Matt, Sona, Conan, I just wanted to let you guys know that you’re making a real impact in the world - last night my band covered Brown Eyed Girl at a show and I convinced our frontman to sing the lyrics as “Goin down on an old man… for a transistor radio.” It was beautiful and it’s all thanks to you guys.
I never thought it was that but I thought I came up with Secret Asian Man as a joke when I was kid. I thought was so clever until I learned that other people made that leap as well
Back in the mid 90's, my flatmate and I were chilling in the living room, listening to Simon & Garfunkel. Our other flatmate wandered in when Sounds of Silence was playing. In the part, "Silence like a cancer grows..." she sang, with real gusto, "Silence like a casserole!” We couldn't believe it, and still laugh about it to this day 🤣
Ehh but the existence of this old man requires mishearing the line about the old mine, so there's no need for him to bring that up in this scenario. Unless that's where he's storing the transistor radio he's looking to trade...
Growing up, I always heard Alanis Morissette's lyric from You Outta Know as "cross eyed bear" instead of "cross I bear." I thought it was like some teddy bear gift that he gave her and it was cross eyed.
No joke: I actually thought it was "cross eyed bear" until just now when I read your comment and then looked it up to confirm. Even though "cross I bear" makes far more sense in the song, I seriously still can't believe I've had it wrong all this time! But thank you for enlightening me. 🙂
I first watched this about 9 hours ago and every time I think of it I start laughing uncontrollably all over again. I don't think I've laughed this hard and this much in literal YEARS. Thank you for this glorious gift. :D
We germans call them "Agathe Bauer" lyrics or "Anneliese Braun" sometimes because that's what or WHO people thought was mentioned at the start of I've got the Power and California Dreamin'
I laughed my ass of at this podcast. I'm Australian and as a kid in the 70's, I thought it was "Dunder G" too. I finally feel like I have made it in life. I have something obscure in common with Conan O'Brien. I cant say I extrapolated out the whole "Didgeridoo and Wallaby" explanation, but hey, in my mind it still counts.
My 13 year-old brain thought it was "goin' down on an old man WITH a transistor radio". I thought it was the new Rock&Roll way of saying hit him with a loud noise!!!🤣😎
I'm a 37 year old performing musician, and have sung harmony on "Brown Eyed Girl" countless times.. just recently realized it DOES NOT begin with "Hey there amigo.." 🤦♂️
My friend used to hear the lyrics to Winter Wonderland as “In the meadow, we can build a snowman / and pretend that he is sparse and brown.” Which has a lot of pathos, come to think of it.
@colieconiglietta it's parson Brown. Which I believe is a kind of pastor. But fr.... I thought it was "and give it a name and pretend it's Oscar Brown"
As a foreigner in Japan, sitting in a café, holding down my laughter has been the greatest challenge. And also I must look crazy hunkered down with my shoulders shaking and hand covering my mouth. 😂 And also, MORE MISHEARD LYRICS PLEASE!!! 😂
Here’s one (Golden Earring - “Twilight Zone”) Now I’m stepping into the twilight zone It’s a two madhouse, feels like being blown I need a shampoo cause they would have scarred Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?
They are called mondegreens. Oxford recognized the word in 2002 and it's worth the Wiki moment to see why. I have loved that word forever. My big one was thinking the words to Fame were 'Take your pants off and make it happen'. It's 'take your passion' but, well, they both work.
"Blinded by the light. Wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night." Then as a youngling, learning what `douche` actually meant, made me even more confused!!
I love hearing peoples misheard lyrics. My favorite is my friend who thought the lyrics “lunatic fringe” in the red rider song lunatic fringe was “let me speak French”
I worked landscaping gig years ago and was doing lawn clean-up with a teenage kid that would listen to the radio through headphones. He really enjoyed Steve Winwood's "Rake Me A Pile of Love." After telling him I thought is was a hilarious parody and relevant to the work we were doing, he told me he thought that was the actual lyric. 😅😅
As a French native, I always thought I was "singing yogurt" (that's what we call it in French) because of the language barrier. Seeing someone as culturally savvy as Conan get fooled just the same is a huge relieve :) :) :)
Also, as a kid, I misheard the lyric in Irene Cara's "Flashdance.... What A Feeling" that goes "take your passion and make it happen" as "take your PANTS OFF and make it happen". I was always so uncomfortable when my mom would turn that song up in the car and sing along.
