Forums / Discussion / Meme Research

I've been seeing quite a few of these around tumblr. Basically, they're similar to snowclones of songs in that certain parts of the song are replaced with suspiciously similar-sounding words or phrases. However, what makes them different is that the replaced phrase is presented as a Google search correction.

Here are some examples presented as links, since it's the easiest way to present the meme:
Call Me Maybe
One Way Or Another
Smooth Criminal
Shots
The Black Parade
Call Me Maybe
Nine in the Afternoon
The Alphabet
Pumped Up Kicks
Let It Be
Carry On My Wayward Son
You Belong With Me

There are several more posts like this that I really can't be bothered to look for right now because my likes on tumblr are a mess and there isn't really any official name for these kinds of posts.

This is what I need help with:
- Name
- Origin

Are you sure it's Google? I've been under the impression that it was some kind of rhyming dictionary, perhaps. I know some present the rhyme as a link like that, but I'm not sure if you can get matching number of syllables on one of them.

Dosent do it when i try, maybe try posting screenshots so i know what you mean.

I thought that all of the lyric caps were coming from rhymezone.

idk if this what you're looking for but here is the music "Dancing Queen" ABBA… but in Dean's version (supernatural). I just love it ^^ here's the link

Yup, as madcat said, these kinds of posts were made with Rhymezone.

Tumblr Tag: #rhymezone

Rhymezone

Rhymezone is a website that serves up rhyming and nearly-rhyming words and phrases for a searched word or phrase, organized by number of letters or syllables. It's especially helpful for writing poetry and song lyrics. (Or, in this case, swapping out parts of existing poetry and songs with other words while preserving the rhymes/rhythm.)

Rhymezone is not a new site, nor is its use. Rhymezone's help page states it's been in operation since 1996. Google Insights shows a spike around now for the search term Rhymezone, but this spike doesn't majorly stand out compared to its long history.

My research (Google searching Tumblr)

I searched Google for posts on Tumblr relating to Rhymezone.

In Google search results, posts like the ones we're talking about show up as "[song lyrics] image" (The screencapped word/phrase shows up in the search blurb as "image". Example: "all the other kids with the. image. better run, better run. image.").

So I searched site:tumblr.com rhymezone image

Total number of results (all time): 9,340

Number of results by year:

2008 – 0 results
2009 – 3 results
2010 – 6 results
2011 – 9 results
2012 – 389 results
2013* – 235 results
*from January to today (less than 3 months)

So it seems the Rhymezone posts on Tumblr weren't really substantial till sometime in 2012. And we're close to hitting last year's total only a few months into 2013.

I decided to look a little deeper.

Number of results broken down by month from 2012 onward:

Jan: 3
Feb: 4
Mar: 5
Apr: 4
May: 6
Jun: 2
Jul: 4
Aug: 3
Sep: 8
Oct: 5
Nov: 73
Dec: 219
Jan: 152
Feb: 51
Mar*: 60
*to date (Mar 1st to Mar 23rd)

So, more specifically, it started picking up in November 2012 and peaked in December 2012. It's been slowing since then.

The oldest Rhymezone post on Tumblr that I could find via Google is one titled "A poem by rhymezone.com", which reads "roses are red / violets are blue / skillet corn bread / wandering jew". It was originally posted on Apr 14, 2009, according to the timestamp provided by Google, by deactivated Tumblr user wooksie. A reblog of this post can be found here.

Now of course, the info I provided here is just Tumblr stuff since it was the easiest to search through, but I hope this helps shed some light. The next step would be looking outside of Tumblr for similar silly word-swapping.

Hey! here's the entry, changed the title to rhymezone song lyrics. lmk if anyone wants editorship!

The technical term for the misconception of song lyrics is a mondegreen. Probably the best known one is the following lyric from the CCR song "Bad Moon Rising":

There's a bad moon on the rise

It's often misheard as There's a baboon on the right or There's a bathroom on the right.