Warning: if you dislike earworms (catchy music that gets stuck in your head), leave now while you are still safe.
I was wondering about what it takes to trigger an earworm (aka “larvae”, if you will). Can it be done with a single word?
Here’s an example:
DecaturDid that work? What other single-word examples are there?
badger
I have no idea, what was it?
Here’s a new one: “Karma”
Tequila!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Rooooxanne
Truckin’
Not a single word, but a name. When I came to choosing a screen name, Jimmy Stewart’s voice got stuck in my head, calling, “C K Dexter Haaaaaven, Oh, C K Dexter Haaaaven.” Wouldn’t get out. So I thought it was a sign from on high.
Is that supposed to be “Instant Karma,” or “Karma Chameleon,” or maybe “Karma Police”? So many possibilities, except that I only know the first two.
How yar.
Jane.
Karma Chameleon. Didn’t know the first one.
Uno !!
I used to sneak up behind my mother and say “Bolero” and she’d have Ravel in her head the whole rest of the day. Dirty trick. (And usually had a bounceback effect on me…like it’s having right now! Damn!)
Eightsixsevenfivethree-O-ni-eye-ine
Sharona.
Didn’t work for me.
The only two that kinda worked are Roxanne and Badger, and only the latter is really anything like an earworm.
Another example - Manah-manah!
Funnily enough, my current earworm is introduced without words - just by high-pitched screaming…Aaaahhaaah-hhhaaaaa!(any guesses?)
Yesterday
That’s “Mahna-Mahna”