[[quoteright:317:[[{{Yotsuba}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/YotsubaMondegreen2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:317:{{Yotsuba}} sings about the true nature of life.]]

->''She got a new apartment \\
It's out on the escarpment \\
And in her glove compartment \\
Are my songs \\
\\
She hasn't even heard them \\
Since she found out what the words meant \\
She decided she preferred them \\
All wrong''
->Barenaked Ladies, ''Testing 1-2-3''

TomPetty has been described as BobDylan's interpreter; oddly, neither of these two mush-mouthed singers are particularly famous for producing '''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPHaahKa1Nk mondegreens]]''', the phenomenon of misheard song lyrics. Sometimes it's lack of correct enunciation, sometimes it's the speed or pitch that a lyric is delivered at, but often, a song lyric or recited poem will become famous not for what it says, but for what it sounds like it says to the uncareful ear.

Mondegreen is a term coined by writer Sylvia Wright in 1954, in an essay she wrote for ''Harper's'' Magazine. She wrote:

->"When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from ''Percy's Reliques''. One of my favorite poems began, as I remember:\\
"''Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,''\\
''Oh, where hae ye been?''\\
''They have slain the Earl Amurray,''
->''And LadyMondegreen.''"\\
\\
The actual line is "And laid him on the green", from the anonymous 17th-century ballad "The Bonnie Earl [=O'Murray=]"."

On television, this can happen during commercial jingles, a ThemeTune, or even as the pivotal event in a ThreeIsCompany plot.

It should be noted that a mondegreen is not quite as simple as a mistake or mishearing: they arise from the verified phenomenon that the breaks a listener hears between words often do not actually exist, but are inserted by the listener's mind (this is why you perceive speakers of foreign languages to be speaking fast and running their words together): had [[JimiHendrix Hendrix]] actually been singing "kiss this guy," rather than "kiss the sky," it might well have sounded ''exactly the same'', and thus is a common mondegreen with such lyrics.

Intentional mondegreens are a staple of filk, parody, comedy and "novelty" songs; for example, the band TheyMightBeGiants uses several in their songs as a reference to their childhoods in the 1950s and 1960s. WeirdAlYankovic is also known for referencing common mis-hearings of popular songs in his lyrics, often in ways which sound almost identical to the original. This is distinct from the more general use of parody lyrics, as the mondegreens are usually common, pre-existing ones which the lyricist is referencing, rather than a complete invention, as a way of [[PlayingWithATrope playing with the trope]].

Several {{animutation}}s are based around a long series of intentional mondegreens, usually involving [[WithLyrics faux "lyrics"]] accompanying a confusing (often foreign-language) song. Someone who has read the faked lyrics often has trouble associating the real ones with the song afterwards. Finding ''soramimi'' (Japanese mondegreens, vaguely translating to "tricks of the ears") in songs from other languages is such a popular pastime in Japan that one well-known comedy show devotes a regular segment ("Soramimi Hour") to it. For instance, the refrain of the Scorpions' "You Give Me All I Need" was interpreted as ''"Yukimi onanii"'' -- "watching the snow fall while pleasuring yourself." A ''soramimi'' of "Moskau" by DschinghisKhan, can be found [[http://pya.cc/pyaimg/pimg.php?imgid=16420 here.]]

In July 2008, the 2008 update of ''Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary'' finally enshrined the word "mondegreen" in its pages. To celebrate this momentous event, Merriam Webster Online began [[http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords08.htm soliciting examples]] from the public as part of a short-lived publicity campaign. A series of books (and page-a-day calendars) of mondegreens were put together by Gavin Edwards, the first of which is called ''’Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy and Other Misheard Lyrics''.

Sometimes caused by [[ElmuhFuddSyndwome bad diction]], or [[LyricalShoehorn bizarre]] [[WordSaladLyrics lyrics]]. The lyrical equivalent of {{Malaproper}}. A game on ''NeverMindTheBuzzcocks'' called "Indecipherable Lyrics" is based on the teams trying to deliberately come up with entire verses' worth of mondegreens for particularly mumbled songs. See also SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein.

''Note:'' Examples below should be famous mondegreens or ones referenced in other works. Your own misheard lyrics need to go into the [[TroperTales/{{Mondegreen}} Troper Tales]] section.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: A]]
* "Cheney's got a gun" instead of "Janie's got a gun" in the titular song by Aerosmith, a mondegreen which became [[ReverseFunnyAneurysm strangely appropriate]] after the Dick Cheney shooting incident of 2006.
** And was subsequently turned into [[http://www.bobrivers.com/audiovault/tunes/tunes.asp?Var=C a parody song]] by The Bob Rivers Show.
* "Rock heel sway, talk heel sway" ("Walk this way, talk this way", Aerosmith, ''Walk This Way'')
* "Do it like a lady" instead of "Dude looks like a lady" (both seemed equally appropriate in MrsDoubtfire)
** Or "Do the Lucky Lady."
*A common one for ''Quarantined'' by At The Drive In is "Have chicken with jello! Have chicken with jello!" (it's actually "have trigger, will travel"). Even more amusing if you think of it as an invitation to eat chicken with a former Dead Kennedys member, as opposed to just an odd combination of foods.
*"Smilin' face and eleven eyes". ("and laughin' eyes", ''Beating Around the Bush'' by {{ACDC}})
** "For those about to rock..... '''''[[spoiler:FUCK!]]''''' .....we salute you!" (Originally "'''''FIRE!'''''" in, obviously, ''For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)'', another song by AC/DC.)
** "T.N.T." can become anything that you want it to become (this troper's favorite is [[http://www.amd.com A.M.D.]]).
** "Dirty Deeds! Thunderchief!!" ("Dirty Deeds! Done Dirt Cheap!!") also (Dirty Deeds! Done With Sheep!!)
* ''American Dragon: Jake Long''--the line in the theme song, "it's destiny, what's up, G?" is repeatedly close-captioned as "his destiny will walk up sheets."
* One line of the AquaTeenHungerForce theme song sometimes gets transcribed as "Ice on my fingers and my toes, and I'm a 'tard." It's really, "I'm a Taurus". Think about it: "ice" is slang for diamonds. Ice on my fingers and my toes and I'm a Taurus.
* "Fuck you wo tokashite" ("Boku o tokashite", Angela, ''How many?'')
* "The mistaking of may" ("The mistake you don't make"), "Steal the feelings, don't focus, all the flames come" ("Steal the feelings, don't focus, on the flames girl"), "Cause one and wine and would inform me to, but it's 5! It's 5!" ("Could've sworn that wine/And one and four make two, but it's 5! It's 5!"), "Until the sunset gets a rest" ("Until the sunset gets all red"), "Hold the passion don't fade, and you decided he's your spouse" ("Hope the passion don't fade since you decided he's your spouse"), and "We were dealing, joking, dance for change, oh" ("Wheeling, dealing, joking things will change, girl") from Architecture in Helsinki's song ''It'5!''
* "Australians are all ostriches" ("Australians all, let us rejoice") from the Australian national anthem.
** "Australians let us all ring Joyce, for she is young and free..."
*** "We've god damned soil and wealth for toil, Our land is dirt by sea..."
*** "Australians all eat sausages, for breakfast, lunch and tea, with golden forks and silver spoons, our land is KFC..."
** Australians all, let us rejoice, four minus one is three...
* Also from Australia is the band Augie March, whose song, ''Thin Captain Crackers'', WordSaladLyrics aside, begins with "Here on the hill above the settlement", which sounds awfully like "Here on the hill above the '''Centrelink'''" - the public front of the government welfare system.
* "Strike Oedipus is killin' me strong" or "Stray cannabis is killin' me strong" from Mariah Carey's ''Always Be My Baby'' ("Time can't erase a feeling this strong"). This troper would like to note that she did not listen to this song by choice; it was always on her sister's favourite radio station.
* "A Vergazo Me Agarro." ("Out of Nothing At All." From the song by Air Supply.)
* "I was in jail before we met". ("I wasn't jealous before we met", ''Lay All Your Love on Me'' by {{ABBA}}.)
* "Portaloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to". ("Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to", ''Waterloo'' also by ABBA.)
* "You can't help but face it/You're a dick with a glove." Robert Palmer's ''Addicted to Love''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* "There's been owls pukin' in my bed" ("I've been all through it in my head" from ''Help Me Rhonda'' by TheBeachBoys.)
*[[BritishAccents The]] [[MindScrew Beatles]], [[WordSaladLyrics natch]].
** "Lucy and this guy with diamonds" or "[[{{Peanuts}} Lucy's]] in a fight with [[YouBlockhead Linus]]" (''Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'', by TheBeatles)
*** Interestingly enough, a mis-hearing of this song's titular line is what let to the writing of ''Judy in Disguise (with Glasses)''.
** "The girl with colitis goes by" (''Lucy'' again -- "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes"). This variation appeared in a BabySittersClub book, of all things.
