Thursday 23 June 2022

Some favourite Mondegreens.

 

Perhaps I should explain the origin of the 'Mondegreen' for those who may not know. In the Scottish ballad 'The Bonny Earl of Murray' there's a line which states 'They lay'd him on the green' which was misheard as 'Lady Mondegreen'. The Mondegreen was born.

I've always liked Jane Asher's personal example. She received a letter addressed to Mr J Nasher, which opened Dear Mr Nasher. She rather liked it, so never told the Company of their mistake.

There is the popular school hymn which most children sing as 'Gladly my cross-eyed Bear'.

The tune 'A Merry Conceit' was often referred to as 'American Seat'.

A Scottish 'County surveyor' was once referred to as The Countess of Ayr'.

There is a story of a typist's copy being checked only to find that instead of 'juxtaposition' she had typed 'Jockstrap position'.

Imagine receiving an invitation to a 'Haddock-Stirring Committee' when you expected to have been invited to an 'ad-hoc steering committee'.

And finally I did hear that someone once called Directory Enquiries to find the phone number of London's famous 'Wig and Pen Club', only to be told that there was no Pen Club in Wigan.

I'm sure you have your favourites, so let's hear a few more (not from songs please)!    

23 comments:

  1. I love mondegreens, but can't think of any just now.

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  2. You may enjoy this.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7my5baoCVv8&ab_channel=PeterKay

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    1. Actually, I find pop song Mondegreens far less interesting. They seem a tad contrived.

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  3. I remember a rather rude one . Working for a financial institution I fortunately intercepted a client letter about to go into the mail. The clerk, who was not English, had typed the address Norfolk phonetically just as she had heard it given over the 'phone.

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    1. I shall now spend the rest of the day trying to locate this Norfolk location.

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    2. I think whoever gave the poor girl instructions must have been extremely badly spoken. I have never heard this said of Norfolk before if I understand Jaycee correctly. If the girl could type this incorrectly then I am sure she was making errors all day long with every other word.

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    3. People do make simple mistakes. I remember Lady M asking me for smoke, which turned out to be some oak.

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  4. Something I do often, especially here where everyone insists on speaking greek.

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    1. I dread to think what mistakes I make in French; but no-one complains.

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  5. This is the second time in half an hour I have laughed while reading a blog post. I don't have any mondegreens that aren't songs but I have plenty that are lines in songs.

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  6. Small children are good at mishearing words or phrases. For example - a knife and f***. Sorry I cannot remember any mondegreens.

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  7. From the Lord's Prayer. Harold be thy name.

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  8. Here in the US we say a pledge to our flag. "for Richard Stands" should be "for which it stands."

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    1. When my wife was at school in Washington DC, she probably said that too!

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  9. I was once given a lift home from a social event by a fellow teacher. He was from a neighboring school and I didn't know him very well, (I just needed a ride.). As I was about to exit the car he said, "Would you mind giving the lock a little push?" What I heard was, "Would you mind giving me a little kiss?" Thank God he repeated himself before I said anything foolish.

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    1. You should have thrown yourself at him, it would have made an interesting end to the evening.

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  10. Bachman Turner Overdrive, a Canadian rock group from the 70's had a hit titled, "takin' Care of Business," my friend sang baking carrot biscuits...

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  11. There is the Credence Clearwater Revival song Bad Moon on the Rise - we all sang it as bathroom on the right!

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