I will be attending WorldCon in Spokane this August. I loves to do me a filk every once in a while, but inspiration has not struck. I’ve never been to a WorldCon, so I haven’t a clue what the general makeup of the folk there might be, and what subjects they might find amusing.
If you wonderful Dopers would be so kind as to suggest a theme or subject for a bit of filk singing, I would be appreciative.
C’mon…just one?
Write a filk based on the movie Edge of Tomorrow. You sing one verse, then have a chorus about going back in time by a day. You sing the same verse, then have a chorus about going back in time again. You sing the same verse, etc.
Something loud and slow. The audience is getting pretty old.
Hmm… August.
The thing is, if you pick something that’s timely now, between Marvel and Disney and Del Toro and all the other crazy fun fen stuff out there, it won’t be timely THEN.
Worldcon is also weird in that they’re such a split group - you’ve got all the older sf/fantasy fans who are there for the Hugo, and you’ve got all the newer fans and authors… who are there for the Hugo. Despite that, there’s a huge difference of opinion and politics (internal and external) and viewpoints on what’s important to the genre and whether the whole fandom is going to hell in a handbasket or is being hobbled by history.
I’d stay far the hell away from any of the authors, nominees, or hot-button controversial issues if you don’t want to get shunned or stoned.
That pretty much leaves pop culture, and with a group split like that, you can’t really count on any non-fen pop culture being widely-enough known to get an audience interested. Your best bet is to stick with the tentpoles - huge movies, major comic characters, massive flops.
If it were me, I’d wait until like July, until after Ultron hits, and see if anything in that movie is just screaming for a song. Otherwise, then you can see what gets the most mockery through the season and jump in on that, or see what the biggest fen news items are between now and then and jump on that.
If you want to go for something NOW, just so you have it done and ready, then I’d say that Spidey coming back to the MCU is pretty fricking huge. Surely there’s some irish ballad or old classic rock acoustic that could be retrofitted to cover that.
Worldcons have never been very comfortable with pop culture, but it has been intruding further and further into the mix for obvious reasons.
Frankly, I’d rather see Worldcon either fold up its tent as the last of the elder greats die off, or consciously remold itself as the permanent last great litcon (and accept attendance of 1,000 or so as a result) than try to be everything to all fen, from those there to get one last shaky autograph from… who’s left?.. to teeners in Spidey costumes.
Besides, Hugos. Who needs 'em. Useless dust collectors.* Hrumph.*
Do a parody of the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” ad from 1971:
[spoiler] Only it would be “I’d Like to Buy the Kochs a World”.
On Googling, I see someone’s thought of something very similr. Still worth doing.
[/spoiler]
Amateur Barbarian, I was at the 2014 Worldcon (either the largest or the second largest Worldcon, depending how you count attendees), and it didn’t fit your description at all.
I haven’t attended one in a while, which is an increasing case among the middling old timers of my acquaintance. None of us much cares for either a mix of lit and media sf, or for the endless faction feuds.
I also haven’t been up for a Hugo for a while. 
I know nothing of WorldCon, so take this with a pile of salt. I think you should do a slasher-ballad describing the fan mob pursuit and eventual dismembering of the @$$holes who keep yammering on about GRR Martin’s health and whether he will live to finish ASoIaF.
A sea-shanty type song with a chorus beginning with a description of how hale and hearty he is, and the stamina he showed as he ground up their bones.
Or something . . .
And now this is going to keep me up tonight. What the frack was the name of that group?!? In the late 70’s/early 80’s there was a group of guys who sang great sea songs. Sort of half folk half pop and they were huge as folk groups go (like Celtic Woman for boys.). They used to play at Wolf Trap every Summer, and were on PBS a couple of times.
Argh! I can’t think of it. But one like they used to do. Yeah, that’s it! LoL!
Great Big Sea? (They started in the 90s though.)
Filkers are the same everywhere. Do whatever you would do for your local group. Seriously. As long as it would get the scorn and derision of all normal people, you’ll do fine. 
Found 'em. Schooner Fare, the Ballad of Mad Jack.
Thank goodness. Maybe now I can get some sleep!
Worldcon first went over one thousand attendees in 1967, so if you’re saying you want it to go back to the days that it had less than a thousand people there, you’re saying that it should go back to the way it was in the mid-1960’s. Worldcon now has a nice mix of older and younger fans. It generally averages 4,000 to 7,000 attendees. It has a mix of programming to appeal to both print and media fans. If it was to go back to the way it was in the mid-1960’s, it would only get older fans interested in nothing but print. It would eventually fold as the attendees died off:
I say go old school. Don’t try to reference current pop culture. Do something optimistic about space travel, rockets, alien women, all that stuff that only shows up ironically these days. Legion of Space, Children of the Lens, Foundation, stuff like that. Maybe something like *Rocket Ride *by Tom Smith.
I was at the recent World Cons in San Antonio and Chicago, and had a blast. I am going to try to get to Spokane for this one.
Reference the old and the new-trolls. Tying the fantasy type to the internet type could be a fun romp.
I think you’re completely missing my point. It has nothing to do with the number of attendees; it has everything to do with not trying to compete with DragonCon and all the ComiCons. Which would drive attendance back below the K mark, in all likelihood.
I didn’t attend one until the late '90s. Some in my circle attended (and ran) them as early as the late 1970s. I’m only interested in the earlier ones in that they were focused on literary sf - if not wholly, then to the great exclusion of media sf. There is a plenitude of media-sf fandom and cons. Returning the original to its roots would be, IMVHO, a good and useful thing.
BTW, anyone else hitting RadCon in Pasco this weekend?
I always get applause when I sing “The Ballad of Mary Reade,” by Peter S. Beagle. I know the lyrics by heart, but board rules will not allow me to post them here and I cannot find them online. I learned it from one of his filk albums; you’ll have to hunt for it.
He is the nicest con-guest I’ve ever seen. I’ve “met” him at several cons, small to large, and he is unfailingly gracious, interested, and happy to be there. And if he isn’t, he fakes it damn well.
Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!
I have an idea that I have always felt should be done at a con but I have no musical talent nor do I go to cons very much. But I had a desparate need to share it with someone and now here’s my chance.
My Idea:
The Vulcan and the Wookie should be friends. (or title along similar lines)
Sung to the tune of theFarmer and the Cowman should be friends, with lyrics suggesting that Star wars fans and Trek fans should put aside their differences to and learn to get along (or not). Lots of opportunity for inside jokes and stage theatrics if you can get some cos-players to help out.