Years ago I had a desk calendar of misheard lyrics, and January 1st of that year was "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!" vs, "kiss the sky". I"m more thrown off when I learn the proper lines to movie quotes, because I'm forever quoting movies. Nothing silly, just wrong. It was only a few years ago I learned that Luke says to Yoda "You want the impossible" after he tried lifting the X-wing out of the swamp. I thought he just said "you are impossible."
The term for misheard/misunderstood lyrics is "mondegreen". From the song, "The Bonny Earl O'Moray" which has the lyrics "... laid him on the green" which are sometimes interpreted as "Lady Mondegreen".
Oh, God - this maybe me cry and heave with laughter. I remember being little in the family station wagon and thinking the lyrics to Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You" were "When you walked into the room, there was doodoo in my pants." I knew that didn't really line up with "voodoo in the vibes", but I had no idea what voodoo or vibes were, so that gave it some kind of context.
That Flashdance song "What A Feeling" was always on the radio when I was a kid and I swore she said "Take your pants down, and make it happen" 😅 As for Neil Diamond, I always heard it Rebel In Blue Jeans
I have a friend who misheard "And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the navy; And probably will be for life" from 'Piano Man' as "And he's talkin' with Davy, **who's covered in gravy**; And probably will be for life". He told me this easily 15/20 years ago, possibly longer, and I have not been able to un-hear that ever since. Thanks, Joe. LOL
John Fogerty's Bad Moon Rising has a commonly misheard lyric of Bathroom on the right and he actually incorporated the misheard lyric in one of his live performances.
I had a lot of these. One for example from my childhood was ELO's Evil Woman, which I heard as Medieval Woman (if you listen to the song, the mistake isn't as strange as it sounds).
I remember, as a kid riding in the backseat of my parents' car: Aaron Neville's "Everybody Plays the Fool" was on. Towards the end of the song I asked, "Why isnt anybody playing the spoons in this song?" My momstarted laughing and asked me why I thought someone should be playing the spoons. "Because he keeps singing "everybody plays the spoons, sometimes."
A great song from the late Prince back in the 80s was “Pay the Rent Collette” about a hard-working prostitute with a heart of gold who “needs to find a job that’s gonna last”
When the Steve Miller Band sang about a “big ol’ jet airliner” I instead heard, “Vigo, Chad, and Lionel, don’t carry me too far away!” and assumed that his friends were a bad influence on him.
I was in traffic, driving in heavy snow, frustrated after a hard day at work, hungry and angry and just wanted to get home and crash on the bed. But as I was listening to the podcast, this part came up and I was howling laughing in the car like a madman and got to home in a much better mood. so, thanks team COCO for your public health service!
Mine was Jessie’s Girl… I swore that the chorus was “I wish that I was Jessie’s Girl”. I assumed it was another Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side-esque, ode to gender-fluid love. I walked around in the 80s singing it, and no one ever corrected me.
This reminds me of an interview Ozzy gave in the Don't Blame Me documentary about him. While discussing the misinterpreted lyrics from the Suicide Solution lawsuit against him he famously said that for years he believed Jimi Hendrix sang the lyric "Excuse Me While I Kiss THIS GUY" in Purple Haze
What's also funny is when English is not your first language and you didn't learn it until you were a teen, and you listened to music in English as a kid and just had no idea what they were saying, but just mimicked the sounds... And then as an adult you hear those songs again and you recognize them, but now you understand the lyrics and you realize how wrong the sounds you were making as a kid were, it's really funny (to you, not anyone else 😄)
Right. But in my case wasn't much the case of misheard lyrics but more sort of hey this sound like. Give you can example. From Tom Petty's Free Falling. The part where he sings : yean I'm free, free falling. well it sounds like what any Mexican at lunchtime would belt out : I want free, frijoles.
