Every generation has a few great wordsmiths who leave an indelible mark on language — Tolstoy, Austen, Shakespeare, Dickinson, and Poe come to mind. While she may not traditionally be heralded as an accomplished writer, I look for inspiration from the fictional Friends character Phoebe Buffay, who, in my opinion, wrote one of the funniest lines of the late 20th century.
Portrayed by Lisa Kudrow, Phoebe was known for her offbeat anecdotes and wonderfully absurd song lyrics that, now and then, included a ludicrous mondegreen. Phoebe’s season 3 rendition of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” became legendary when she mistakenly sang, “Hold me close, young Tony Danza,” instead of the original line, “Hold me closer, tiny dancer.” Tony Danza is a retired boxer and actor, but he wasn’t the muse for the song lyrics. The endearing misstep became one of Kudrow’s most remembered lines from the show.
A mondegreen is a misinterpretation of a line that is spoken or sung, and this type of linguistic mix-up is pretty common. It’s why Queen’s lyric “Kicking your can all over the place” is misheard as “Kicking your cat all over the place,” and how ‘N Sync’s “It’s gonna be me” is playfully sung as “It’s gonna be May.” (The latter might be due in part to Justin Timberlake’s pronunciation, but we suspect there are people out there who hear it as a true mondegreen.)
Any time we mishear something recited, be it song lyrics, movie lines, poetry, or the opening of a speech, it falls under the umbrella of a mondegreen. In fact, the term “mondegreen” itself is a mondegreen that originated in a 17th-century Scottish ballad called “The Bonny Earl o’ Moray.” “They have slain the Earl o’ Moray / And layd him on the green,” was often misheard as “Lady Mondegreen.” And thus, the term was born.
Today, mondegreens abound, providing a fascinating glimpse into how creative (or unintentionally funny) we can be when our brains and ears try to fill in the blanks.
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