But Chicago didn't get the Olympics...sob! ;D

OMR - There, there old man. Half of Chicago didn't want the Olympics anyway.

Obama's speech used the word "I" twenty times. The IOC voted "111" on Obama's presentation. And some amiright anon here, like Obama, has such a thin skin and lack of a sense of humor, has dropped "111" bombs on my sweet and gentle little parody. It's irony must haunt him and her, no? Another badge of honor I'll wear knowing the truth slides easily under such thin skin and settles there like a perpetual irritant. :-D

Wonderfully grim and prophetic.

Don't sweat the 111, the rest of us can vote twice just like the Dems for ACORN. I liked your compound of "predecessor presidents" in the footnote -- was that your intent? double 555s4u!

555 from me. I think SNL got it right last Saturday when they the Obama character basically said "Don't blame me because I haven't done anything in the first year yet". All the spending and bailout would have happened anyway, with or without him.

Patrick - I love your wonderfully concise and subtle commentary. :-D

Barry - Thanks for the v/c. Right, that's why I expressed relish over that "111!" My job as a parodist was confirmed. Oh, and thatnks for noticing the play on "predessor president"> Every once in a while I slip in some little wordplay. I used to submit words from time to time to the Urban Dictionary. One of my favorites was "flojectile" which I only recently became aware was a "word of the day" about a year after I submitted it. It was voted down as an new entry in the Official Urban Dictionary - although I can't imagine why. I mean, what else can you call them? :-D

Timmy1000 - I wa about to mention the SNL spoof to Barry. Did you see where CNN and WOLF BLITZER did a story and FACT CHECK on the skit? And all the pundits who raked SNL over the coals? Talk about being in the tank! At least SOMEONE is starting to have fun and catching on to the joke that more and more of us have seen for so long. *LOL*

What killed the Olympics was having Oprah in tow--and you have to tow her.

I see *someone* out there is sulking... but it's not likely anyone whose opinion much matters anyway. ;)

Teensy bit off on syllable count in the bridge, IIRC, so 4 for that category... but enthusiastic 5's for the rest, for as long as free speech grants me the right to give them.

John - You may have a point, although Oprah was just one drag piled atop a lot of drag that carried by the U.S. Olympic committee.

Fiddlegirl - yes, there have been a lot of sad faces on the left these days. You're always free to speak your mind in my neck of the woods. It's always a wonderful world when you hear from the fiddlegirl. ;-)

Fiddlegirl: OMG! You've learned! You've learned! ... My work here is done. ...

metaphorsbwithu: Congratulations on achieving the highest possible honor for a political parody -- so skewering the other side and so pushing their buttons that they awarded you the 111 of Truth and Hit Where It Hurts. You can't do better than that.

Incidentally, I know of a certain nameless "writer" (for once, TT uses words loosely) who, in a comment, publicly stated the rule that any parody with which he disagreed would be Unabombed, regardless of technical merit, or even if pacing were nailed. I'm not sayin' that's who did it -- but I'm not sayin' he didn't either, since whatever pusillanimous coward did it didn't have the guts or balls or ovaries to sign his/her name.

Brilliant choice of OS, and great job of turning it to your purpose. Since FG seems to have superseded the Professor in pacing nitpicking, which suits me fine (let *her* take the heat for a while heh heh), I'll let it slide for once and go 555. Great job.

TT - Thanks for the encouragement. As for FG's "nitpicking," no one is a bigger nitpicker than me. I am totally aware of when I am straying a tad for the original meter, number of syllables, accents, etc. As you know, sometimes we can improve on the original. Not often, but sometimes. Sometimes, we have to decide between keeping to the strict meter of the original by using an awkward phrase or adding an extra syllable (easily covered by a performer) which would not be as noticeable as an awkward lyric. I anguished on my previous parody, the Fats Waller song, about his stretching out the word "believe" (I believe it was). I always anguish about the phrasing and rhythm and meter which are entirely separate from the accents or syllables which can be played with but may not be musical. We do the best we can to keep the feel of the original. I actually enjoy the challenge of more concise lyrics which can be more of a challenge to translate into parody while keeping the essence of the original. At least that's why I try to do. :-)

Wonderfully clever POV'in here Forsby!

"using an awkward phrase or adding an extra syllable (***easily covered by a performer***)"...

As a matter of fact, this is a MAJOR point of lively discussion between TT and me. Since I'm a musician, I'm accustomed to automatically tweaking and adjusting to whatever "sounds" right. It's typically been my position that, in trying to sing along with the OS, the written medium becomes a musical one.

In contrast, the opinion of TT (as well as several other senior members of this site whose opinions I respect) is that, in the absence of accompanying notation, it's still a written medium, and one should strive to be exacting in syllable count, pacing, and scansion.

For what it's worth, it seems there are folks in both camps of thought on the site... however, for the sake of harmony in our partnership, I'll admit to yielding to Tommy on this one. On the plus side, it usually means we brainstorm several ideas until we hit on one that both matches the OS *and* flows smoothly. The majority of those are usually much better than first ideas.

A bit of a ramble here, but you've hit on an interesting point of debate in regard to craftsmanship, and, as an extension, aesthetic criteria for scoring. :)

TJC - Thanks T. I guess we all see things in different ways and that makes life interesting.

