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Song Parodies -> "Trivia Skill Won't Take You Too Far"
Original Song Title:
"Video Killed The RadioStar"
(MP3)Original Performer:
Buggles
Parody Song Title:
"Trivia Skill Won't Take You Too Far"
Parody Written by:
Stuart McArthur
The Lyrics
Bill Gates might be a rich and successful genius, but does he know how many members were in the Buggles? No!! (Nelson: har-har)....and yes, Decade Police, you're right, this was actually released in 1979 (and the OS will play if you click here )
I was quite NERVOUS for the Thursday interview
lying awake all night rehearsing what I knew
...like who played Sipovic in NYPD Blue
oh a oh-a
I took my seat and sipped my water nervously
He said
"Why do you want this job at NBC?"
"Because I KNOW each guest-star
on I Love Lucy"
oh a oh-a
He sighed "You'd best go"
oh a oh-a
They hired the next bloke
Trivia skill won't take you too far
Trivia skill won't make you a star
Even though I'm bullcrap-smart
ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
And though I know each member of the Star Trek crew
and know the name behind George Bush's "W"
I never manage...to move past the "far-queue"
oh a oh-a
No dill's impressed with...
oh a oh-a
...these skills I'm blessed with
Trivia skill won't take you too far
(Buffalo Bill could play the guitar)
All my mind's a catalogue
(and Astro is the Jetson's dog)
Ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
Ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
[[[ wistful 80's synthesiser ]]]
Trivia skills won't take you too far
(Beverley Hills has 82 bars)
In my mind I can't locate
a synapse I can deviate
so crap won't perpetuate
(no cells left to educate)
too farrrrr.........
won't take you too
far-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar
a starrrrr......
won't make you a
star-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar
Trivia skill won't take you too far
In "The Big Chill" Meg Tilly co-stars
Cecil deMille had budgerigars
pterotactyls could blah blah blah blah...
too far...
won't take you too far...
(trivia skill won't take you too far)
moolah!...
won't make you moolah...
(trivia skill won't make you moolah)
Renoir...
to buy a Renoir...
(trivia skill won't buy a Renoir)
Degas...
or a painting by the only French Impressionist son of a banker to fight in the Franco-Prussian war
(trivia skill won't buy a......what he said )
oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a
lying awake all night rehearsing what I knew
...like who played Sipovic in NYPD Blue
oh a oh-a
I took my seat and sipped my water nervously
He said
"Why do you want this job at NBC?"
"Because I KNOW each guest-star
on I Love Lucy"
oh a oh-a
He sighed "You'd best go"
oh a oh-a
They hired the next bloke
Trivia skill won't take you too far
Trivia skill won't make you a star
Even though I'm bullcrap-smart
ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
And though I know each member of the Star Trek crew
and know the name behind George Bush's "W"
I never manage...to move past the "far-queue"
oh a oh-a
No dill's impressed with...
oh a oh-a
...these skills I'm blessed with
Trivia skill won't take you too far
(Buffalo Bill could play the guitar)
All my mind's a catalogue
(and Astro is the Jetson's dog)
Ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
Ohh - uh uh ar - ohh
[[[ wistful 80's synthesiser ]]]
Trivia skills won't take you too far
(Beverley Hills has 82 bars)
In my mind I can't locate
a synapse I can deviate
so crap won't perpetuate
(no cells left to educate)
too farrrrr.........
won't take you too
far-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar
a starrrrr......
won't make you a
star-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar-ar
Trivia skill won't take you too far
In "The Big Chill" Meg Tilly co-stars
Cecil deMille had budgerigars
pterotactyls could blah blah blah blah...
too far...
won't take you too far...
(trivia skill won't take you too far)
moolah!...
won't make you moolah...
(trivia skill won't make you moolah)
Renoir...
to buy a Renoir...
(trivia skill won't buy a Renoir)
Degas...
or a painting by the only French Impressionist son of a banker to fight in the Franco-Prussian war
(trivia skill won't buy a......what he said )
oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a, oh a oh-a
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Voting Results
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Voting Breakdown
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| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||
| 5 | 28 | 29 | 28 |
User Comments
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It...won't? But you were the one who was impressed by my knowledge of music! Anywho, this was really great, and that one long last line really cracked me up.
Well done, I think I actually learned a few things from this song.
Stuart just killed the Parody Star!
Vince van Gogh spilled more paint than Degas. Fabulous, Stuart!
chock full of fun lines
I'm a little more than devastated...considering that Trivia HAS been my claim to fame thus far...but this was VERY well done, Stuart...nice job!
Too true. It can work against you. I once saw a guy win a game of TP really fast, and since everyone wanted to continue playing he was talked into starting over from scratch, behind the others staying with what they had, and convinced it had been more luck involved than he deserved he did, only to move up through the field to take a second win in the same game! Needles to say everyone else (they never played against him before) started to look a bit different at him and whisper among themself, loud enough for the word "cheater" to be heard. Who that guy was? I better not say, but I swear I had never seen that set of question cards before in my life!
