The World's Most Evil Blog Topic

Hi folks... since I'm pretty much responsible for blogger John's latest Weekend Assignment: Evil Earworms, I figured I better participate.

In case you hadn't heard, "earworm" is a term for a song, especially an annoying one, that gets stuck in your head.

It could be a song you like; it could be a song you hate. Children's songs and pop songs are particularly pernicious, since they tend to have simpler, more repetitive melodies and hooks.

For example, songs that easily get stuck in my head include:

* It's a Small World After All
* Hanson's MmmmBop
* The Macarena, The Electric Slide, The Chicken Dance, and pretty much every other wedding/bar mitzvah deejay song

Now, what do most people do when they have a song stuck in their head? Why, they share it with everyone around them! Sometimes it helps, but mostly, it's an attempt to get everyone to suffer along with them.

Earworms are a type of meme, which is basically an idea that spreads itself.

Anyway, my worst earworm is also the best antidote to other earworms. It's kind of in "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" territory, since the cure is usually worse than the disease. Ready?

It's Achy Breaky Heart, by Billy Ray Cyrus. But it gets better -- it's not the original version:

It's the Chipmunks' cover version of Achy Breaky Heart

If you're too young to remember Billy Ray Cyrus or the Chipmunks, consider yourself lucky.

As an antibody and cure to earworms, I find that listening to good classical music (or even mediocre electronic remakes of classical music), usually does the trick, since the complex nature of classical music, with all the themes, recursions, variations and patterns, tends to overwhelm the simplistic nature of most earworms.

Oh, and the photo that blogger John treated up? Here you can see his version:

and the original as I sent to him:

It's kind of hard to see, but I am wearing headphones in the photo.

Thanks to Jamie for taking it.

Talk to you. -- Joe