Marmoset there’d be days like this

I don't seem to have ever linked to the brilliant O Fortuna misheard lyrics video, which plays "O Fortuna" while showing what the lyrics might be. Plus visual interpretations of those lyrics. Not knowing the actual Latin lyrics, it's very easy to be pretty sure that the lyrics they're showing are in fact what's being sung. Remarkable how suggestible I can be if shown printed words.

Anyway, what brought that to mind was that Alastair linked to a video of The Marmoset Song, a.k.a. "Marmoset there'd be days like this." It's only one phrase that they're mishearing/changing, but it makes for a great running joke, especially combined with the marmoset photos. Well done and very entertaining.

It appears that there's a whole genre of misheard-songs videos. For example, here's "Take on Me"—but the audio track has been removed as a copyright violation, so you'll have to play your own copy of the music while watching the video. It's a little hard to get them to sync up; I recommend waiting 'til the first frame of the video that shows words, then clicking pause on the video and waiting for the music to catch up. Some of the "mishearings" in this one are pretty far-fetched (that is, I can't imagine actually mishearing some of the words in that particular way), but some others are very funny.

Sadly, some of the other videos in this genre seem to be about making up lyrics that sound vaguely like the originals. For this joke to work best, the lyrics shown on the screen should plausibly sound like the ones being sung. Imo, anyway.

4 Responses to “Marmoset there’d be days like this”

  1. Peter Hollo

    If you haven’t actually heard the “literal version” of Take on Me, then that’s maybe why you didn’t get it. It’s not mishearings at all – it’s a literal interpretation of the song’s video, and the song is re-recorded with the lyric you’re seeing on the screen.

    You can see and hear it here. Stupid YouTube getting rid of the audio. Enjoy!

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  2. shmuel

    Peter, I am afraid you have clearly not bothered to click on the “Take on Me” link in the entry; it has nothing to do with the “literal video version” you’re talking about. (Which is indeed a good one, but a different concept entirely.)

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  3. shmuel

    Incidentally, my favorite in this genre is this Joe Cocker video.

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  4. Jed

    Yeah, I linked to the “literal version” of Take on Me in my other blog a while back; I love that one. Pipe wrench fight!

    But yeah, as Shmuel notes, the thing I was linking to in this entry isn’t a literal version; it’s an attempt at the O Fortuna visually-interpreting-misheard-lyrics thing. Some of the misheard lyrics in this misheard “Take on Me” are very good, but a few are kind of a stretch.

    Shmuel: Nice Joe Cocker video—I have no idea what he’s really saying, but several of those misheard lines are inspired. I especially like “some Wonder loaf.”

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