I guess it still relates to the greater concept, that the listener hears what resonates with him or her which isn’t necessarily what the speaker/writer initially intended to say. But in the case of the kiddisms, it’s specifically often because we’re putting words in their mouths that have to do with ideas or experiences that they haven’t yet learned about.

Incidentally, my favorite mondegreen concerns the Grateful Dead song “Looks Like Rain� and the line � . . . like street cats making love . . . � which an amazing number of otherwise sentient Dead Heads have always thought was � . . . street cars making love . . . �

Wow! That is a beautiful mondegreen, Shaun. It perfectly resonates with the San Francisco atmosphere…the streetcars bunching up on the line due to delays outside…and lazy afternoon lovemaking beneath drifting clouds of marijuana.

That is the poetic potential of mondegreens, I think. Also, illustrates how the brain connects these things. Maybe you could post that somewhere, as it is a great example I have not heard before.

Marlowe: thanks for the info on mondegreens, a term I wasn’t familiar with. When I read your explanation I immediately thought of a category of humor that I find very funny, which is when kids mishear words or phrases.

You’re quite welcome, CStanley. As a kid, I had a horrible inclination for mondegreens. Almost had an alternate universe of words and phrases. I have talked about this with folks in linguistics, who have speculated that it has something to do with growing minds…kids are natural poets in ways.

Not to worry. It’s nice to have a thread that does not contain the words Bush, Gonzalez or loner. At least so far.

Sorry, I was making a joke. Obviously, not a very funny one.

A double meaning; a word or phrase having a double sense, esp. as used to convey an indelicate meaning.

The sexual reference would be the double innuendo, which in itself is a double innuendo. Since this is a family site, I will refrain from a more graphic explanation.

…..RICE-A-ROANA!!!

On brain processing, I know there have been some studies about why certain conditions (stroke, depression, etc) sometimes result in a loss of humor. I recall that the frontal lobes are involved in the cognitive processing part but not sure about the specifics.

Marlowe: thanks for the info on mondegreens, a term I wasn’t familiar with. When I read your explanation I immediately thought of a category of humor that I find very funny, which is when kids mishear words or phrases. I see from Wiki that mondegreen is the correct term for that too.

Geez! I always thought that’s what it meant. (!!!)

Lest this get totally out of control, methinks the all-time greatest rock mondegreen is “There’s a bathroom on the right” in Creedence Clearwater’s “Bad Moon Rising” instead of “There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

Indeed.

Thank you for the insight. A mondegreen may be in the same family as world play like the cited photo caption that triggers the brain to say “Ah ha!” and instantly decipher dual meanings, or in the case of really clever writers and readers, triple meanings and beyond.

What I am looking for — and will take your advice to Google — are studies that suss out the neurological sequences that led a reader who picked up that 1970 newspaper, looked at the photo and then Milt’s caption and got the double meaning.

Incidentally, my favorite mondegreen concerns the Grateful Dead song “Looks Like Rain” and the line ” . . . like street cats making love . . . ” which an amazing number of otherwise sentient Dead Heads have always thought was ” . . . street cars making love . . . ” which kinda makes sense since the Dead were San Francisco based.

Anyhow, a mondegreen is the “mishearing” of a phrase in which the brain interpolates other similar sounding material to create meaning.

Classic one: Jimi Hendrix’s “Scuse me while I kiss the sky” being misheard as “Scuse me while I kiss this guy”.

Musicians and writers will often play upon this mishearing to create material with alternate meaning. William Safire was a popularizer of this type of word play, and collected examples.

Links never seem to work for me here, but there’s a huge amount of material if one googles for it.

Interesting post, Shaun.