It's Labor Day, the kids are home from school, and Greta has to work (why is it that only professors and manual laborers work on Labor Day?), so I hope you're not expecting to see much serious thinking on CogDaily today.
However, I did promise that I'd share some of the more interesting responses to last week's Casual Fridays study, so here goes. Participants were asked to listen to snippets from two hard-to-understand songs, then indicate what they thought the words were.
Respondents were most successful with the snippet from the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House." The actual lyric was "some things sure can sweep me off my feet," and 59 percent of respondents got it right. Another 26 percent guessed the other choice, "so make sure and sweep me off my feet." But 20 respondents typed in their own answers, and some of them were quite creative. As a reminder, here's the clip again:
Below the fold, I'll offer a sampling of some of the "best" responses.
A few respondents came close:
the mix sure can sweep my off my feet
it's a measure that sweeps me off my feet
Come and jump and sweep me off my feet
a picture can sweep me off my feet
The big show can sweep me off my feet.
Others simply weren't sure:
sounded like a bunch of syllables!
I didn't hear any lyrics
Grunting, lots of grunting.
not sure
Then there were some responses which simply defy categorization:
girl shocan swing three four five six
come get with me a party
"...swing me up high"
jump back jump back xxx swing
one two three four five
This one was my favorite:
su hu thing wien
As Jon Stewart would say, wha?
The second clip, from the TV show "So you think you can dance" gave respondents even more trouble. In fact, there was so little agreement among respondents that I'm still not certain what the lyrics are. However, since two-thirds of the regular viewers of the show agreed that the lyrics are indeed "So you think you can dance," it's likely that these are the true lyrics. Only 18 percent of respondents got it correct, with 28 percent picking the other option, "Shoo bee doo bee doo dance." A whopping 54 percent of respondents selected "other," and some of their write-in responses were downright hilarious. Here's the clip that gave them so much trouble:
Many respondents simply believed that there weren't any words in the clip at all:
no words audible
I didn't hear any.
?
show them the match (okay, I know it's not this, but that's what it sounded like)
shout (if you were not asking about lyrics I would have said it was completely instrumental)
Didn't hear anything other than the last word which sounded more like "shah!"
I didn't hear any lyrics
no lyrics - just noise
there were no lyrics
There were lyrics?
sure you're not insane?
Others showed surprising innovation in inventing new words to describe the lyrics:
shum shum
shoo bee doo bee love shack
shoo bee doo insect
Shoot, shake
Oooom, shooom, sais
Schoom Schoom chook?
Shroom Shroom Dash
Soap, Soap
shaboo shabooo cent
shoom say!
shoo shoo shane
Shoo-dah
shoop shoot
shooba check
shoom ship
shooo ooooo shake
Na na Na na Na (female voice) Show Sec (male voice)
shee bee
Still others get points for innovation, but also make me wonder if they were listening to the same clip as everyone else:
deranged sheet
so handsome
So that it makes sense
ran amok too many nights
lamb shank
so sick
Show you my mansion
Finally, clearly there are a few comedians who enjoy participating in Casual Fridays studies. These are the sort of people who'll try to joke with TSA agents -- and just might win them over!
should I marry this long shot (or loan shark :-)
shoot NSYNC
she'll do what a man says
sew with your mouth shut
Can't make out anything that sounds like vocals, except maybe "shit" at the end
Oh, and happy Labor Day! Hope you're not working too hard today....
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shoop waaa