Herd the origanal you had liked, and glad I did cuse I can now sing a-ong to your version and it's fun!!
Fun! A friend commented last weekend on my endless supply of useless trivia and I replied, "I know. If I had a mailbag and a penis, I'd be Cliff Clavin." So I have to respond to your introductory comment and say that there were two members of the Buggles, Trevor Horne and Geoff Downes. 555
So much irrelevancy to master, so little time... this is excellent!
Masterful specialty number...top job
Do you know how many grooves a record has? Every unscratched record has two spiral grooves that go round and round and round and round and round and round and round. Oh did I forget to mention that this OS was the first video to air on MTV? Well I'm just being stupid with this. I really liked this one Stuart. 5's.
thanks, Cat, yeah, but I'm pretty much impressed with everything you do ;-)......except that whole me'n'Kristof thing :-)
thanks Jeff, me too! - that whole Cecil deMille / budgerigars thing - until my painstaking research, I never realised that ;-)
thanks Matthias, yep, this little black duck takes no prisoners
ha! lovely subs even in your spare time, JAB - thanks!
good on you alvin :-)
of course, in your case, Arwen (as in all cases regarding you) you are the glaring exception - although how far (past princess of the elves) do you want to go?
thanks Peter, nice story - although alas I have a comparable tale, but of trivia woe - my table came equal first in a recent trivia night, and I was nominated to get up on stage in front of the 300ish crowd and compete in a "who am I?" playoff. After a dozen clues, that helped neither of us, came "I starred in Lorenzo's Oil." Clearly, adding this to the earlier clues, it was Susan Sarandon. I pushed my buzzer, the MC thrust the mike in my face, and I got brain freeze. Her name would not come. I was timed out and had to stand thru the remaining "Thelma And Louise" "Timothy Robbins" "initials-are-SS clues" clues with my head hung low - the shame, the shame...
thanks for downloading, Spoof-Man, and for the com(pli)ment!
LOL, Ravyn - and I'm gonna use that mailman line - I love the Cliff Clavan reply to Norm's challenge to his knowledge-bank, "Er, when The British invaded the Punjab..."
thanks Rex and thanks AFW!
Good trivia, Lionel, and be the first to answer (quickly!) "how many houses did the Big Bad Wolf blow down?" - and yes, that MTV fact has gloriously locked this OS into pop music folklore
thanks Jeff, me too! - that whole Cecil deMille / budgerigars thing - until my painstaking research, I never realised that ;-)
thanks Matthias, yep, this little black duck takes no prisoners
ha! lovely subs even in your spare time, JAB - thanks!
good on you alvin :-)
of course, in your case, Arwen (as in all cases regarding you) you are the glaring exception - although how far (past princess of the elves) do you want to go?
thanks Peter, nice story - although alas I have a comparable tale, but of trivia woe - my table came equal first in a recent trivia night, and I was nominated to get up on stage in front of the 300ish crowd and compete in a "who am I?" playoff. After a dozen clues, that helped neither of us, came "I starred in Lorenzo's Oil." Clearly, adding this to the earlier clues, it was Susan Sarandon. I pushed my buzzer, the MC thrust the mike in my face, and I got brain freeze. Her name would not come. I was timed out and had to stand thru the remaining "Thelma And Louise" "Timothy Robbins" "initials-are-SS clues" clues with my head hung low - the shame, the shame...
thanks for downloading, Spoof-Man, and for the com(pli)ment!
LOL, Ravyn - and I'm gonna use that mailman line - I love the Cliff Clavan reply to Norm's challenge to his knowledge-bank, "Er, when The British invaded the Punjab..."
thanks Rex and thanks AFW!
Good trivia, Lionel, and be the first to answer (quickly!) "how many houses did the Big Bad Wolf blow down?" - and yes, that MTV fact has gloriously locked this OS into pop music folklore
42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot! Trivia is most helpful though; just last week in Scrabble, my final 7 tiles happened to spell "Burette", which is a wholly useless word to someone other than a chemist, but it landed me 70-some points, and the game. That's far, right? 555.
thanks Jack - before TP, Scrabble was always the plaything of the trivia-obsessed
THAT"S DAMN GOOD!! Nice job-555
LOL! You truly are the font of all meaninglessness, Stu; and for that you have my eternal admiration. BUT...can you name all the kids that have been on Young Talent Time? Thought not....;-) 555
thanks Spoof-man :-)
thanks Kristof, and I could go close to naming them all, but I don't need to because I taught Lorena Novoa English for the 2 years she was on the show, and I also got her to get Dannii Minogue's autograph for the younger sister of my girlfriend at the time, so I've gotta get triple points for that, which should get me my orange wedge, which should put me into the centre for victory - yay!
thanks Kristof, and I could go close to naming them all, but I don't need to because I taught Lorena Novoa English for the 2 years she was on the show, and I also got her to get Dannii Minogue's autograph for the younger sister of my girlfriend at the time, so I've gotta get triple points for that, which should get me my orange wedge, which should put me into the centre for victory - yay!