There's a Spanish pop song that was popular like twenty years ago called "Asereje," and that's what the song is about. It's about a young Spanish guy singing along to Rapper's Delight, but not knowing the words and singing gibberish.
It’s not easy to hear the lyrics clearly from an AM transistor radio in the late 60’s. I misheard The Buckingham’s “Kind Of A Drag”for Canada Dry, for many years. Lol
The part of the video where Conan talks about mixing up the lyrics of Forever In Blue Jeans reminds of the King of Queens episode where Doug tells Carrie he use to do the same thing when he was younger. 😂
Worked with a guy who swore the song Fat Bottom Girls by Queen was called Black Bottom Girls. He was the musical guy of our job too which made it even more funny.
Googled it and many people thought the same thing, but in the song “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers it sounds like he’s saying “Secret Asian Man” and I cannot for the life of me unhear it. 😂
another wild example of misheard lyrics (Jeff Davis story from Harmontown) is in Van Halen's Panama: "reach down between my legs... ease the seat back" as "reach down between my legs... ease the seed bag"
I'm glad I'm not the only one mishearing, or simply not understanding, lyrics at all! looking up lyrics online has given me many instances of "oh so that's what this song is all about!".
I thought that it was “cheques for free” and used to wonder why they were excited about not playing banking service charges if they got their money for nothing anyway.
it's also a great way to write your own rap lyrics, just throw on some fast paced rap and your brain will figure out new rhymes that aren't actually what is being said
For the longest time, I thought the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" was "Stay in the Light". I dunno, they're urging you to stay in the light! Sounded like reasonable advice to me.
I was prepared for this being funny based on the comment, but I was shocked how hard I laughed when he finally revealed the misheard lyric. Its funnier than you could think.
I misheard the Lyrics to Depeche Modes "Pesonal Jesus" as: " You know ... That's enough ... JESUS". Like Jesus is sitting in a Bar and is having too many drinks and some guy just want's him to stop and go home,
The song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi - until I was 18 I thought he was saying "I just wanna live without a life", and then I thought he was saying "I just wanna live without a wife", and then I finally looked it up and it's "I just wanna live while I'm alive".
OMG! I also thought it was "Reverend Blue Jeans"! That's hilarious - at least I was in good company. I think part of it is that as a child, there are so many expressions that make no sense, and have words you don't really know, so any combination of words seems plausible. As an adult, I enjoy letting my mind find the most ridiculous interpretations of lyrics I can come up with... :)
As someone whose Mother Tongue is Spanish but didn´t learn English until older, to my childhood ears Jim Diamond's "And I Should Have known Better" sounded "Es un chino bombero" [Is a chinese fireman]. Good times... and a good laugh when I learned the actual lyrics.
This is hilarious and so true that a lot of people mishear lyrics! I remember a popular local DJ once said that he thought (before he saw the song title) the lyrics were "There's a bathroom on the right" instead of the correct "There's a bad moon on the rise." I'm with Sona in that I also don't really listen to the lyrics a lot of the time, which is strange, I know, but half the time, I just can't make out what they're singing. Glad to see I'm not the only one who listens to a song as a whole, which is not to say I never take note of the lyrics. After all, that's the whole point of a song---to convey a message.
Embarrassed myself at a sleepover singing along to Bette Midler’s “From a Distance”. The lyric is “from a distance, you look like my friend even though we are at war”. I thought it was, “you look nice, my friend, even though we aren’t warm”. In my defense, I live in Canada and it was released in January.
I thought for years it was "Dirty Deeds and the Thunder Cheif!" like two guys with cool nicknames.
Matt, Sona, Conan, I just wanted to let you guys know that you’re making a real impact in the world - last night my band covered Brown Eyed Girl at a show and I convinced our frontman to sing the lyrics as “Goin down on an old man… for a transistor radio.” It was beautiful and it’s all thanks to you guys.
