A Girl with Colitis Kissed That Guy

You loved the song a long time ago. You’re listening to a music station and the Beatles are being played. You suddenly realize John Lennon and his mates aren’t reminiscing about a girl with colitis but one who has kaleidoscope eyes. Similarly, you were understanding the Jimi Hendrix wants you to excuse him while he kissed a guy. He was actually yearning to kiss the sky.

Meriam-Webster defines a Mondegreen as a word or phrase that results from a mishearing especially of something recited or sung.

In 1954, a music reviewer, Sylvia Wright, misheard the lyrics of a Scottish folksong called The Bonny Earl of Morray. To her, the phrase “…and laid him on the green…” sounded like “… and Lady Mondegreen…”.

An eggcorn is similar to a mondegreen. It is defined by Merriam-Webster as a word or phrase that sounds like and is mistakenly used in a seemingly logical or plausible way for another word or phrase either on its own or as part of a set expression.

September 23, 2003. According to the blog, Language Log, linguist Geoffrey Pullum misheard the word "acorn" as “egg corn”.

Some common mondegreens:

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising . The phrase, “there’s a bad moon on the rise” is heard as “there’s a bathroom on the right”.

In the Christmas song, Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, the phrase “all of the other reindeer” is misheard as “Olive, the other reindeer”.

In Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s interpretation of the Bruce Springsteen song Blinded By the Light, the phrase “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night” is heard as “wrapped up like a douche, another boner in the night”.

Louis Armstrong. What a Wonderful World. People often mishear the phrase “bright blessed day, the dark sacred night” as “bright blessed day, the dog said goodnight”

Even the first line of the United States flag’s Pledge of Allegiance has been misheard as “I led the pigeons to the flag” instead of “I pledge allegiance to the flag”. Talk about embarrassing!