Single word earworm larvae

Whippet.

Yes, it was a Blurred Lines reference in the OP.

Huh. Never noticed that in the lyrics to Blurred Lines, but I try not to pay attention to the lyrics. I dig the tune and the groove, but it’s best if I tune out the words as much as possible. Not just the whole rapiness of the song, but just the cringeworthy inaneness of lines like “you wanna hug me/what rhymes with hug me.”

But, yeah, I see that Decatur is in fact, in there.

Every so often I’ll run across a word in something I’m reading that actually does trigger an earworm for me. The only example I can remember is the most recent: there’s currently in IMHO (here on the SDMB) a thread/poll titled “What is your favorite season of the year?” the word season made me start hearing “Time of the Season” (the old Zombies song, though I’m more familiar with the Trip Shakespeare cover)

The first few times I heard that song, I was so into the tune and the groove that I didn’t catch any words at all, except Dakota and Dacatur that is. I find the lyrics to be incredibly idiotic, not even going into the potential rapiness of them. But like you said, I love the tune and the groove.

Does a hyphenated or compound word count?* Because a recent Straight Dope thread on the name of the she-wolf that legendarily raised Romulus and Remus prompted me to seek out Shakira’s She-Wolf on YouTube. :slight_smile:

*Compound in English anyway. The Spanish word, and the title to Shakira’s Spanish version of the song, is loba.

Assuming I have not been wooshed, it’s from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The half-word is antici-------pation.

My one-word earworm is Hula-Hoop.

You weren’t whooshed. The earworm that “Antici—” triggered for me was “Anticipation,” which was a fairly popular song. I’d say either response is valid. People who aren’t that familiar with the Rocky Horror Picture Show are probably more likely to hear the Carly Simon tune.

Got it in 1

One thing that invariably triggers an earworm for me isn’t a single word, but a single tone: the shutdown tone/chord for Windows 7 is the opening chord in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” which I then proceed to have stuck in my head about an hour after I shut down the computer.