**Michelle Branch thought that the Beatles song "Chicken to Ride" was wonderful as she was growing up, only to be bitterly disappointed when she learned it was actually "Ticket to Ride." She determined to make cooler lyrics for it.
**"some day monkey won't play piano song, play piano song" ("sont les mots qu'i vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble", ''Michelle'' by TheBeatles). The ''PowerpuffGirls'' did an episode ''Meet the Beat-Alls'' where four villains joined forces and became legendary - Beatle references visual and verbal abound, together with this mondegreen.
*"But when I'm tired and lonely, she gives good head" ("But when I'm tired and lonely, she sees me to bed", Billy Idol, ''Rebel Yell'')
*"Businessmen they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my herb" ("Businessmen they drink my wine, ploughmen dig my earth", BobDylan, ''All Along The Watchtower'' -- reinforced by the fact that numerous covers of the song actually use the mondegreen, though the famous cover by JimiHendrix does ''not''.)
* "Give me blood, or a band-aid" ("You give love a bad name", BonJovi ''You Give Love a Bad name'')
** Also, "Shot through the heart, and you're too late" instead of "you're to blame") in the line right before that one. Clearly we both thought it was a song about a medical emergency.
*** Alternatively, "Shot to the heart and you're too vain", which was how this troper used to hear it.
* "All I want is to have my piece of pie." (''Peace of Mind'' by Boston)
* "Straight from the water/Straight from the wall of children!" ("Home" by Marc Broussard)
* "Diva is a female version of a hot slut." ("Diva is a female version of a hustler", ''Diva'' by Beyoncé.)
** "All the singer ladies." ("All the single ladies", ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)'' by Beyoncé)
*** "All the cigarettes" is another example of that same line.
****"All the single lettuce"
* "Somebody get the door." ("''Soy un perdedor''," from ''Loser'' by {{Beck}}.)
** This one was {{lampshaded}} in a VH-1 special on the best songs of the 90s, where various musicians and critics sang what they thought Beck was saying instead of the Spanish line.
** In defense of everyone who has ever misheard this line, Beck's pronunciation is quite slurred and off. If you heard it pronounced properly, most wouldn't recognize it as the line from the song.
* "Bald-Headed Woman" (''More Than A Woman'', by the BeeGees)
** Same band, different song: "You come to me on a submarine" (should be "summer breeze"; ''How Deep Is Your Love''
* "But still I complain that I never saw {{Lost}}" ("But still I can't claim that I'm innocent, lost", ''Noldor'' by Blind Guardian)
** Another by Blind Guardian: "While I'm on the toilet" ("Hold on, too late", ''Imaginations from the Other Side'')
* When Brian Wilson was writing the [[TheBeachBoys Beach Boys]]' ''Pet Sounds'' album, his lyricist Tony Asher told him about a title he'd thought up for one of their songs: "Carol, I Know." Wilson thought he said "Caroline, No." After they cleared it up, they both agreed that mondegreen was better than the original and ''Caroline, No'' became the title.
* "My Candelabra" (''My Kinda Lover'' by Billy Squier)
* "You can't live your life on the BBC", ''Baby Seat'' by Barenaked Ladies. As one might expect from the title, it's "...in the baby seat".
* The perfectly sensible "Son can you play me a melody" instead of the actual "Son can you play me a ''memory''" from Billy Joel's ''Piano Man''.[[hottip:*:This one was intentional, though: It's implied to be a Freudian Slip.]]
** Speaking of Joel, "We Didn't Start The Fire" is a rich, powerful vein of Mondegreens.
* In the song ''Crazy'', Britney's obviously saying "I'm so excited. I need to pee," but apparently it's "I'm so excited. I'm in too deep."
* A more recent Spears song replies entirely on a mondegreen as the point of the song - "All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to / if you seek Amy" makes no sense until you realize what "If you seek Amy" sounds like if you say it rapidly. The rest of the song is actually about the search for some chick named Amy, just to make the lyrics sound cleaner.
** The radio edit changes it to "if you see Amy," thus robbing the song of any sense.
* Another Britney one: ''Oops I Did It Again'' has the lines "Oops, you think I'm in love/That I'm sent from above." Way back when, some girl wrote in to Disney Channel to say she thought it had been "medicine from a dove."
** [[ShootingStars A dove from above?]]
* "I don't understand the point of fingers." ("We all stand and point our fingers."), from ''Black Fingernails, Red Wine''.
* "I will soothe your pain/I will ease your strain" ("I won't soothe your pain/I won't ease your strain" from ''Eyes on Fire'' by Blue Foundation)
* Bigod 20's "The bog," a futurepop/industrial song about being eaten by a swamp creature (which sounds like the Watcher from ''The Fellowship of the Ring'') features a lot of easily confusable lyrics. "Walk through Legoland to small shops for the duck" ("Walk through meadowland with small shot for the ducks") and "Back into the dog" ("back into the bog") -- turns it into a surreal song about shopping for toys for waterfowl and learning to drive with disastrous canine consequences.
* "Keep pudding on the plane." ("keep putting on the play", ''Sunrise, Sunset'' by Bright Eyes.)
* The Butthole Surfers' ''Kuntz'' consists entirely of samples of a Thai song, focusing mostly on looping a line that sounds like the title. As it turns out, the actual song is about an "itch that won't go away", and the part they keep repeating means "itch". They'd later do something similar with another foreign song (not sure of the language this time) for the unreleased ''Junkie Jenny In Gaytown''.
** "They were all in love with Di, and they were drinkin' from a fountain that was pourin' like an avalanche comin' down the mountain."-- I was sure that Marky, Sharon, and that ever-present football player rapist were all just really into the royals.
* The Beyoncé Knowles song ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)'' has a line "all the single ladies" that you can mishear as "I'm a cigarette" or "I'm a [[WilliamShakespeare Sycorax]]".
** "Honours to the left", anyone?
* "angel of Adam Shaw" ("I saw an angel, of that I'm sure", ''You're Beautiful'' by JamesBlunt). The line is oddly enunciated.
* "I listen to lunch, boy" ("I'd miss you too much, boy" from ''To Die For'' by TheBirthdayMassacre.)
** "Despite the harm you've done, you swallowed your injection well, amplified" ("Despite the harm you've done, you swallowed your rejection well, amplified." from ''Falling Down''.)
** "We follow the sound/ It's meaningless now" ("We follow the sound/ It's leading us down" from ''Nothing and Nowhere'')
** "A false devotion/ Was set in motion" ("A fool's devotion/ Was set in motion" from ''Looking Glass'').
** "Looking like a call to my suicide" ("Looking like a compromised suicide" from ''Kill the Lights'').
** "Your hands are always reaching out of favor/Your kind are only good for that behavior" ("Your hands are always reaching out of favor/Your kind are only good for '''bad''' behavior" from Falling Down)
** "She's too cold to shiver/ And it's cold" ("She's too cold to shiver/ In this cold" from ''Shiver''.)
** "She watches him as he is sleeping" ("She watches him as he is ''leaving''," from ''Over''.)
** "Reflect this kiss to which I saw/ Goodnight" ("Reflect this kiss to wish us all/ Goodnight", from ''Goodnight''.)
** "I'm not the only one/ Who's pleading" and "It's underneath my skin, it won't die" ("I'm not the only one/ Who's ''bleeding''" and "Gets underneath my skin, it won't die" from ''Science''.)
* In Brazil, Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face" is commonly heard as "Ajudar o peixe" (''help the fish''). The GratuitousFrench preceding it is misheard often as well.
* "Is there any jam?" ("'cause I need ya", Blur's ''Song 2'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* "There's a bathroom on the right" (the line at the end of each verse of ''Bad Moon Rising'' by Creedence Clearwater Revival -- "There's a bad moon on the rise"). John Fogerty has been known to sing the mondegreen at concerts, for a laugh.
* "Donuts make my brown eyes blue" ("Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle)
* A recent ad for Cingular used this: two men are walking down the street and mangling the chorus of "Rock the Casbah" by the Clash. One sings it as "rock the cashbox", only to be briefly stunned when his friend sings it as "stop the catbox". He then agrees with that interpretation.
** A geek version: "Lock the taskbar" for "Rock the casbah".
** Ironically, "Rock the dance floor" from Will Smith's "Will 2k" has been mondegreened into "Rock the casbah".
* From the Clash's "Death or Glory"; ''..winds up making payments on a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Nova Nova]] or a girl'' (''..winds up making payments on a sofa for a girl'').
* A very special example for all you Portuguese speakers: [[http://cognatas.dromma.org this site]] has a list of these. And it ''is '''big'''''.
**Also in Portuguese: in Brazil it is known as "Virundum" (after the national anthem's opening lines, ''Ouviram do Ipiranga''), and the the most popular is [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=XCdCmljxjTk a song]] which is misheard from "tocando B.B.King" ("playing B.B.King") to "trocando de bikini" ("changing bikinis").
