Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 24, 2011

What song?

Ear worms…You deserve a break today.

Catchy little tunes are computer viruses for your mind.

Put your left foot in.

Pickles are green, meat is brown, lunch is fun with Slushy the Clown.

About the only funny “Family Circus” I ever saw had Daddy on the phone complaining about an earworm and being told you can make them stop by singing them out loud. Then we see his co-workers staring at him as he sings “Itsy-bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout”.

My solution is to listen to music until you find something you like better to replace it. Right now I’m “listening” to Schubert’s “Introduction, Scherzo, and Finale” in place of something by Loretta Lynn.

I find the “Kit Kat” jingle works to get rid of most ear worms, and no, it does not end up sticking in my head afterwards.

That episode of “The Simpsons” where Burns hired pro ringers for his softball team, featured a rewrite of the lyrics to that “Talkin’ Baseball” song. Now whenever my wife complains about an earworm I sing the words from the Simpsons softball song and give her a worse one to replace it.

Not being a native English speaker I thought for a moment that you guys were talking about parasites that lodged in a person’s head, in the auditory canal. And I found it intriguing that these parasites could be coaxed out of their nest by some (presumably loud) sounds, such as certain kinds of music..Thank you, Wikipedia!

I am a native speaker and I never heard them called earworms. But the one in my head right now is O Fortuna from Carmina Burana. Help.

Moves like Jagger?!

Here’s a bad song, Village People singing YMCA

I so love Caulfield. He is so clever and DIABOLICAL!

As far as getting rid of “earworms” the best technique that I know of (and it always works), is to consciously and intentionally sing/repeat the song/phrase to yourself (mentally). The mind very quickly gets tired of the effort.

Now you brought up the one I get stuck, the approaching war theme from Schostokovich’s Leningrad Symphony.

a-one for the munkey, two for the show…three to get ready now go cat go….!

aaa…. thank yew… thank yew vary mush

(good luck with that one)

I find that carefully remembering 2 verses of a song I like in 6 part harmony will nearly always clear the earworm. It’s too complex to remain stuck in my head afterwards.

Caulfield has it right – my earworms are totally different from other folks’ earworms. Hey, Carmina Burana is way above MY level.Therefore, the best way to do it? Rely on your victim’s imagination to torture themselves! Pure genius.

Caulfield is evil. I was doin’ OK until I got to monkeyblues

This one is good, it works, and is funny, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63jKihoYRg&NR=1

1-8-77-KARS for Kids….K-A-R-S, Kars for Kids…

Why is it only the bad songs get stuck in your head?

My earworms tend to be things I never liked in the first place.

"Let me be there in your morning, ♪ let me be there in your night…..

“Let me take whatever’s ♪♪ wro-oong and make it riiiight…..”

Aaaaaghhhhhh….

My earworms tend to be things I can’t remember all of, so they go round and round in my head. Or they are Christmas carols. I got What Child is This aka Greensleeves stuck in my head a while back. I got it out by dah dah dahing Stars and Stripes Forever out loud. For some reason that one never gets stuck.

Elvis Costello’s “Veronica” usually gets rid of them for me.