [@stevekelner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stevekelner)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/11 "2009-10-16T12:45:02Z")
I have found that when I shut off my car in the middle of a song I know well (e.g., on a mix-disc I’ve created), the song tends to stay in my head all day at work, as if it needed to finish and reach resolution, but can’t until I hear it _outside_ my head.
This can be kind of embarrassing when I realize I am absentmindedly humming (or worse, singing) a punk song at the office…
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### Author:  [@enmity01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enmity01)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/12 "2009-10-16T15:11:10Z")
Wow. Admin quickly deleted a threadjack. Was curious as to what melody by Bach (J.S. or J.C.?) was written specifically to squelch Ohrwurms! Turned out to be promoting some homeopathy or similar nonsense. But was a hopeful if temporary diversion.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/13 "2009-10-16T15:26:27Z")
The column wasn’t clear… Is a Ohrwurm always a bad thing? Earworm sounds so negative.
I enjoy playing songs in my head. Especially when I’m trying to relax. It’s like having a jukebox in your head. Sometimes, I can’t get a specific song started and that bugs me…
I rarely get one stuck. Free Credit [Report.com](http://Report.com)’s song pops into my head occasionally. I have to think of something else to make it go away.
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### Author:  [@ifor1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ifor1)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/14 "2009-10-16T15:35:25Z")
A friend turned me on to this. Imagine the song being sung by Bob Dylan. It’s worked every time for me, unless of course the earworm is a Dylan song. But then it’s not so bad.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/15 "2009-10-16T16:37:27Z")
I’d just like to say: **"The Ballad of Jed Clampett."**
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### Author:  [@El\_Musico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Musico)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/16 "2009-10-16T17:29:03Z")
I’m a musician, and I always have a tune going through my head. I don’t see it as an affliction at all. If a tune gets stuck, repeating endlessly, I can get rid of it by imagining another one. When it’s just me, at home alone, or driving in the car, I rarely turn on the radio or play music on the stereo; I already have some good stuff patched straight into my brain. Just thinking of the title or seeing a lyric exceprt is enough to get me going. If a particularly annoying one (Disney’s “It’s A Small World”) won’t leave, then often listening to something else helps. Also, listening to the actual tune, followed by another works. But I’ve learned to change ‘channels’ just by imagining another tune.
A couple of times in my life, through lack of sleep and too much drinking, I had actual auditory hallucinations of bizarre ethereal music (don’t ask, they were crazy times). I heard an entire choir in the bathroom, and it scared the bejesus out of me. I dragged my wife in there to listen, and it was the plumbing in the toilet; the water was running.
Now playing (in my head): Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing, “Sent For You Yesterday.”
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### Author:  [@Kenyth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenyth)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/17 "2009-10-16T17:31:46Z")
Music runs through my head all the time. Usually something I heard recently with a catchy beat. Sometimes, it’s distracting. Sometimes I don’t like it. Kids songs and jingles can be the worst. The “hamster song” is a particularly bad one for this. Check Youtube if you’re brave enough.
Usually sitting quietly and still for a moment concentrating on the void clears my head. Usually I have to do it a couple of times to get rid of a particularly annoying song.
I’ve found stimulants such as caffeine can make it worse.
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### Author:  [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/18 "2009-10-16T17:33:52Z")
> [@ifor1](#):
>
> A friend turned me on to this. Imagine the song being sung by Bob Dylan. It’s worked every time for me, unless of course the earworm is a Dylan song. But then it’s not so bad.
I once had a physics teacher recommend this, except he suggeseted Metallica instead of Dylan.
However, I originally came into this thread to say I prefer Howard Tayler’s [pseudo-scientific term](http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20091014.html)than _ohrwurm._
And that such _memetic infectors_ really should be banned.
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### Author:  [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/19 "2009-10-16T18:57:55Z")
Thank goodness for Weird Al.
He has parodied almost all of my earworms, so now when one “those tunes” get stuck in my head I have the far more pleasing Weird Al lyrics (“Don’t play that song/That achy breaky song/The most annoying song I know”) accompanying them than the _shudder_ original.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohruwurms/513913/20 "2009-10-16T19:22:28Z")
I wonder how it might be related to the phenomenon I’ve just named of “song burnout”…When you absolutely adore a new song and just have to listen to it over and over and over…but in a very short time, you’re bored with it.
It’s this phenomenon that makes it hard for me to name my favourite songs; because the songs that really hook me are the ones I can’t listen to now…
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Don’t you just hate the ones that stay in your head [BECAUSE THEY NEVER END!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0)
Made me genuinely lol.
That’s the background music for hell sorted out, now we just need to work out the decor…
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