* "Silver horses rent out movies in your dark eyes" ("Silver horses ''run down moonbeams'' in your dark eyes" from "White Room" by Cream)
* "He drinks the ladder drink/He drinks the cyber drink" ("He drinks the lager drink/He drinks the cider drink", Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping")
* "We don't want to die" (Actually "You know what's inside", Catherine Wheel, "Shallow")
* "Dynamite cigar" ("Danneman cigar", Cold Chisel, "Cheap Wine". The chorus to this song is also often heard as, well, pretty much anything other than what it is).
* From...[[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholicism]], "Agnus Dei" (the OminousLatinChanting version of "Lamb of God") makes an amusing Mondegreen about a newbie rabbit hunter:
-->"On this day, he told us they caught a bunny, miserable novice." (& on the 3rd repetition) "...Don't I know this part, Jim?"
**The real Latin is:
-->"Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis." (& on the 3rd rep) "...dona nobis pacem."
**...meaning:
-->"Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us." and "...grant us your peace."
* ''Caramelldansen!'' The original Swedish lyrics misheard in Japanese is what contributed to it becoming such a widespread meme.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWqC4KKiVbU This Doctor Who fanvid]] is entirely based off misheard lyrics from [[MemeticMutation Caramelldansen]]. Some are a bit of a stretch, but it's very funny.
** Due to its chorus of "u-u-ua ua", Caramelldansen is often referred to in Japanese as "ウッーウッーウマウマ" (u- u- uma uma, roughly translating to "hor-- hor-- horse horse")
** Youtube user [[http://www.youtube.com/user/yukisnowcraft yukisnowcraft]] also has a relatively popular, more anime-based Misheard Lyrics video for the Caramelldansen. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miEv85LW2TE Misa in the club, anyone?]]
* "Days like this are sweet / I'm fuckin' endlessly" ("Days like this are sweet / I'm talkin' in my sleep", "Life is Sweet" by the Chemical Brothers. In fact, this whole song is pretty much a Mondegreen minefield; guest singer Tim Burgess' vocals are so notoriously incoherent that transcription websites litter the lyrics with question marks.)
* "I believe that the hotdogs go on" ("I believe that the heart does go on"), in "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.
* Cream's song ''S.W.L.A.B.R'' is often misheard: We'll get "But the rainbow has appeared," instead of the real line, "But the rainbow has a beard," which is actually stranger.
* "Captain N! The Gay Master!" ("Captain N! The Game Master") as noted by the NostalgiaCritic in his ''Captain N'' review.
* Kate Ceberano's song ''Bedroom Eyes'' sounds more like 'Petrol Eyes' the way she sings it.
* This troper's local radio station once had a caller who requested a Stevie Ray Vaughan song about going shopping. Eventually, the [=DJs=] were able to deduce that the caller was in fact referring to the line "And that's a ''cold shot, babe''" from the song "Cold Shot."
* 'Strange brew, Kudos inside of you.' ('Strange brew, kill what's inside of you' from ''Strange Brew'' by Cream.
* From Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" we have such gems as "be my me oh my soul, my seal" instead of "be my mirror my sword, and shield" and "mission fairies in a fiery field" as opposed to "missionaries in a foreign field."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D]]
* A commercial for T-Mobile plays with this trope: A guy sings along with Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me", and mondegreens it into "Pour some shook-up ramen." His girlfriend is, of course, incredulous, and turns to T-Mobile for help for some reason. In fact, quite a few commercials play with this; one, for Comcast's "On Demand" service, has a man mangling the lyrics to "Born to be Wild" in the shower -- and having Mr. T burst through his wall and reprimand him. No, seriously.
*"Bring out sausage bells" ("Ring Out Solstice Bells", Jethro Tull)
* "I got booty for sale" ("I'm not foolin' myself", from "Foolin'" by Def Leppard)
* "Slow Uncle Walter/The fire engine guy" ("Smoke on the water/Fire in the sky", ''Smoke on the Water'' by Deep Purple). On the other hand, slow response by the local fire brigade would explain why the "gamblin' house" burned to the ground.
** Barenaked Ladies pay homage to this Mondegreen in their song "[[TearJerker The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel]]":
--->''Rubberneck traffic and passers-by/ And Slow Motion Walter the fire engine guy / Stand around with their mouths open wide...''
*** Ironically enough, it sets up a recursive modegreen by sounding like "the slow-motion waltz of the fire engine guy."
* "The smell of that chick just put my spine out of place" ("This mellow-thighed chick just put my spine out of place," David Bowie, ''Suffragette City'')
* "And isn't it a world worth taking over?" ("And there's a little world worth taking over" in David Byrne's "[[http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4HGZeDWoxS8 Wicked Little Doll]]") Not much of a change.
* Then again, just look at the [[http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/hacksign/obsession.htm official lyrics]] for the ''[[DotHack .hack//SIGN]]'' opening theme "Obsession". Is it any wonder mondegreens exist with MindScrew lyrics like this?
**This troper even thought the lyrics were ''in presumably coherent Japanese'', and she's a ''native English speaker''. Then again, given the fact that "loveache" isn't even a word in English, and "missing my headache" makes no sense at all, perhaps this is less surprising than her assuming it was just in another language...
*** "Missing my headache" makes perfect sense for anyone recently divorced/separated when it wasn't their idea.
* Dream Theater has inspired [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVFn5wpu4Tc&feature=related several]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4R4M-uU76U&feature=related intentional]] mondegreens on YouTube, thanks to lead singer James LaBrie's rather, ah, ''creative'' approach to diction.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxchg8E3FBE This one]] may be the best. "This water's spitting up ground beef..."
* "It's the right time... for raw meat!" ("Roll To Me", Del Amitri)
* In ''Animal Crackers'', [[MarxBrothers Groucho]] asks Chico to play a song about Montreal: "I'm a dreamer, Montreal." This is a mangled reference to the De Sylva, Brown & Henderson song "Aren't We All?"
* "Davy, Daaaaavy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!" The Davy Crockett theme song was misinterpreted very often by its audience outside of the South at the time. The line "killed him a bear when he was only three", coupled with a very Southern intonation, sounded a lot like "killed in a bar when he was only three" or "killed by a bear when he was only three"...
* Dolly's Parton and Kenny Rodger's 'Islands in the Stream' sounds just like 'Ireland's Industry' (!) Apparently, it was quite popular to sing it with those lyrics. (As ThisTroper did today...)
* "Well I dig a little dog about an hour ago..." ("just got into town about an hour ago") In defense of everyone who heard it that way, Jim Morrison does sound mind-blown drunk.
* "Because you ''left'' me" ("Because You Loved Me"). The former is easy to hear when Celine Dion sings the latter, and changes the entire meaning of the song.
* One example that isn't a song per se. The name of EricClapton's band Derek and the Dominoes makes no sense -- there isn't a Derek in the band, and dominoes aren't generally something one would name a band after -- until you realize that it was originally supposed to be Eric and the Dynamos, and somebody slurred the words badly enough that the new name stuck.
* Maybe. Another source states that they wanted to call the band "Del and the Dominoes," with Del being Eric Clapton's nickname. Del and Eric were then combined, and we have Derek and the Dominoes.
* A [=VHS=] tape containing the [[ClassicDisneyShort Disney short]] "Clock Cleaners" was banned from Wal-Mart in the 1990s because Reverend Donald Wildmon thought that Donald Duck shouts "Fuck you!" during his argument with the main clock spring in that short (he really shouts "Says you!"). To avoid this controversy, most [=DVD=] releases of the short dub over the seemingly offending line with audio of Donald saying "Aww, nuts!", despite it not making sense in the context of the argument.
** Similarly, Donald has also been accused of calling Daffy Duck a nigger in ''WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', when he is in fact saying, "You doggone stubborn ''little''..." Unlike the above instance, this line is left untouched on the [=DVD=] release.
** Two other examples of Donald's speech being mistaken for curse words in "Mickey's Circus" when trying to take a fish back from the baby seal it sounds like he says "you son of a bitch!" but he is actually saying "you snake in the grass!" and in "Spare the Rod" after being bitten by one of the cannibals it sounds like he says "you little bitch, I'll kill you" but he actually said "you little wretch, I'll kill you".
*''The Dundee Weaver'', a traditional Scottish BawdySong performed by The Dubliners, is notable for having a Mondegreen version available on various lyric sites which is ''complete gibberish''. [[http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/songs/dundee-weaver.html Dick Gaughan talks us through it]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E]]
* "Hold me closer, Tony Danza." ("Hold me closer, tiny dancer" from ''Tiny Dancer'' by Elton John)
** This mondegreen is referenced in an episode of ''{{Friends}}'', wherein Phoebe is convinced that "Hold me close, young Tony Danza" is the actual line.
* "She's got electric boobs" ("She's got electric boots", Elton John, ''Bennie and the Jets'')
** "...Her mom has two" ("...A mohair suit", same song)
* "You can't blame me and your pen pals" ("you can't plant me in your penthouse.", Elton John ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'')
* 'Sail away, sail away, save a whale' (''Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)'', by Enya.)
