The parody of word-pairs: RHYMING BINOMIALS, A to M

POST #89
PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, July, 2015.

The inherent music of language is an important element in the toolkit of parodists. In a recent posting, I used Tom Lehrer’s format to sing a nonsense-song about irreversible binomials, focusing on examples where the 2 elements show alliteration e.g. 'hot and heavy' and ‘prim and proper’. The current offering highlights pairs in which the 2 elements rhyme, e.g. ‘age and stage’. Specific cases may border on cliché, but delight us with their musical quality. Sneak a peek!

Most binomial pairs are not rhyming

WARNING!  Do not attempt to sing this at the pace of a patter-song. The management of this blog will take no responsibility for any injuries sustained.





THE RHYMING BINOMIALS
(word-pairs), A to M


(to the tune of Tom Lehr's "The Elements")

There’s age and stage, bug in a rug, out and about, and ants in pants

And agony and ecstasy, and amble ramble, ain’ts and shan’ts

  A rhyming binomial

There’s bows and arrows, brake and take, more bounce to ounce, and box and cox

Bird is the word, feathered not furred, and claws and paws, cock of the walk.

There’s chips and dip, and chalk and talk, and cruising for a brui-uising

Candy is dandy, liquor’s quicker – it’s your pick and choo-oosing.

And crime and grime, and croon a tune, crumpled and rumpled, (blushing groom)

Cat in the Hat, Dancer and Prancer, dream and scheme, and doom and gloom.

Dennis the Menace, dives and drive-ins, fair and square, and eyes on prize

Delicious and nutritious, flotsam jetsam, also Five Alive.

There’s gym and swim, and gap and lap, and grip or slip, Amazing Grace

And shades of Hades!  hurry  scurry, huff and puff, and haste makes waste.

The hostess with the mostest, hire and fire, and high and dry, haircare

Highway and byway, health- and wealthy, height and weight, and here and there.

By hook or crook, and grope and hope, and hulk and skulk, and hitch and snatch

Hasten and chasten, hustle bustle, hither thither, itch and scratch.

There’s kneel and squeal, and kitty litter, luck and pluck, and keen and mean

Loonie and toonie, life of strife, lock stock, muss fuss, and lean cuisine.  

The latest and the greatest, loot and booty, Mod Squad, lie and pry

Lotions and potions, ma-and-pa, musty and dusty, my and thy.

Burns’ ‘Louse’ and ‘Mouse’*, and Looney-Tunes, and old cartoons with Mick and Minn

Or Huey Dewey Louie, while the cat is OUT and mice are IN.  

There’s likely umpteen others, but so far I can’t imagine them

They’d spread across the alphabet from a-ardvark to zymogen.

*   Among Robert Burns many famous poems, "To A Louse" and "To A Mouse" figure prominently. 

Funny! - Rhyming money

HOT LINKS to the WORD-PAIR PARODY SONGS

Pairs
Alliterative Binomials, part #1
Alliterative Binomials, part #2
Reduplications - Lesson
Reduplications - Lexicon A to K
Reduplications - Lexicon M to Z
Rhyming Binomials, A to M (see below)
Rhyming Binomials, M to Z
Legal Doublets


UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT: 
(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

I seem to be addicted to this "OS" (original song) as a vehicle for parodies. Try using the search function at the top of the page ("Lehrer" will get you there) to review the 3 previous submissions of this type.

You can also play/sing Tom Lehrer's original patter-song, The Elements,  by checking  out Corktunes, the songbook of the Corktown Ukulele Jam here.  The chord-charts have the alternate-line superscript format that many ukers find preferable.
Lehrer had adapted the melody from "The Major General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance". There are 3 somewhat different melodies/chord-sequences used in alteration through the GandS song, and in Lehrer's derived take-off. 

For more fun, proceed to the next blogpost "Rhyming Binomials, M to Z"