Because I am a Big Dork

[eredien]

Too much talking over Chinese food. I must be the first person in the world to even bother to filk this thing.

When the moon hits your eye
like a big pizza pie
That's amore

If a fish bites your thigh
and you then start to cry
That's a moray

If you look with your eye
and the patterns, they lie
That's a moire

Comments

[mithent.livejournal.com]

You aren't the first person to filk it, actually :) I can't for the life of me find it now, but I read some before, two of which I remember (with the same two last words, oddly):

When a big nasty eel
Bites a chunk off your heel
That's a moray

When a photo's screened twice
And it doesn't look nice
That's a moire

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

Most people know it was Spider Robinson, but few can remember exactly what story it's from. Fortunately, I do. I hold in my hand at this very moment an Analog double issue from July 1993, containing the story "The End of the Painbow," in which Mary's Place is beset by a cluricaune. He sings these lines:

When-a you swim inna da sea, an' a eel bites-a you knee, dat's a moray.
A New Zealander man with a permanent tan, that's a Maori.
When two patterns combine, in a way serpentine, that's a moiré.
He tells jokes, he's a ham; his last name's Amsterdam -- dat's-a Morey!
If yer vitamins be mostly C, D and E... take some more A.
Oh, you lay "What I Say" very gay -- won't you play that some more, Ray?

Other characters each offer their own additions to one-up him:

When a Canadian shows you his mother, he goes "That's my mawr, eh?"
With the high price of feed, it's for farmers in need that some mow hay.
My new ray-gun here tries to put out both your eyes: It's a Moe-Ray.
If King Kong has gone flat, rent the flick Vampire Bat; that's some more Wray.

Now, we must grant that it's an idea that will naturally occur to a lot of people independently, and a moray is always the first. J.C. Duffy, in The Fusco Brothers, wrote "When an eel bites your leg, and the pain makes you beg," and none other than my pal Craig J. Clark approached me once with "When you're bit by an eel, and the pain makes you squeal," wondering if he had something totally new or not, and I had to tell him no. And there was a big thread on alt.fan.dragons once...

[ceruleanst.livejournal.com]

Bah, closing italic tags. Anyway, while I was sitting here reading my own post to see if I made any other mistakes, I thought to myself, hey, I graduated college in 1993, and I discovered The Fusco Brothers in college... I got that book off my shelf and found that Duffy scooped Robinson in 1990!

[mithent.livejournal.com]

Aaah, thanks :) I think I was thinking of the alt.fan.dragons thread (although I wasn't there at the time; I think I saw an archive of it). It is quite likely that that might have been inspired by that story.

[eredien]

What's a cluricaune? I haven't read (to my sorrow) as widely in the SF field as I should and haven't read anything by Spider Robinson yet.

A New Zealander man with a permanent tan, that's a Maori.

If you pronounce it correctly, this one doesn't work. It's more like "Mow" (like a cat) and "re," as in the first syllable of "reply."

When a Canadian shows you his mother, he goes "That's my mawr, eh?"

Hm....I can think of several other things that can now be filked, all ending with Mawr. *grin*

Thanks, Cerulean.

[batshua]

That's utterly adorkable!

You just made my evening.

^^

And you just taught me a new word.

Now, can you write one that uses "more" (social customs, etc.)?

New Verse

[eredien]

If the social contract
leads you to act with tact
that's a more

Re: New Verse

[batshua]

Eee!

:D

You're prompt, too. ^^;

[silussa.livejournal.com]

It's hard to be the first person to do ANYTHING.

DOn't stop trying, though; I needed a smile tonight, and that did it.