* "I'm blue, if I were green I would die, if I were green I would die..." ("I'm blue da ba dee da ba di da ba dee da ba di", Eiffel 65, ''Blue (Da Ba Dee)'')
**"I'm blue, and in need of a guy, I'm in need of a guy, . . . "
* What about ElectricLightOrchestra's tribute to Rennaissance-Festival going gals? You know: "Medieval wo-man! (Duh nuhnuhnuh nununua!)" Wait... whaddiya mean there's no "Medi?" What would just an "'Eval' Woman..." Oh. Wait. ''IIIIIII'' get it now.
* "Don't bring me down, Bruce!" ("Don't bring me down, groose", which is a made-up word. ELO realized so many people were hearing this that they actually started singing it live.), from Electric Light Orchestra's "Don't Bring Me Down".
** Referenced in VH-1's "I Love The 70s Volume 2":
--->"I just want to know who Bruce is."
* "I am the Disco! I am . . . the Taco Bell!" ("fire in the Disco/Fire in the/taco bell", Electric Six, ''Danger! High Voltage'')
* "Just when I close my eyes I can see they're alright" ("Just when I close my eyes I can see them arise", ''All the Clowns'' by Edguy)
* "and the dog is constipated" ("and it doesn’t cost a penny", Electric Light Orchestra's ''Illusions in G Major'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:F]]
* "Ain't no woman like the one-eyed Gott" (from The Four Tops' song -- ''Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)'')
* "The funk's your brother" ("the funk soul brother" from ''Rockafeller Skank'' by Fatboy Slim)
* "Give me back my Pizza" ("Give me back my peace of" (as in peace of mind), The Foo Fighters ''But Honestly''). If you happen to listen to the song while hungry you're even more likely to misunderstand it.
* Taylor Hawkins once admitted in an interview with MTV that he used to think the line "What do you do when all your enemies are friends?" from the song ''Monkey Wrench'' was actually "What do you do when all your enemies are French?"
* 'Take my love, take my land, you can take me where I stand' (It's actually 'Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand' from the ''{{Firefly}}'' theme.)
** [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean I'll be in my bunk.]]
** "I don't care, I'm still free, You can take this guy from me."
* "I'm a little man/And I'm also evil/Also, into cats." ("I'm a leading man/And the lies I weave are/Oh so intricate", Fall Out Boy's ''This Ain't a Scene, it's an Arms Race'')
** Into cats? [[RightHandCat That makes sense.]] [[AustinPowers Lots and lots of sense.]]
** Also from the chorus of same song "This ain't the sea, it's a golf-cart arse-face".
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd0gUjWB1WE This (NSFW)]]. Fall Out Boy might as well be made of Mondegreens.
* In the ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' special, ''Destination Imagination'', after Mr. Herriman frightens the villainous imaginary friend into a rage, Bloo remarks that Herriman has "peeved him off". The way he says "peeved", though, apparently sounds so much like "pissed" that even the close-captions misinterpret it as that.
* "Coronation under the broom" ("One Nation Under a Groove" by [[GeorgeClinton Funkadelic]]).
* "f'in cry" (Stewie's line in the FamilyGuy theme song, "Laugh and cry"). A clearer version was used from about the third season onward.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G]]
* One particularly famous one is "Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear," which is actually a hymn titled ''Gladly the Cross I'd Bear''.
** And from the AlanisMorissette song ''You Oughta Know'': "It's not fair/To remind me/Of the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me"
* "It's something, and nothing, don't you know? I miss you, I'd kiss you, don't you know." ("Excite me, ignite me, oh, and you know, I miss you, I kiss you, oh, and you know" from Goldfrapp's song ''Black Cherry''.)
** "You wanna be so mean, she would love to watch. I wanna love some more, I'll never be insane, a broken heel like a heart, I wanna walk again." ("You wanna be so mean, you know I love to watch. I wanna love some more, it'll never be the same, a broken heel like a heart, I wanna walk again" from ''Ooh La La'' by Goldfrapp).
** "Live under the rainbow, you could" and "Drear, rain, you're not too late" (It's actually "Listen to the radio, are you calling?" and "Dream, dream, you're not too late." from ''Road To Somewhere'')
** "Are you human, or rodent?" (It's actually "[...] or a dud?", from ''Human'')
** "Much to her surprise, he had to mesmerize" (Actually "[...] he had two mouths for eyes", from ''Little Bird'')
* "Alex The Seal" (''Our Lips Are Sealed'' by The Go-Gos).
* "See the young man sittin' in the old man's car, waiting for his turn to drive." ''Broadway'' by the Goo Goo Dolls. Replace "car" with "bar", and "drive" with "die" to get the actual lyrics.
* "...But no one ever had a chance to penetrate a virgin" ("...But no one ever had a chance to penetrate or break in...", ''Gotta Knock A Little Harder'' from ''Cowboy Bebop: The Movie'') Doesn't help that the next line starts "But let me tell you, some have tried..."
* "Life would be ecstasy / You and me and Leslie" ("...you and me endlessly" from ''Groovin' '' by The Young Rascals). The fact that the singer bizarrely emphasizes the second syllable of "endlessly" is a large part of the problem.
* "I've got juice, it's multiplying" ("I've got chills, they're multiplying", ''You're The One I Want'' from ''Grease'')
* According to Ira Gershwin, "Fascinating Rhythm" (the title of one of his songs) was known to his father as "Fashion on the River."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:H]]
* "I've been eating marigolds" ("I believe in miracles" in Hot Chocolate's ''You Sexy Thing'')
* "There's no poop on it tonight." ("There's no pool party tonight", The Huntingtons, ''No Pool Party'')
* "I'll pay you back with entrails" (The Hollies, "Pay You Back With Interest")
* "When I wake up / Eat my makeup" ("When I wake up / [[WakeupMakeup In]] my makeup", Hole, ''Celebrity Skin'')
* The mother of all mondegreens: "Hokuspokus" as a bogus "magical" formula was originally derived from the latin phrase "hoc est corpus meum" (this is my body) used in the Catholic mass.
* ''Hava Nagila'' got a Russian "fonetic translation" by Alex Khvostenko, "odna mogila" ("one grave"), the title song of his [[TemptingFate last]] album "The Grave ''Life''". Sounds close, but lyrics are roughly "''One'' grave, anywhen (x3) - ''will'' receive me. ''Too soon'' to bury us...", etc.
* "Excuse me while I kiss this guy." ("kiss the sky.", Jimi Hendrix, ''Purple Haze'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:I]]
* A famous half-case: Iron Butterfly's ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida'' was originally ''In The Garden of Eden''. In one version of the legend, singer Doug Ingle was drunk/high and slurred the words. In another version, drummer Ron Bushy misheard the title when he was writing it down. Either way, the mondegreen became the official title.
** Parodied/Referenced on ''TheSimpsons'', as Bart introduces it to church as a thinly disguised hymn (''In the Garden Of Eden'', by I. Ron Butterfly). Doubly amusing, because Homer gets the joke ("Hey Marge, remember when we used to make out to this hymn?") before Lovejoy does ("Wait a second...this sounds like Rock And/Or Roll!"), which perhaps says a lot about the Reverend's sex life.
* "Take your pants off and make it happen" ("Take your passion and make it happen", from ''Flashdance (What A Feeling)'')
* The educational game [[MemeticMutation ''I.M. Meen'']] features a wizard who likes to trap little bookworms inside his book. The musical intro to the game posesses the following lyrics: "when they open up this book, they're sucked inside instead!" Low quality videos on Youtube tend to give Meen a slight lisp, making the word "sucked" sound like [[PrecisionFStrike another word]].
* Intentional mispronounciation of "Anna Molly" to sound like "Anomaly" by Incubus in the eponymous song.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:J]]
* One of the more famous mondegreens, as noted above, is "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" ("'Scuse me while I kiss the sky", JimiHendrix, ''Purple Haze''). Hendrix, aware of the mondegreen, was actually known to pause at this point in the song and kiss one of his male band members during concerts.
** In at least a few live recordings, he very clearly says "kiss this guy".
*** The version of Purple Haze in GuitarHero World Tour is a live recording and includes the modified line.
** [[MyFamily Well, it wouldn't be "Kiss the sky" - he's Jimi Hendrix, not Jimi Giraffe.]]
** [[http://kissthisguy.com/ The Archive of Misheard Lyrics]], whose website URL comes from this mondegreen, is possibly the biggest archive of mondegreens in existence.
** In his final tour in 1988, FrankZappa did a version of the song, where whoever's singing clearly says, "Scuse me while I kiss this guy!"
** In his stage act, comedian [[PoliceAcademy Micheal Winslow]] used to do a version of this song, changing the lyric to "Scuse me while I kiss this fly", followed by screeches of [[TheFly "Help me! Help me!"]]
