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earworm

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5 months ago reesetee said:

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

5 months ago sionnach said:

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?

5 months ago reesetee said:

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.

8 months ago reesetee said:

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

8 months ago SonofGroucho said:

Now that is just cruel!

8 months ago chained_bear said:

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

8 months ago reesetee said:

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. ;-)

8 months ago cathari said:

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...

8 months ago reesetee said:

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

8 months ago chained_bear said:

Another fine example: the Wallace & Gromit theme.

8 months ago SonofGroucho said:

That has to be the ultimate earworm song!!

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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.

9 months ago Jrome said:

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

9 months ago uselessness said:

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

9 months ago angharad said:

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

9 months ago uselessness said:

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.

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

Thank heavens for small blessings. ;->

9 months ago uselessness said:

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

9 months ago jennarenn said:

The soundtrack is back! Who did that?

*huming along*

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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.)

9 months ago uselessness said:

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

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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.

9 months ago reesetee said:

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

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

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. ;-)

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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!

9 months ago jennarenn said:

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.

9 months ago reesetee said:

Clearly, someone unchained the bear.

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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

*collapses in quivering heap*

9 months ago chained_bear said:

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

9 months ago npydyuan said:

Why? Why is the bear torturing me?

9 months ago chained_bear said:

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

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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

9 months ago chained_bear said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

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

9 months ago uselessness said:

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

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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!

9 months ago uselessness said:

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

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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

9 months ago wizmical said:

visual effects: ff to 2:56

9 months ago reesetee said:

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

9 months ago chained_bear said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

NOOOOOOOOOOO! *clutches head*

9 months ago John said:

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.

9 months ago reesetee said:

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.

9 months ago npydyuan said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

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

9 months ago seanahan said:

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

9 months ago reesetee said:

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

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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?

9 months ago jennarenn said:

But will you still love it tomorrow?

9 months ago rocksinmypockets said:

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

9 months ago chained_bear said:

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

about 1 year ago slumry said:

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!

about 1 year ago slumry said:

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

about 1 year ago reesetee said:

Here's a good suggestion. ;-)

about 1 year ago slumry said:

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. . .

about 1 year ago reesetee said:

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. :-)

about 1 year ago uselessness said:

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

about 1 year ago amcd56 said:

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

about 1 year ago reesetee said:

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!

about 1 year ago jennarenn said:

I like the soundtrack. :)

about 1 year ago amcd56 said:

Oooooh - that was mean.

about 1 year ago reesetee said:

"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.

about 1 year ago uselessness said:

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.

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phoenix (19 words)
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