It's very funny!!! I never Heard this on the song, but is better than the original!!!!!!
Growing up I thought the lyrics to Secret Agent Man were "secret Asian man" and then I'd envision an Asian dude sneaking around while I sang along. 🤣😆
My childhood Asian friend, also thought it was "Secret Asian Man".
Me too
Even after watching Ace Ventura 2 like 1000 times
Thought the exact same of this song. Also 'never leave your Pizza burning' from the Rolling Stones
I never thought it was that but I thought I came up with Secret Asian Man as a joke when I was kid. I thought was so clever until I learned that other people made that leap as well
Back in the mid 90's, my flatmate and I were chilling in the living room, listening to Simon & Garfunkel. Our other flatmate wandered in when Sounds of Silence was playing. In the part, "Silence like a cancer grows..." she sang, with real gusto, "Silence like a casserole!” We couldn't believe it, and still laugh about it to this day 🤣
I read this while drinking tea and nearly choked XDDD
what in the british is going on in here
;'D ;'D I'm reading this to my family tomorrow! That is way too funny!
I though I was the only one who heard it as "Silence like a cancer grows..." :D
@@caitancorreia8379 No, it IS "silence like a cancer grows." You have it right!
Matt's "Do you like subterranean environments?" didn't get the laugh it deserved
Yeah, Conan was dominating the funny there when he should have been vibing with Matt. Matt is pretty damn funny.
100!!
Ehh but the existence of this old man requires mishearing the line about the old mine, so there's no need for him to bring that up in this scenario. Unless that's where he's storing the transistor radio he's looking to trade...
Gorely turned into the boss from smiling friends for a sec.
The best mistaken lyric I've heard is "Slow talking Walter, the fire engine guy." For Smoke on the Water.
Or the old "Bacon carrot biscuits" instead of Taking Care of Business
Kind of has 'bone apple tea" energy
I'm a big fan of "Reeboks or the Nike's" instead of "Rhythm of the Night"
Sounds like a Weird Al parody
Dunder-chee was a line i always heard as well. And "wrapped up like a douche, you know, a loner in the night" was another.
That’s a very common one. So many people hear “douche”
YES!!!
What's the intended word if not douche?
I always wondered what a douchin was.
Yup the douche instead of douce
Growing up, I always heard Alanis Morissette's lyric from You Outta Know as "cross eyed bear" instead of "cross I bear." I thought it was like some teddy bear gift that he gave her and it was cross eyed.
No joke: I actually thought it was "cross eyed bear" until just now when I read your comment and then looked it up to confirm. Even though "cross I bear" makes far more sense in the song, I seriously still can't believe I've had it wrong all this time! But thank you for enlightening me. 🙂
Me too! I vividly remember thinking this as a child.
Same !
;'D ;'D ;'D What?! ;'D Oh my gosh, that's hilarious!
Same!
I first watched this about 9 hours ago and every time I think of it I start laughing uncontrollably all over again. I don't think I've laughed this hard and this much in literal YEARS. Thank you for this glorious gift. :D
💓Hope youre doing well
We germans call them "Agathe Bauer" lyrics or "Anneliese Braun" sometimes because that's what or WHO people thought was mentioned at the start of I've got the Power and California Dreamin'
I was laughing so hard over this part while walking in public 😂
I had to pause my workout from how hard I was laughing at the old man part.
Me too on morning walk 😂
It’s such a curveball and my classmates were creeped out of me just giggles out of nowhere lolll
The old man part I laughed so hard.
Me too. I was going for a walk after dinner and shrieked so loud I frightened the people around me.
I laughed my ass of at this podcast. I'm Australian and as a kid in the 70's, I thought it was "Dunder G" too. I finally feel like I have made it in life. I have something obscure in common with Conan O'Brien. I cant say I extrapolated out the whole "Didgeridoo and Wallaby" explanation, but hey, in my mind it still counts.
