By Sara Hoffmann
Senior Editor

Like a lot of editors, I enjoy wordplay. And not just the sophisticated kind of wordplay most editors would be proud to say they liked. I also like wordplay that’s just plain silly. In fact, one of my favorite things are mondegreens. Monde-what, you may ask? Mondegreens. They’re those goofy words or phrases that result when we mishear something. Some of the best mondegreens come from misheard song lyrics. Take these, for example:

• There’s a bathroom on the right (mishearing of the lyric “there’s a bad moon on the rise,” from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising”)

• ’Scuse me while I kiss this guy (mishearing of the lyric “ ’scuse me while I kiss the sky,” from Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”)

• Olive, the other reindeer (mishearing of the lyric “all of the other reindeer,” from the holiday classic “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”). (Incidentally, this last mondegreen was the inspiration for a cute children’s book by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold.)

We’ve all probably misheard song lyrics at one time or another. Or at least, I know I have. The Beach Boys songs I heard on the oldies station as a kid were particularly rich mondegreen fodder. For years, I was sure Brian Wilson was singing “bop a wren” instead of Barbara Ann. And was I ever surprised when I learned the song about the “little two scoop” was actually about a car.

What song lyrics have you misheard? Do you have any favorite mondegreens? Please share; I’d love to hear from you.