earworm

It is creepy, in a sort of ingenious way. What will earworms be teaching us next? ;-)

That's just plain kreepy, r_t!

Deutschland, Deutschland uber a-ha-lles,
uber alle-es in de-her Welt....

One can be sure that they will have kreepily chipper salesfolks in airline terminals throughout the land. perhaps we can look forward to some pitched battles between them and the Rosetta Stone Drones ...

Myself, I'm learning Italian because, as a simple peasant boy, it's gonna be my key to meeting hot supermodels and impressing them with my syntactical synergies...

Dove il gabinetto, per piacere?

This just in:

Feb 13, 2008 12:00 ET
Berlitz to Launch New Language Learning Program, Earworms MBT

Best-Selling Audio-Book Uses Catchy Tunes to Teach Foreign Languages

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Berlitz is pleased to announce the addition of the best-selling range of audio-books, Earworms Musical Brain Trainer (MBT). Renowned as one of the world's premier foreign language organizations, Berlitz is bringing this groundbreaking concept to North American retail outlets beginning March 2008.

Earworms MBT takes an entirely new and innovative approach to language learning. Based on the science behind catchy songs that become stuck in one's head (the auditory cortex), Earworms works by pairing melodic music with soft spoken foreign words, phrases and their translations. The result: an incredibly effective method for learning conversational foreign languages by simply listening. Unlike other language programs, which require intense grammar exercises and repetitive drills, the Earworms method requires minimum concentration. The trainer is user-friendly, effective, and relaxing, allowing the listener to unwind while simultaneously learning a new language.

God help us.

Well, if nothing else, you'll have a seasonally appropriate earworm...TODAY, anyway. :-|

Now that is just cruel!

Some BASTARD just sent me to a site that plays the Monster Mash. DAMMIT!!!

I don't know, cathari. Seems to me that cats would be clever enough to have a way to obliterate earworms the second they hear them. ;-)

I had never heard Popcorn before, and I was so curious I had to go listen to it. Tellurian's reaction was "you want to give yourself an earworm?"

Now that I've played it a few times through, though, I kind of feel bad for my cats, who probably have it now...

Oh no! Now it's running through my head!

Another fine example: the Wallace & Gromit theme.

That has to be the ultimate earworm song!!

Oh my, that's great. Thanks for the smorgasbord of annoyingly peppy music, uselessness! No wonder it seemed so familiar and yet hard to place.

I gotta say, there's another ditty that can play all day round here: Lady (Here me tonight) by MoDJo. Hear song and see video under lady

See discussion at shirt. It means we want earworm merch. :-)

Why is this tagged "shirt"? If that's an earworm, I don't get it.

It's called "Popcorn," originally recorded by the band Hot Butter. Because of its notoriety as an obnoxious earworm, it's been covered probably more than any other song ever. There are so many versions floating around, it's not even funny. Here are 79 of them you can download. I have no idea what version is playing on this page, they're all the same to me. More information (and still more versions to download) available here.

What is the soundtrack, anyway? I might want to get a copy. :D

Thank heavens for small blessings. ;->

I think it's a matter of the remote server coming and going. It's not the most reliable place to load music from. ;-)

The soundtrack is back! Who did that?

*huming along*

I think she may have changed some of the words a little bit. My eldest daughter wanted it, so I said okay 'cause I was tired of listening to the Wonder Pets theme song.... There's an animal in trouble! (There's an animal in twouble...)! (Cue 5- and 3-year-old paroxysms.)

It's hardly a children's song, really, other than the part about candy.

Yeah, Big Rock Candy Mountain.... but Lisa Loeb does a very pleasantly ethereal version of it, I must say. Got it from iTunes, off some children's album.

Somehow I think it could happen, what with John and uselessness on the case. :-P

But can we add this soundtrack to the earworm merch? Teeheehee.

I just use the old Torture Your Sibling trick. Walk through the room where some unsuspecting victim is innocently working, reading, or otherwise engaged, start humming the earworm, walk out as you're finishing the hummed tune, and poof! Earworm has been transferred to its next host.

It's not nice, but it's effective. Hey, you have to save yourself.

