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Maria Konnikova writes in The New Yorker that mondegreens are funny but they also give us insight into the underlying nature of linguistic processing, how our minds make meaning out of sound, and how in fractions of seconds, we translate a boundless blur of sound into sense. One of the reasons we often mishear song lyrics is that there’s a lot of noise to get through, and we usually can’t see the musicians’ faces. Other times, the misperceptions come from the nature of the speech itself, for example when someone speaks in an unfamiliar accent or when the usual structure of stresses and inflections changes, as it does in a poem or a song. Another common cause of mondegreens is the oronym: word strings in which the sounds can be logically divided multiple ways. One version that Steven Pinker describes goes like this: Eugene O’Neill won a Pullet Surprise. The string of phonetic sounds can be plausibly broken up in multiple ways—and if you’re not familiar with the requisite proper noun, you may find yourself making an error.
Other times, the culprit is the perception of the sound itself: some letters and letter combinations sound remarkably alike, and we need further cues, whether visual or contextual, to help us out. In a phenomenon known as the McGurk effect, people can be made to hear one consonant when a similar one is being spoken. “There’s a bathroom on the right” standing in for “there’s a bad moon on the rise” is a succession of such similarities adding up to two equally coherent alternatives.
Finally along with knowledge, we’re governed by familiarity: we are more likely to select a word or phrase that we’re familiar with, a phenomenon known as Zipf’s law. One of the reasons that “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” substituted for Jimi Hendrix’s “Excuse me while I kiss the sky” remains one of the most widely reported mondegreens of all time can be explained in part by frequency. It’s much more common to hear of people kissing guys than skies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 11 2014, @06:46PM
"wrapped up like a douche"
(Score: 1) by KilroySmith on Thursday December 11 2014, @07:10PM
Well, it's not like "wrapped up like a deuce" makes any more sense in context
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 11 2014, @07:32PM
It's supposed to be "revved up like a deuce". Go figure.
(Score: 1) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday December 11 2014, @07:59PM
It's revved not wrapped. I context the "deuce" is slang for a 1932 Ford coupe that were used as hot rods.
(Score: 1) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday December 11 2014, @08:18PM
*In context* that is.
(Score: 1) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday December 11 2014, @07:57PM
"Wrapped up like a douche" aka "revved up like a deuce" is from the cover by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. Springsteen's version has the line as "cut loose like a deuce".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 15 2014, @08:12AM
super bass => phenomenal turd cutter
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday December 11 2014, @08:22PM
I never had the opportunity to mishear any Bruce Springsteen lyrics since his snare drum pierced my brain and it oozed out in a sticky green puddle of goo on the floor. I've never recovered.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday December 11 2014, @08:25PM
Well Bruce isn't the source of the misheard lyric. It was a cover version. Bruce even made a joke that the song didn't become famous until it was about feminine hygiene.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Thursday December 11 2014, @09:00PM
(Score: 1) by Lunix Nutcase on Thursday December 11 2014, @09:16PM
I definitely agree.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday December 12 2014, @02:46AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by drgibbon on Thursday December 11 2014, @08:29PM
You mean those aren't the actual lyrics?? ... ...
Certified Soylent Fresh!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 12 2014, @03:14AM
I thought that was exactly what he said...
As another singer noted... "Baby, everything is all right, up tight, out of sight", I thought that was a reference to the same thing.
And wasn't "walk right in, sit right down" the ladies restroom procedure?
I also misinterpreted a popular suntan lotion ad as a plea to "ban SLA from the central basin".
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday December 12 2014, @03:50AM
Or later in the same song, “gave my anus swirly-whirly.” For a long time, whenever I heard that part of the song I ended up with an imagined mental image of a young dude applying his tongue...er...yeah.
At least “revved up like a deuce” makes sense — it's a reference to the old Beach Boys' song, "Little Deuce Coupe.” From what I'm finding online, “deuce” was slang for a little hot rod back in the 50s/60s.