* "You can't take this guy from me" ("You can't take the sky from me", from ''The Ballad Of [[{{Firefly}} Serenity]]'', by [[{{joss}} Joss Whedon]])
* "I got candy in my heels tonight, baby" ("I got canned heat in my heels tonight, baby", Jamiroquai's ''Canned Heat'')
** Or "Candy in my ears"
* "GAY HO!!! GAY HO!!!" (Actually ''Jai Ho''), from the SlumdogMillionaire soundtrack.
** Or "Jive ho."
** Or "Tally ho!"
** Or "Dra Ho!", ala [[StreetFighter Dan Hibiki]]
* The John Desire cover of ''Hot Limit'' by T.M. Revolution has a ton of these, in no small part thanks to the fact that it was originally a Japanese song that was translated into English and sung by an Italian band. The Flash video ''[[http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/ritalin We Drink Ritalin]]'' has a collection of Mondegreens from the song. To compare, [[http://www.animelyrics.com/dance/johndesire/hotlimit.htm these are supposed to be the actual lyrics]].
* [[http://www.elwp.com/Joe%20Cocker.html Here]] we have a tongue-in-cheek translation of JoeCocker's cover of ''With A Little Help From My Friends''.
* Johnny Rivers' ''Secret Agent Man'' is easily misheard as ''Secret Asian man''.
** And has been parodied as such at least twice, by the Capitol Steps as well as Da Vinci's Notebook.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:K]]
* "Carry a laser down the road that I must travel" ("Kyrie eleison, down the road that I must travel", Mr. Mister, ''Kyrie'')
* "I like stinky chicken" (from an Applebee's Restaurant commercial jingle regarding their Steak and Chicken grill)
* Many people mishear the refrain to the Killers song ''Human'' as "Are we human? Or are we denser?" instead of "... Or are we dancer?", possibly because the mondegreen makes much more grammatical sense.
* "He said 'honey, gold, jewels, money, women, wine, carpet shine'" ("[...] cars that shine", Kula Shaker, ''Hey Dude'')
* "No self respect no honour, no family no cash, no church and no religion, and nowhere to undress" ("[...] I'm only human trash", Krokus, ''Down the Drain'')
** "Nobody says you're a fucker, they only say you oblige" ("Nobody shares your burden, they only say you're blind", from ''Fire'')
** "Mother's got another half and so does she" ("Mother's got a lover half as old as she", from ''Mad Racket'')
* It has been said that Kraftwerk's ''Autobahn'', "gefahren, fahren, fahren, mit der Autobahn" ("travel, travel, travel on the motorway") is in part a nod to the Beach Boys' ''Fun Fun Fun''.
* Greg from ''Dharma & Greg'' had a habit of this. "I want to Rock and Roll all night... And part of every day!" Dharma tries to correct him ("...Party every day"), and he drunkenly replies, "If you party every day, how can you get enough rest to Rock and Roll the next night?"
* Walt Kelly's ''{{Pogo}}'' once had the delightful holiday ditty "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:L]]
* "And there's a wino down the road / I should have stolen Oreos" ("And as we wind on down the road / Our shadows taller than our soul" From that paragon of rock... something, ''Stairway To Heaven'' by LedZeppelin)
** Also, "I want to go where things are less than sharp" ("Our only goal will be the Western shore" from ''The Immigrant Song''). Actually a good bit of the song is mondegreens.
** Also in ''Stairway'': "If theres a bustle in your hedgerow, Don't be alarmed now/ it's just a sprinkling for the May Queen" ("...it's just a spring clean for the May Queen". [[WordSaladLyrics It makes the same amount of sense.]])
** "When she gets there she'll know if the stars are all close..." ("When she gets there she'll know if the stores are all closed...")
* "They beat me up when I'm feeling blue" ("They pick me up when I'm feeling blue," ''Sweet Home Alabama'', by Lynyrd Skynyrd)
* "The bright blessed day, the dogs say Good Night" ("... The dark sacred night" from Louis Armstrong's ''What a Wonderful World'')
* "Last night I dreamt of some bagels" ("Last night I dreamt of San Pedro", Madonna's ''La Isla Bonita'')
* The Kingsmen's original ''Louie, Louie'' is ''made'' of these... mostly because nobody could really understand ''any'' of the lyrics at all because of the poor recording. Purported lyrics to the song (which were usually dirty) were passed around college campuses, and the ''FBI'' (that's the ''Federal Bureau of Investigations'', folks) was eventually called in to unravel the mystery behind ''Louie, Louie''.
* "Mr. Saturday Night is special" ("It's the Saturday Night Special", Lynyrd Skynyrd's ''Saturday Night Special'')
* "So hard to be a ninja" ("So hard to be an angel", Colin Linden's "Big Mouth")
* "I buy sausage" ("Aimai san senchi ", LuckyStar's ''Motteke Sailor Fuku'')
* "I feel like Dick Cheney" ("I feel the light betray me", Linkin Park's ''Papercut'')
* "I'll get him hard, show him what I've got." ("I'll get him hot, show him what I got," Lady Gaga's "Pokerface.")
** This is close enough that it wouldn't matter...except when Mika made this mistake, it kind of torpedoed his attempt to [[TheCoverChangesTheGender neuter the lyrics]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M]]
* "Sod 'em all, I'm a Care Bear" ("So damn easy to cave in," The Manic Street Preachers' ''Faster'')
* "Wrapped up like a douche" ("Revved up like a deuce" (coupe) in the Manfred Mann version of Springsteen's ''Blinded By The Light'')
** The Vacant Lot comedy troupe has a skit dedicated to this song's mondegreens: "ripped up douches"; "loofah sponges" and the "foreman of the night;" and one that's completely incomprehensible.
* "Ain't no one gonna break my spine" ("Ain't nothing gonna break my stride", from Matthew Wilder's ''Break My Stride'')
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxELSzay2lc&feature=related This Maxwell advert]] mishears Israelites.
**[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6gYsRMKDcc&feature=related And this one]] mishears Into The Valley.
* "I try to fart like a whale" instead of "I try to front like, oh well" from Mariah Carey's ''I Stay In Love'', as heard on the Bob and Tom radio show.
* "I was alive when they smiled and said 'You won't feel a thing'" ("It was a lie when they smiled and said 'You won't feel a thing'", ''Disenchanted'' by My Chemical Romance)
* The fans of the musical ''LesMiserables'' have many Mondegreens that are recognized in the fan community. Notable ones are:
** "This is better than an au pair - ah!" ("... an opera")
** "One more day to revolution, we will nip it in the butt" ("... bud", sung by the [[FoeYay Foe Yay Licious Javert]], no less)
** "God I'm high" ("God on High," though as it starts the song ''Bring Him Home,'' ThisTroper thinks the song much improved for the Mondegreen.)
** "On my own, pretending he's inside me..." ("... beside me")
* From TheMonkees' ''Shorty Blackwell'' comes the concluding proclamation "I am Mike!"...except the line is "I am I!"; ''Micky'' is singing the song.
* Pick up a bazooka-type weapon in ''[[MetalSlug Metal Slug 3]]''. "Rocket lawn chair!"
* "And I feel like a disco ho!" ("and I feel like I just got home", Madonna's ''Ray Of Light'')
** "Anna Frieeell"
* "Safe big mommy in the nards" (Menards commercial jingle: "Save big money in Menards")
* "We don't like guns with tacos." ("We don't like endless cycles." Motion City Soundtrack ''Don't Call It a Comeback'')
** "...and a bottle of ten gallon wine." ("... Ten dollar wine.", Motion City Soundtrack, ''Future Freaks Me Out'')
* "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of the icing..." ("..., of thee I sing...", from ''My Country, 'Tis of Thee'')
** Angelica once mondegreened the entire song on an episode of ''{{Rugrats}}, something like this: "My country tears of thee, sweet land of lizardy, of thee I see. Land that my father buyed, land of my chill and pie, From every mountain slide, let freedom ring." She also did something similar with "America the Beautiful" on another episode, which started out "O beautiful, for spaceship eyes..."
* This trope is actually the basis of the chorus in the second ''DeathNote'' OP, "What's Up People?" The lyrics say "san'ka" and "fuan'ka", but the vocalist [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar intentionally skews his pronunciation,]] turning them into "sucker" and "fucker."
* "I'm innocent 'til dawn" ("I'm dancing 'til dawn", ''Must Get Out'' by Maroon 5)
* "Someday you pee on a tree frog" ("Someday you feed on a tree frog") ''[[MetalGearSolid Snake Eater]]'' by Cynthia Harrell in MetalGearSolid 3.
* "...feeling my face explode" ("feeling my faith erode") in {{Music/Muse}}'s ''Hysteria''. I still sing it with the face lyrics.
* In one iteration of the MysteryScienceTheater3000 theme song, it sounds like Cambot is telling the viewer to "kill yourself". In fact, he's saying "show yourself", but his tone is rather sharp.
