Like the Razzies and all those “World’s Best Sports Bloopers” tapes floating around, a new contest has emerged to help us pick the cream of the crop of our favorite mistakes and misinterpretations. A wonderful challenge presented to us, musical aficionados, to submit, list, and celebrate all those times when we fans just can’t get past the unique, “one of its kind” warbling of our favorite pop stars. The impetus for this contest is part of the celebration of my favorite time of year: NEW WORDS DAY! A wonderful time when words we already use and understand are officially added to the dictionary.
Merriam-Webster has decided to include the word “mondegreen” to its illustrious “Field Guide to North American Words” as one of its newest nouns. Mondegreen? What is this new word Mr. Midnight? Well, first coined in 1954 by author Sylvia Wright, it is described as “a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung.” For example: Elton John’s hit tune “Tiny Dancer” is often sung and transformed into a mondegreen when the lyrics “Hold me closer tiny dancer” are misheard and misconstrued as “Hold me closer Tony Danza.” Funny right? Of course it is. We all love factoids and sidebars in articles, and pointing out mistakes is something that we all do quite well.
Interested in letting the world know your favorite mondegreen? Head over to Merriam-Webster's contest page and submit one! My favorite mondegreen is a whole song. I saw a lady on an American Idol contest who interpreted the Mariah Carey sung version of “Without You” which includes the line “I can’t live” into “Ken Lee.” She sings the entirety of the song in homophonic gibberish because of her lack of knowledge in the English language. FUNNY!