Just saw this today... I love the concept and had completely forgotten that Astro was the dog.... thanks for boost this afternoon... I really appreciate the link to the OS... I would have been lost without it! 5's.... hey that reminds me...in binary code five is 101 and the number 5 is the 5th fibonacci number as well as a Pell number in addition to appearing in solutions to the markov Diophantine equation... but... I digress...
thanks TJC - I knew about that ole Markov Diophantine equation, but 101? wow!.....;-)
Great work Stu ! And I guess "to move past the "far-queue" only caught my eye because I am an Aussie ? :) I stood rooted to the spot with laughter when I got to that part :) I have been wanting to work Far Queue into a parody since I started !
ha! thanks Pippin - I think I've used it twice now - although, as you know, with that accent thing, it doesn't work with Americans because they pronounce the "r" in far
And Trevor Horn went on to do a bunch more really cool stuff, like producing Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Welcome to the Pleasuredome." Great stuff all the way through, s2art, and bonus points for rhyming "best go" with "next bloke."
thanks spaff - and I think they both also joined Genesis (that's the post-Genesis Genesis) after the Buggles folded
Read your song again and I can tell where the real words are at in the song by yours becuse they mach up so well!!! 555
wow, thanks for the re-visit Spoof-Man - that's quite an honour :-)
(SOTM) WHOA! That was well done, 5-5-5, plus, you are VERY most likely gonna get high points from me this month
(SOTM) What a great OS to use. From the title, I almost thought it was gonna be a parody of MG till I clicked the link. I loved the lyrics and all the interesting trivial facts you provided in this parody. By the way, did you know that the 2004 remake of Texas Chainsaw takes place in 1973 and "Sweet Home Alabama" is playing on the radio in the truck... and the song didn't even come out until 1974. I know that's waaaay to trivial, but at least it's something, right? Excellent job, you probably killed the Parody Star (as Matthias said)! 555
(SOTM) Here's the wedges to fill in your Trivial Pursuit pie. (555)
(SOTM) See above!
(SOTM) Another great one form the Stewie MacArthur 555!
(SOTM) But, but, but trivia skill is all I got. Now what am I gonna do? I guess I could apply at Hasbro. Wonderful parody!
(SOTM) You want trivia? I have trivia! Here goes: The Edsel was introduced in 1958 and was named after Henry Ford's son, Edsel. It was intended to be slotted in the Ford lineup just above the mainline Fords. People hated its "horsecollar" grille and sales instantly tanked. The Edsel was fully redesigned for the 1960 model year with the horsecollar grille completely omitted, but very few were built (the Edsel technically was dropped in late 1959, so any that were sold in 1960 had been sitting around for a while.) Oddly enough, the 1960 Edsel earned a "Best Buy" award but didn't survive long enough to enjoy it. Bottom line: this parody is not an Edsel.
(SOTM) Whaddaya mean? I can think of a LOT of trivial uses for that kind of--oh...er, never mind... ;-)
(SOTM) Sorry I missed this when it posted. I've missed everything that's posted since I left for vacation back on Sept. 4. I've some catching up to do.
I think I owned one of those "wistful 80's synthesizers" blah, blah, blah (just like a pterotactyl). :-) 555
I think I owned one of those "wistful 80's synthesizers" blah, blah, blah (just like a pterotactyl). :-) 555
(SOTM) Knowing a bunch of useless crap won't get you anywhere...that doesn't stop me! :P x 42 Well done, Stu!
Aw, C'mon, I'm sure you could go quite a few rounds with Regis!--MM
(SOTM) See above. OK, Lorena Novoa and Dannii Minogue is cool, but if you could work Tina arena in there, I'd be much obliged!
SOTM-see above! Enjoyed reading again. But if you can answer trivia while running on a treadmill gradually increasing in speed...how far will that get you?
(ABC3-T) I know someone like this, and he ticks us all off. Good parody!
(ABC3) Deja vu!
True enough. There is no practical use for knowing that Hank Greenberg hit 58 home runs in 1938, nearly breaking Babe Ruth's record.---MM
(ABC3-T) A good parody never gets old...most of yours would be immortal, then! :P x 27 Once again, great job Stu!
(ABC3T) A blistering effort. 555
Whoa
(ABC) See above (again!)
(ABC3T) I love the way you closed this with, "or a painting by the only French Impressionist son of a banker to fight in the Franco-Prussian war"..Great stuff Stu! 555++
(ABC) Above see!
(ABC3T) Oh yes, I remember this one...the Lorena Novoa conversation! Still as funny as the day you posted it
(ABC3-T) See above, and kudos for all the chorus variations, especially "pterotactyls could blah blah blah blah..."
ABC...despite its brilliance, I still have to harbor animosity against this parody, as it defies everything I hold dear to my trivia loving heart. ; )
I remmeber this! See above!
Another oldie but goodie/see above!
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