* "Hang on, Snoopy/Snoopy hang on!" ("Hang on Sloopy/Sloopy hang on", ''Hang on, Sloopy'' by The [=McCoys=])
* "I've got two chickens to paralyze" (''Two Tickets to Paradise'', Eddie Money)
** No, no, it's "I've got testicular parasites, testicular parasites"
* "I'll be, your crying soldier" ("... shoulder") in Edwin [=McCain=]'s ''I'll Be''.
* Anyone managed to decipher more than a few lines from ''[[MyBloodyValentine Loveless]]'' lately?
** Oh, the band was wise to this. They often put non-sensical lyrics into their songs because they knew people wouldn't be able to make anything out anyway.
* "And so I must play this broken banjo" ("... this broken man's role", ''A Man Without a Dream'' by TheMonkees)
* Metronomy {{lampshades}} this in their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYB2Mqs24ss video]] for "A Thing For Me"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:N]]
* "So don't rush into the sea if you're naked" ("So don't you rush into the situation", from *NSYNC's ''I'll Be Good For You'')
* "Why I don't wake and see the perfect sky as told" ("I'm wide awake and I can see the perfect sky is torn", ''Torn'' sung by Natalie Imbruglia)
* "I want to fuck you like an owl" ("I want to fuck you like an animal", Nine Inch Nails, ''Closer'')
** "I'm still alive" or "I steal the hive" ("I stay alive", also from ''Closer'')
* Naruto's 4th season has the opening theme ''Go!'' (also often called ''Fighting Dreamers'') which featured a lot of GratuitousEnglish. Multiple different fansubbers mistook one of the chorus lines to be "You Punch Like a Drunken Rider," when it actually wasn't even in English or Japanese but a very gratuitous mix of both. (The actual line is "Buppanase Like a dangan LINER!" which translates effectively into "Fire straight like the line of a bullet")
** Two words: "Fighting Zebras!"
* "Oh, you've got crayons" ("... gray eyes", New Order, ''Temptation'')
* "What have I become, my Swedish friend?" ("What have I become, my sweetest friend?" in both the NineInchNails and JohnnyCash versions of ''Hurt'')
* Nirvana's ''Smells Like Teen Spirit''. When MTV aired the music video, they subtitled lyrics into the video. (Unfortunately, even MTV got the lyrics wrong. It's no wonder why Weird Al's parody pokes fun at the fact the lyrics are nigh-impossible to understand.
* "Space [[LookingForGroup is pony]].." ("If you know this place is holy...", Nelly Furtado, "''Say It Right''".)
* Full ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5uPdK7VF_g Dark Chest of Wonders]]'' by {{Nightwish}}. A brain [[{{EMP}} degauss]] complete with illustrations. Not ''much'' less sense than the original, but still.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:O]]
* O-Zone's ''Dragostea din Tei'' has been intentionally 'misinterpreted' in other languages, the [[http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/maiyahi Japanese version]] even includes {{Shout Out}}s to ''OnePiece'', ''StreetFighter'', and ''Sazae-san''.
** Another video takes a misinterpreted "razor blades" in the chorus and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5DNuQfoy10#t=2m55s runs with it]].
**'Dragostea din Tei' turns really easily into 'have a slutty day'.
* "She ain't no butthead Jane" or "She ain't nobody's Jane" ("She ain't no ball and chain", ''Me and My Old Lady'', The Offspring)
* "AUTO-BAAAAAR, HA HA HA HAAAAA!" [[EarWorm Dun-nuh. Dun-nuh, dun-nuh, dun-nuh.]] "Ice? Ice? Ice?" ("All Aboard" and "Ay-ay-ay" respectively, Ozzy Osbourne's ''Crazy Train'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P]]
* "45 virgins and a pelican" or "45 versions of a pelican" ("Glorified version of a pellet-gun" from ''Glorified G'', by Pearl Jam)
** ...that puts a ''remarkable'' new spin on Islam...
* Pearl Jam themselves noticed a potential mondegreen for the chorus of ''Betterman'': In the ''Vitalogy'' liner notes, "Can't find the butter, man" is written in a small typeface beside the song's actual lyrics (the refrain is, of course "Can't find a better man").
* "This is an American City" (''This is an Emergency'' by The Pidgeon Detectives)
* "Maybe I'm just like my mother" ("Maybe you're just like my mother", Prince, ''When Doves Cry'').
* The band The Lightning Seeds are named after a mondegreen for Prince's ''Raspberry Beret'' ("Thunder drowns out what the lightning sees")
* "I've been waiting for the Snowman for all my life" ("I've been waiting for this moment for all my life", Phil Collins, ''In the Air Tonight'')
** Now I'm wondering if Paul Jenning's story might have been inspired by that.
* "Breathe! Spit! (or sweat), Walk!" ("Re! Spect! Walk!", {{Pantera}}, ''Walk'')
* "I have sheep in my soup" ("Ai shiteimasu", ''Baby Love Child'' by Pizzicato Five)
* The artwork to the Pixies' ''Gigantic'' single amusingly plays off a potential mondegreen for the song: The front cover is a close up of a baby, while the back has a leather glove on it. It just seems typically inscrutable of them, until one realizes the lyric "a big big love" sort of sounds like "a baby glove".
* "So let me hear you scream if you'll whip me" ("So let me hear you scream if you're with me", ''My People'', by the Presets.)
* ''PodPeople''. "Hear the Engines Roll". End of story. [[WeirdAlEffect Heck if anyone knows what the real lyrics are.]]
** [[MysteryScienceTheater3000 "Idiot control! Bees on pot! Burning rubber tires!"]]
* In ''{{Persona 3}}'' , there's a song called ''Burn My Dread'', which can easily be mistaken for "Burn My Bread".
* The Police song ''So Lonely'' is often known in Britain as ''Sue Lawley'', after a TV presenter popular at the time. It's also easily mishead as "Salami! Salami!".
* I just feel like adding the two most known and bizarre examples from Polish language:
** "Oceans Apart" from Richard Marx's ''Right here waiting for you'' is interpreted by most polish speakers as "Osiem Zapalek" which means "Eight Firematchers".
** "Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer which is "Piec Ciastek" ("Five cookies") and most people even refer to this song like this!
* "Why do we lie to her so much?" ("Why do we like to hurt so much?" - ''That's What You Get'' by Paramore)
** This troper knew it was "hurt" but still heard "like" as "lie"
* ''Ken Lee'' ("Can't live [without you]", ''Without You''). Made famous by [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI this clip]] from the Bulgarian version of ''Pop Idol''.
* "Softly, gently, night unfurls its blender" ("... splendour" from ThePhantomOfTheOpera).
* "When I grow up, I wanna see the world, drive nice cars, I wanna have boobies" ("... I wanna have groupies", ''When I Grow Up'', by Pussycat Dolls); the misheard version makes more sense than the actual one, considering that is a female group.
** Male groupies? Lesbian groupies? Simply decorative/supportive/nice to have around groupies?
** The 'boobies' line was included in an article about PCD- when a later issue of the magazine published a letter which corrected the lyric, I was surprised. Now everytime I hear it on the radio, I listen really hard, and I ''still'' can't hear the word "groupies".
*** Maybe it ''is'' "boobies" but [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar they still want the song to be played on radio/TV]]?
*** Certainly whoever was behind the music for the BBC3 show "Snog, Marry, Avoid" heard it as "boobies" considering the shot that accompanies that line in the intro montage.
* As noted above, "On the porch, geese salute" has been misheard from the line "In a Portuguese saloon" from TomWaits' song ''The Part You Throw Away.''
* To this day, the band Polaris and the people who made the show refuse to divulge that one mysterious line in the theme song of ''TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete''. The infamous line is right after "You're looking happily deranged" and many believe it to be "Could you settle to shoot me?"
* "Stairway scare, Dan Dare, Who's there?" ("Always scared and death looms ever", PinkFloyd, ''Astronomy Domine''). Interesting because it reflects the early development of the band: the original angsty line was written by Syd Barrett, and the band allowed it to mutated into a slightly more flippant version in the following years.
** There are lots of these concerning "hidden messages" in Pink Floyd's music. One that drives me up the wall is that a lot of people insist that if you crank the volume really high on "The Great Gig in the Sky" you can hear a voice say "If you can hear this message you're dying"; in fact if you ''can't'' hear it you need your ears checked, it's quite clear at perfectly normal volumes that it's "I never said I was frightened of dying".
* The children's novel ''In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson'' has the protagonist mangling the Pledge of Allegiance on her first day of school in the US:
-->'''Shirley:''' I pledge a lesson to the frog of the United States of America. And to the wee puppet, for witches' hands, one Asian, in the vestibule, with little tea and just rice for all.
** Other people think the Pledge of Allegiance mentions someone named Richard Stands.
** [[{{CalvinAndHobbes}} Calvin]] once began with "I pledge allegiance / to Queen Fragg / and her mighty state of hysteria" and then gets sent to the principal's office.