My misheard Brown Eyed Girl lyric came from the opening line. I thought it was “Hey wet amigo”
Dude, I almost cried with laughter...
Some of these are just hysterical. Well done.
Your comment made me seriously Laugh Out Loud!!!!!!!!!!
@@petecartwright5211 thanks man
@@dparks3784 thanks mate. Glad you enjoyed it
Yes! I thought it said "hey there amigo" until my mid-20s, and I actually thought it was a cool lyric lol
My 13 year-old brain thought it was "goin' down on an old man WITH a transistor radio". I thought it was the new Rock&Roll way of saying hit him with a loud noise!!!🤣😎
I thought Bob Dylan was singing, “Lady Elaine, lay across my big brass bed.” Lady Elaine, the terrifying puppet from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Omg I thought that exact thing as a kid! Thought I was the I only one 😂 And that made me hate the song
That puppet... wasn't that the one with the very bad case of rosacea on the cheeks? That pupped caused me nightmares; so awful
My favorite is “I wanna rock and roll all night, and part of everyday” instead of “party everyday”
That is just dumb.
@@georgeorwell126hey, some people don’t wanna rock and roll all day everyday. Just part of everyday
Greg?
I hear “and prolly everyday”.
I'm a 37 year old performing musician, and have sung harmony on "Brown Eyed Girl" countless times.. just recently realized it DOES NOT begin with "Hey there amigo.." 🤦♂️
Hahaha, my buddy always thought he sang "hey, mi amigo". Why on Earth a Northern Irish artist would start a song like that is beyond comprehension.
Since nobody put what the actual lyric is, it's "Hey, where did we go?"
A mate at school back in the day convinced me it was "Dirty deeds and the thunder chief" and we're Aussie.
I have also heard someone say this! 😅
I always sang “wrapped up like a douche” instead of “revved up like a deuce”
I think we all did!
I say revved up like a douche in the middle of the night haha still do.
There was a comedy troupe called the Vacant Lot that did a whole sketch borrowing from that premise.
Yeah that was a comedy bit! I think it was on just for laughs on tv all the time. That's why I remember that
Here's the sketch by The Vacant Lot: ua-cam.com/video/U9_3nQFNy-w/v-deo.html
My friend used to hear the lyrics to Winter Wonderland as “In the meadow, we can build a snowman / and pretend that he is sparse and brown.” Which has a lot of pathos, come to think of it.
It really does. Even in his imagination, the snowman looks terrible. 😂
I thought that too. Still don’t know the real lyrics.
I always sing we'll pretend he is Jackson Browne
@colieconiglietta it's parson Brown. Which I believe is a kind of pastor. But fr.... I thought it was "and give it a name and pretend it's Oscar Brown"
@@DaSauceful Ah, so not Carson Brown either
As a foreigner in Japan, sitting in a café, holding down my laughter has been the greatest challenge. And also I must look crazy hunkered down with my shoulders shaking and hand covering my mouth. 😂
And also, MORE MISHEARD LYRICS PLEASE!!! 😂
Is it murder worthy for a person to laugh out loud, in public, in Japan?
@@AbortYurfetuses Pretty much, it's considered extremely impolite
Here’s one (Golden Earring - “Twilight Zone”)
Now I’m stepping into the twilight zone
It’s a two madhouse, feels like being blown
I need a shampoo cause they would have scarred
Where am I to go now that I’ve gone too far?
My best friend used to sing "Dirty Deeds, Thunderchief!"
I'm almost 35 now and I'm still training my brain that it's, "done dirt cheap." It's been 5 years since my friends killed the Thunderchief.
DIRTY DEAN AND THE THUNDER CHIEF
I heard Dunderchief. Because I think there was a character on Talespin with that title, so I thought it was a title or something.
@@manossteele1335 dundercheep for me.
It was thunder jig for me and my family
I 100% thought Van was singing “going down on the old man with a transistor radio” and I never questioned it til now.