Exactly, Fiddlegirl. Nothing bothers me more than badly writte lyrics but many many songs have lyrical structures that vary in many ways throughout the song simply because that's how the words flow. Not all music is like a sonnet constructed in iambic pentameter. There's all kind of variety in most lyrics and sometimes it seems silly to add or subtract a syllable because that's how the songwriter happened to do it. Because not adhering to the exact lyrics as written incurs the wrath of purists, I usually try to write the parody to conform, even though the OS wanders here and there. As it is, I have to write these in relatively short periods of time and would probably go back and tweak them over and over to try to get them just right. It's really working kind of backwards because, instead of exploring some theme or story and letting it flow naturally, we're trying to make our thoughts and ideas conform to an already existing pattern, and that's a lot more complicated than using the same number of syllables and making the last word rhyme. It's amazing some do it so well that you could hardly notice that they weren't original lyrics if you didn't know.

"exploring some theme or story and letting it flow naturally" would be writing a new story, essay, or song from scratch. That isn't parody. Parody is taking the OS, using its melody, rhythm, meter, stress, etc., and finding subs that tell your story and are funny.

Agree there are times when OS writers/singers are vague (stretch one syl into two or three, etc.), and also understand time pressure. But let it be a challenge to you. You're obviously very bright. Find something that does *both* -- and as FG pointed out, often that's better/funnier than your first idea.

Don't wanna give anything away, but in doing to-the-DVD proofreads (and "proof-sings", LOL) of a song to be published on Friday (last day), we came across a line whose syllable count matched, but the stresses were awkward to TOS, and a word was broken up awkwardly. Racked our collective quarter-brains (total = 1/2 brain), and ended up with something that not only nails OS and rolled off the tongue smoothly while sung to OS., but was much funner.

Where there's a will and a brain, there's a way. 'Tis moi's philosophy, and FG graciously supported it for all the right reasons: You end up with something even better. Cheers.

I agree with metaphorsbwithu, Fiddlegirl, and the others of the "interpretationist" school. Any song can be fitted to any other if you're a little adaptable. For example, here is my parody of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star":

If ever two were one, than surely we
If ever man were lov'd by wife, than thee
If ever wife were happy in a man
Compare to me, ye women, if you can

I prize thy love more than whole Mines of Gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench
Nor aught but love from thee, give recompense

Thy love is such I can no way repay
The Heavens reward thee manifold, I pray
Then while we live, in love let's so persever
That when we live no more, we may live ever

Now, here is where someone like Turtle is going to whine that "Twinkle" is written in trochaic tetrameter, whereas my parody is in classic iambic pentameter. What a constrained, linear, left-brain way of thinking! By cue-noting the first syllable of each line, the trochees become iambs, and the liambs become LAMBs, and lie down with them. (cf. recent works of Lion lying with LAMB.) And a little interpretation squishes those five feet into four:

...TWIN kle ...........TWIN-.kle ...LIT-.....tle .STAR
if EVER two were ONE . than SURE-ly ..WE

....HOW .i.................WON-.der WHAT you ...ARE
if EVER man were.LOV'D by .WIFE, .than THEE

Naaaailed it! ;D

So, you see, the gates are wide open! With a little interpretation, any song can be made to scan to any other. No worries!

Which makes you kind of wonder why there is even a "Pacing" vote button, since it's irrelevant. Hmmm... wonder how much turtle bribed ChuckyG to put that button there?


Exaggerated? Au contraire, one of the most powerful tools in logic, the "reductio ad absurdum": Take your adversary's position and carry it to a *fully logical* extreme, and show what silliness results. Q. E. D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum, which is Latin for, "I told you so.")

p. s. This is what separates the amateurs from the prose.

ROFLMAO!!! You'd never have thought I was a Puritan woman from the 1600s, would you? Dincha' read "The Scarlet Letter? Under that Puritan exterior, we were a barrel of laughs!

Obama World - sounds like a theme park of sorts. =) Pretty solid write here, metaphorsbwithu. I didn't have any problems singing this even though it doesn't scan *perfectly*: the original song allows for a fair amount of flexibility. A cut above the average political parody. 544 PS: imo, the holy grail of political parodies is to get both "sides" to give positive comments.

Anne - Well, that was a most enjoyable read. Thanks for taking the time to share your wit and your linguistic and literary wherewithal. :-)

Red Ant - Thanks! Yes, like I keep saying, good writing, while sometimes flawed, is mostly knowing exactly what the rules are but, on occasion, knowing when it's okay to suspend them when the plusses exceed the minuses.

TT - I agree with everything you said, especially about parody lyrics being a "written" exercise, except that sometimes, in all writing, even a sentence can be a work in progress. Like I said above, from an overall standpoint, it's better to suspend a rule if the net effect is a positive one. Especially since, sometimes, the original lyrics may break its own rules. On the flip-side, nothing is worse than a badly executed broken rule. If I had my druthers, and the time to tweak my submissions more, I would prefer my stuff to be smooth as glass on all levels. :-)

"If I had my druthers, and the time to tweak my submissions more, I would prefer my stuff to be smooth as glass on all levels. :-)"

That's practically begging for it, so here goes: The beauty of TT's much-plugged, little-read Tommy Turtle's Tips For Perfect Parody Pacing (aside from the cleverly alliterative title, of course), is that once the method becomes natural to you, your mind will automatically identify the metrical patterns in verse (OS), and *automatically seek subs that fit that pattern* -- well, with a little practice, anyway.

PLUS: Absolutely guaranteed! If not satisfied, double your money back!
home.earthlink.net/~tommythedancingturtle/id3.html