* Folk singer John Prine, in a live version of his song "That's the Way that the World Goes 'Round," mentions a fan who told him she liked the lyrics "It's a happy enchilada, and you think you're gonna drown." Actual lyric: "It's a ''half an inch of water'', and you think you're gonna drown." Rather than correcting the fan, he told her he was glad she liked the words.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Q]]
* ''{{Queen}}'':
** "I worked hard every day of my life; I worked till I ate my balls." ("I work hard every day of my life; I work till I ache my bones." ''Somebody to Love'')
** "She keeps a mower and shotgun in a pretty cabinet" ("... Moet et Chandon...", ''Killer Queen'')
** "Spare him his life for his mum's sausages!" ("Spare him his life from this monstrosity!", ''Bohemian Rhapsody'')
** "I've paid my jews, time after time" ("I've paid my dues, time after time", ''We are the champions'')
** Subverted by Freddie Mercury, in ''One Vision''. You would expect the last line to be "Just gimme, gimme, gimme one vision." Instead, as a prank, he sings "Just gimme, gimme, gimme fried chicken", as the band was having fried chicken and tea on a break. They kept the pranked take on a dare from Mercury's boyfriend, Jim Hutton.
** There are several in Spanish, perpetrated intentionally in the Argentinian show ''Todo por dos pesos''. For example:
*** ''"Cuida los chanchos, Mabel / Cuida los chancho', es tu deber"'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRUKBpZ-TBM]] ("Take care of the pigs, Mabel / Take care of the pigs, that's your duty" instead of "We are the champions, my friends / And we'll keep on fighting 'till the end").
*** ''"Es caro el mousse, es caro el mousse / me faltan cuatro mangos"'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4lrx51bTt8]] ("The mousse is costly, the mousse is costly / I'm missing four pesos" instead of "Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the fandango?")
*** ''"¡Más Quico!" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cJ-cFUFJ_k]]("More Quico!", referring to a famous Mexican character, instead of "Bicycle!")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R]]
* "On Sundays, I elude the eyes that monitor my fate" ("On Sundays I elude the eyes, and hop the turbine freight", ''Red Barchetta'', by Rush)
* "I could suck a duck" ("I could suck it up" in ''Beast of Burden" by TheRollingStones)
* "Y'know, I'm not a woman" ("Y'know, I met a woman", Rolling Stones, ''Fool to Cry'') [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Sure, Mick.]]
* "I've had enough of Canada" ("Light another candle, and...", ''Morning Bell'', by Radiohead)
** Another, possibly intentional, mondegreen from the same song; its unclear whether Thom Yorke is singing "Cut the kid's hair" or "Cut the kids in half", a situation exacerbated somewhat by the massive differences between the ''Kid A'' version and the ''Amnesiac'' version.
* Music critic Chuck Eddy has pointed out that REO Speedwagon's ''Time For Me To Fly'' can be interpreted as a song about the Protestant Reformation, based on the fact that in the line "I've had enough of the falseness of a worn-out relation", it sure sounds like they're saying "religion" instead of "relation."
* "Olive, the other reindeer ..." (''RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'': "...AllOfTheOtherReindeer..."). Inevitably, a book called ''Olive, The Other Reindeer'' was published in 1997, and was turned into a ChristmasSpecial in 2003 by MattGroening of ''TheSimpsons'' fame. [[TheyMightBeGiants John Linnell]] also wrote a song called ''Olive, The Other Reindeer''.
* "Round John Virgin..." ("Round yon virgin mother and child", from ''Silent Night'')
* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qayDROc-dkE Rum Stein]]'' by {{Rammstein}}.
* REM's ''TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt'' blends Mondegreen and WordSaladLyrics for an awesome, yet incomprehensible, piece of music.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S]]
* "But I get no offers/Just a come home from the horse on Seventh Avenue" ("... just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue", ''The Boxer'' by SimonAndGarfunkel). Other variants: "... that war zone ...", "... the boys on ...", and "... the wolves on ...".
** "The way that {{Gamera}} follows us in slo-mo." ("The way the camera follows us in slo-mo", Paul Simon's "Boy in the Bubble.)
* "Captain Picard's on the New Jersey turnpike." ("Counting the cars on...", ''America'' by Simon & Garfunkel)
* "I am the Lord of the Dance Settee" ("I am the Lord of the Dance, said he" from ''Lord of the Dance'', by Sydney Carter)
* "My first real sex dream" ("My first real six-string", from ''Summer of '69'')
** ''Summer of '69'' is just criminally easy to make into one long, musical sex-joke.
*** It pretty much IS one long musical sex joke, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_69#Lyrical_meaning according to Bryan Adams anyway.]] (And according to his co-writer, it ''isn't''.)
* "You go to Lost Wages..." ("You go to Las Vegas...", Steely Dan, ''Showbiz Kids'') Either makes sense, but fans debate to no end what the actual lyrics are. The lyrics official ''Dan'' site skip the opening lines sung by the backup, and starts with "When the poor people sleeping..."
* "Everyone says you're lazy" ("Everyone says you're amazing", ''Amazing'' by Seal)
* "Here I am, raunchy like a hurricane" ("Here I am, rock you like a hurricane", The Scorpions' ''Rock You Like a Hurricane'')
* ''SpiceAndWolf'''s ending theme (''The Wolf Whistling Song'') is in complete Engrish, rendering the already peculiar lyrics even ''more'' bizarre.
** "I danced with the peanuts for the fly" ("... peanut butterflies")
** "I'm a little oof inside a car" ("... wolf inside a girl")
** "'Till someone had told me, to say hello for every goodbye" ("Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye")
* "Now what would you say / if they were calling you a radical" ("Now watch what you say / or they'll be calling you a radical", ''The Logical Song'' by Supertramp)
* The Similou's ''All This Love'' inspired a mini fad on YTMND about the famous communist hero, [[http://rainbowstalin2.ytmnd.com/ Rainbow Stalin.]]
* "In my desert home in my dreams" ("Seems like there's a hole in my dreams", The Stone Roses, ''Elephant Stone'')
* 'You've been betrayed' ("You've paid in trade", ''Live and Learn'' from ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic Adventure 2]]'')
* The "phone me, phone me, phone me" line in TheSmiths song ''A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours'' sounds an awful lot like "fuck me, fuck me, fuck me." Knowing [[CovertPervert Morrissey]], this was [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar most likely intentional]].
* "But Dean's picking music. I'm stupid but smiling" ("But the end has come easily. I'm sad, but I'm smiling", ''You Say Goodbye'', Japanese indie rock band Specialthanks). Their songs make these very easy to find due to the vocalist singing everything in English while having a very thick accent.
* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCsCAeMtgmQ "See the chainsaw on my cat."]] ("She sees the change in him but can't.", Sonata Arctica's ''Full Moon'')
* "It's a shitfull of fun" instead of "shipfull of fun" from SeaEscape gambling cruise commercials in south Florida.
* ''The Star-Spangled Banner'':
** One of BeverlyCleary's ''Ramona Quimby'' books had the titular protagonist thinking that the lyrics began "Oh say can you see, by the dawnzer's lee light" and becoming convinced that "dawnzer" must be another word for "lamp."
** "Jose, can you see" instead of "Oh, say can you see"
** ThisTroper recalls a ''BloomCounty'' strip that had Opus the penguin mangling it when he finds himself unable to remember the lyrics ("Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light / what so proudly we snailed, at, um, the starlight's last cleaning...").
*** "[[SecondVerseCurse I fought the company, so I could get it free, that (something) thing]]...later on, something about the Anti-Christ.
** John T. Sladek's novel ''The Müller-Fokker Effect'' (really!) has the following:
--->Ofay can you pee
--->By the dong's surly blight
--->What you probably inhaled
--->At the toilet's last cleaning.
** There was an article in a 1980s Readers' Digest (this troper's mother used to collect them) in which the author recounted how, as a child, she thought that the first line went, "O say can you see, by the daunserly light" and kept "daunserly" as her secret, magical word. She was eventually corrected on this by her family when she decided that it couldn't hurt to share that magical word with her sister who, of course, initially had no idea what she was referring to.
* "oh we're so pretty/ we're so pretty/ Pretty Vay- CUNT!" ("... vacant", from ''Pretty Vacant'' by TheSexPistols)
** That one is said to have been deliberate, as a way of slipping a song containing "cunt" past the radio censors.
* In Cat Stevens' cover of Eleanor Farjeon's ''Morning Has Broken'', he mispronounces the hyphenated word "re-creation" (the start of which is supposed to sound like "real") as if it were the single word "recreation" (with a start sounding like "wreck"). On the 2008 Deluxe Edition of ''Teaser and the Firecat'', which has both the original and a demo version, the same error can be heard on both.
** And in the live version of ''Peace Train'' on the same extended reissue, more than once Stevens makes it sound like "Piss Train". This troper suspects that Stevens may have been taking the peace.