P.S. John, we definitely need some earworm merch. ;-)

What always works for me, in terms of getting rid of earworms, is humming my favorite childhood song. It never gets stuck, but it has enough oomph to derail the worm. I think the smurf song would just be another earworm for me.

And, I have to agree with npydyuan on Big Rock Candy Mountain. Ug!

I have a student named Quinn this year. I've been playing Quinn the Eskimo in my head ever since planning week. Every time I call the child's name, it starts over.

Moral: Don't name your child Quinn.

Clearly, someone unchained the bear.

IN THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*collapses in quivering heap*

There's a lake of stew, and of whiskey too, you can paddle all around them in a big canoe...

Why? Why is the bear torturing me?

...where they hung the jerk that invented work...

Aaaaaaaaighhh!!!! Make it stop!!!!!

There ain't no short-handled shovels, no axes, saws, or picks...

Must...leave...earworm...page....

...the bulldogs all have rubber teeth and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs...

Oh, of course. And now I have in my head a slurry of all these bits of ditties swimming around... like an auditory analog of the miasma from the Kmart receiving room I worked in, long ago, particularly the area where health & beauty aids overlapped with all the candies & gums, which was never quite far enough away from the trash compactor!

By worst, npydyuan, I think you mean best. Of course.

Personal worst earworm song: "Big Rock Candy Mountain" from O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack.

visual effects: ff to 2:56

"It's a Small World After All" can drive me to drink.

I think the "Chicken Dance" tune is the worst earworm ever.

NOOOOOOOOOOO! *clutches head*

One effective way to remove an earworm is to sing--to yourself, unless you want people to think you're crazy--the smurph's song. It's like an inoculation--it's close to being an earworm, but it isn't. But if you hum a few bars ("la la la la la la, sing a happy song..."), it'll dislodge another one.

Weird. Neither of the computers I use lets me hear it. I suppose that should be considered a good thing.

Wait! I spoke to soon. Now I hear it.

No. It's still playing.
And playing.
And playing....

Thanks, seanahan. For a second, I thought I was being gaslighted. Though it took me long enough to realize it. ;-)

There used to be an earworm playing here. I think it was removed.

Wait a minute--there's an earworm playing on this page? Or am I misunderstanding?

Perhaps I should have said that I love it in theory. It is a clever little twist, and so perfectly appropriate for the listing.

Oh, hell, I'm probably enough of a dork to still love it tomorrow, who am I kidding?

But will you still love it tomorrow?

I just love the fact the the listing comes with it's own infecting, infesting little earworm.

Me too, slumry. Eee, it just todally skeeves me out.

This is a useful and colorful word, but every time it comes up, it gives me the creeps--I guess I have had a too-vivid imagination about earwigs!

That's good, R! I guess I was out of pocket five days ago!

Here's a good suggestion. ;-)

Remember "I had a little peanut, a little peanut...it was rotten...etc, (ad nauseum)" It is a wonder my brother didn't kill me over that. And if not that, "Have you seen the ghost of Tom...long white bones with the skin all gone..." or something like that. . .

Oh, I see, amcd56. That was a game among my sibilings and me--okay, it still is. Walk through the room, hum a few bars of a particularly earworm-inspiring sort, and then wait for someone else to start humming it without realizing the earworm has invaded.

Meantime, if you're lucky, you've gotten rid of said earworm. Such joy. :-)

Which, of course, was fully my intent. I hide proudly behind the anonymity of the internet.

I meant that it was mean to put that song into my head for me to hear all day. (:

Not mean--just truthful. :-) And besides, it's usually not a person anyway, at least not for me. It's some inanimate object like, say, a CD. Which makes it my fault in the first place!

I like the soundtrack. :)

Oooooh - that was mean.

"Medications that are used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety can alleviate the symptoms of earworms."

Thus spake Wikipedia. But really--can these medications eliminate the person responsible for planting the damn thing in your head? I think not.

A song or catchy tune that gets stuck in your head for hours or even days. At first it's fun, but eventually you'll want to kill whatever idiot was responsible for the torture.