* "Snap my picture!" (''Smack my bitch up'', by Prodigy)
* ''In Due Time'' by Outkast and Cee-Lo (of recent Gnarls Barkely fame) was edited when released on the ''Soul Food'' soundtrack (the song's only official release), causing one line to have the opposite meaning. When Andre3000 says "Fuck a pledge allegiance," it sounds like "I pledge allegience"
* The english bit of the lyrics to ''Shadowy Dream,'' the second ending theme to ''{{Dancougar}}'', are subtitled on several commercially released videos: "''Yes, love is late / yabou ni kaketai otoko ni wa....''" Turns out the actual lyrics are "It's no betraying." It's hard to blame Software Sculptors for hearing English that made sense.
* Shinedown's ''Second Chance'' (also known as the ''Haley's Comet'' song). As one Radio DJ put it: "Okay, I'm looking at the lyrics sheet, and the lyric is 'she waved', not 'shooting,' stop calling us and asking." The lyric in question is from the bridge - "I just saw Haley's comet, she waved"
* Steve Miller Band's ''The Joker'' has been mondegreened many times, mainly because the actual line, "'cuz I speak of the pompatus of love" uses the PerfectlyCromulentWord "pompatus", which no one who didn't know the song that's the reason people call Miller "Maurice" could parse.
* In Brazil, nobody could understand what the hell StreetFighter 's characters were saying, so mondegreens of their moves [[MemeticMutation became]] {{Fanon}}, and even people who speak English/Japanese prefer to call the moves by the mondegreenized name. Or names, 'cause there are many variations. Ryu and Ken have Aduguen(Hadouken) and Hollywood(Shoryuken). Guile has Alex Full(Sonic Boom), Chun Li has Mini Taxi(Spinning Bird Kick, yes really!). But the posterboy of this meme is Sagat, with his powerful TIGER ROBOCOP!!
** [[http://desciclo.pedia.ws/wiki/Street_Fighter#Origem_dos_golpes Here's a list if your're interested.]]
* "We're lesbian together!" ("Well, let's be in it together," from The Sweet's "AC/DC." ''Possibly'' intentional.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:T]]
* "I was taken to the subway through my nose" ("I was taking sips of it through my nose," from ''Semi-Charmed Life'' by Third Eye Blind)
* "ROW! ROW! White power!" from "RAW! RAW! Fight The Power!" (''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' soundtrack).
* "the part that makes you paint some food." ("The part that makes your face implode" from ''Experimental Film'' by TheyMightBeGiants) - to be fair, the singer pronounces it "im-PLOOD".
* "Want Joe Biden, need Joe Biden" ("Want your body, need your body", ''Whatever You Like'' by T.I.)
* "But I'm an actor/Maybe you're Lisa/Or is it same?" ("But I'm a riot/Mary-Jo-Lisa/Always the same", The chorus of The Ting Tings, ''That's Not My Name'')
* The Tragically Hip have a song all about this. It's called ''I'll Believe in You Tonight (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight)''.
* One person on {{Youtube}} subtitled the Indian song ''Tunak Tunak Tun'' with English words that sounded like the original Punjabi lyrics. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fSpI4oZoDc&feature=related The results are hysterical.]] "In your yard I am teh [[{{Star Trek}} Ferengi]] man, very odd and chunky!"
* "Here come Daleks!" ("Hier kommt Alex!" ("Here comes Alex!"), ''Hier Kommt Alex'' by German band Die Toten Hosen). Most Anglophones who hear the song think it has something to do with DoctorWho. It's actually a German retelling of AClockworkOrange.
* In ''TheSantaClause'', when Scott was reading ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' to his son, his son mistakes "arose such a clatter" for "a Rose Suchak ladder". This turns out to be justified.
* "Now Say Begonia" for the repeated lyric of t.A.T.u's "Nas Ne Dogonyat" ("They're Not Gonna Get Us")
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U]]
* U2's ''Mysterious Ways'' is absolutely full of these. "Eating from a cat" instead of "eating from a can"; "Shamu the mysterious whale" / "she moos in mysterious waves" for "she moves in mysterious ways"...
* In the comic strip ''WildLife'', Carson the Muskrat thinks the lyrics to his favorite U2 song are "I still haven't found Walter's cookie jar" (''I still haven't found what I'm looking for'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:V]]
* VNV Nation's song ''Darkangel'' has a line, "I only came here seeking peace" that has often been mistaken for the line "I only came here seeking peas". This caused an infamous incident where Ronan Harris, the lead singer, stormed off stage during a concert after being pelted with frozen peas.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:W]]
* WeirdAl got the idea for ''Like a Surgeon'' from {{Madonna}} Mondegreening her own song ''Like a Virgin'' while talking to a friend.
* "You've got your big cheese/I've got my asswipe" ("You’ve got your big G's/I’ve got my hash pipe", ''Hash Pipe'' by Weezer). To be fair, that ''was'' the last line in the chorus (Hash pipe came up at the end).
** "You got your big Jeep/I've got my hatchback"
* "Play that fucking music right boy" ("Play that funky music, white boy", ''Play that Funky Music'' by Wild Cherry)
* In the TV show ''Wings'' one episode's subplot revolved around Antonio becoming a busker in the airport, singing a song he learned back in Italy (his introduction to English): "My Goat Knows the Bowling Score, Hallelujah." After everyone gets sick of him singing the same line over and over they suggest he go on to the next verse, which he does: "Sid's new hair is in the mail, Hallelujah."
** (That is, "Michael, row the boat ashore" and "Sister, help to trim the sail", respectively.)
* [[spoiler:"I can't forget the semen on your face as you were leaving"]] ("I can't forget this evening, or your face as you were leaving", Mariah Carey's cover of Badfinger's ''Without You''). Unusually, it's only in her version that the line can be mistaken in this way.
* According to a radio DJ I once heard interviewed, ''Mull of Kintyre'' by Wings was the song title he most heard mangled by people phoning in to request. "Mulligan's Tyre" was the most common but there were other variants.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:X]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Y]]
* The start of ''The Other [[{{Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series}} Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged]] [[TheMovie Movie]]'' plays the Japanese ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' theme song with subtitles for what it sounds like in English.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Z]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Unsorted]]
* [[http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZA1NoOOoaNw My loony bun is fine Benny Lava.]]
** Have you been high today? I see the nuns are gay!
*** Who put the goat in there? The yellow goat I ate!
** And that's all a matter of interpretation. Just past the two-minute mark, the GagSub says "We're looking in a pill", and this troper hears "We lock you in a pill".
** And in the same vein :"[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJRNyPK-lc GIRLY MAAAAAAAAAAN!]]"...
* The same subber as the above: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH8gtrD4_C4 Moskau! Moskau! Moskau! Billy is a handyman! Porcelain is the surest plan. Hohohohoho...hey! Moskau! Moskau! Dinah Steeler is too loose. Castro it's the time to lose. Hohohohoho!]]
* [[http://www.z0l0pht.com/mathas/videos.htm Andrew Mathas]] purposely mondegreens songs to make humorous videos.
* And then there's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY this]] little gem...
* One ''PerplexCity'' card is based on identifying these.
* YoutubePoop videos frequently make fun of how, at the beginning of ''HotelMario'', it sounds as though Mario is calling his brother "Gay Luigi" (he really says "Nice of the Princess to invite us over for a picnic, eh Luigi?").
** Another one in ''YoutubePoop'' is Dr. Robotnik's "Snooping as usual, I see?" from ''SonicTheHedgehog'', with emphasis on the "ping as" part, which is interpreted as penis.
** [[strike:"And you gotta help us!"]] "And you go to Hell!"
* In the live-action segment of the first episode of ''The SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', Luigi points out to Mario that there's a piece of spaghetti on his overalls. Mario replies, "Oh, thank you, Luigi!", but the canned audience laughter occurring right at that point distorts his line and makes it sound like he is saying the F-word.
** The animated segments had one too. In ''Brooklyn Bound'', Mario, having second thoughts about returning to Brooklyn, says to Luigi that "maybe we should stay and help the Princess." The idea that it sounds like "hump the Princess" is further enforced by Peach saying "No way, Mario!" in response.
** Additionally, the ChristmasEpisode of ''Super Mario World'' had Oogtar saying that he "promise to be good caveboy for rest of life". The way he says the word "caveboy" in there inspired [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1srDhsseLk this]] YouTubePoop.
* The Emil Wakin Chau/Chow song ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKkVdknyD1o Peng You]]'' (Chinese for ''Friends'') has some parts that sound like "Kani/[[TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina]] Hoo-doo suck cock". Pay attention to the part after the first use of the chorus.
* Often comes up in relation to computer speech recognition software. Some Apple programmers had T-shirts saying "I helped Apple wreck a nice beach" (Recognize speech).
* The Australian TV show {{Comedy Inc.}} has fun with this trope in their stop-motion vignette series ''Ernest the Engine and Others'' where the character Stevie the Steam Train tends to "stutter badly at the most inappropriate of times", such as when he sings the song "'''Count'''ry Roads".
[[/folder]]

----
<<|MusicTropes|>>
<<|LanguageTropes|>>