They are called mondegreens. Oxford recognized the word in 2002 and it's worth the Wiki moment to see why. I have loved that word forever. My big one was thinking the words to Fame were 'Take your pants off and make it happen'. It's 'take your passion' but, well, they both work.
"Blinded by the light. Wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night." Then as a youngling, learning what `douche` actually meant, made me even more confused!!
They both work 🤣🤣🤣
@@ninjacrumbs omg saaaame 🤣🤣🤣🤣
@Ninja Crumb hahaaas wait you mean it isnt?!?! 😆😂🤣
I heard "take your pants down" lol Glad to hear someone else heard it similarly
Too funny. I remember my sister singing in the elevator at the top of her lungs "Do the funky lady!" instead of "Dude looks like a lady!"
I thought it was " Do the lucky lady ! "
I thought "do it like a lady" but I probably thought the song was made for Mrs doubtfire at the time
With Pearl Jam's song my friend who was also a lead singer for a local band would intentionally sing it as "the butter man" and the crowd loved it.
"Jeremy smoked in class today", is what my cousin always misheard from them
"Glorified version of a pelican"
as a little kid i sang that as "can't find the buttermilk", took me many years to find out that was wrong...shattered my entire imagery of that song.
sounds like "butter milk" to me.
Listen to Glorified G by pearl jam and tell me he doesn't say "won't find pleasure on a pelican" in the chorus
"for some reason, in our house it didnt" 😂😂😂
Gourley looks like a Miami golf instructor with that throwback Lacoste jacket.
I love hearing peoples misheard lyrics. My favorite is my friend who thought the lyrics “lunatic fringe” in the red rider song lunatic fringe was “let me speak French”
Okay I wasn't expecting that! Laughed so hard I started crying.
I worked landscaping gig years ago and was doing lawn clean-up with a teenage kid that would listen to the radio through headphones. He really enjoyed Steve Winwood's "Rake Me A Pile of Love."
After telling him I thought is was a hilarious parody and relevant to the work we were doing, he told me he thought that was the actual lyric. 😅😅
As a French native, I always thought I was "singing yogurt" (that's what we call it in French) because of the language barrier. Seeing someone as culturally savvy as Conan get fooled just the same is a huge relieve :) :) :)
I feel you
I thought it was "Gunning down the old man with a transistor radio" as if they are blaring and blasting the music at him to annoy him.
“You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille. With four hundred children and a crop in the field.” 😊
Also, as a kid, I misheard the lyric in Irene Cara's "Flashdance.... What A Feeling" that goes "take your passion and make it happen" as "take your PANTS OFF and make it happen". I was always so uncomfortable when my mom would turn that song up in the car and sing along.
Years ago kids would loudly sing Cyndi Lauper's "She Bop" song, having no idea what it meant.
Years ago I had a desk calendar of misheard lyrics, and January 1st of that year was "'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!" vs, "kiss the sky". I"m more thrown off when I learn the proper lines to movie quotes, because I'm forever quoting movies. Nothing silly, just wrong. It was only a few years ago I learned that Luke says to Yoda "You want the impossible" after he tried lifting the X-wing out of the swamp. I thought he just said "you are impossible."
Conan, you're not the only one. The drummer in my old band thought it was "Dirty deeds and the dunderchee"
The O. Henry twist just had to be that his parents bought everyone in the house their own transistor radios.
I didn't think I could love Conan more 🤣🤣🤣
Freaking love this man
Love him some more and you could get a transistor radio...
I completely understand, understanding Van is challenging.
The term for misheard/misunderstood lyrics is "mondegreen". From the song, "The Bonny Earl O'Moray" which has the lyrics "... laid him on the green" which are sometimes interpreted as "Lady Mondegreen".
Matt's pause and the delivery of "Just some woman named Joyce?" was sweet comedic timing
I'm pleased I'm not the only person that appreciated that!
Let’s not forget the Go Go’s hit “Alex The Seal”
Another common one is Bad Moon Rising. "There's a Bathroom on the Right!"
Oh, God - this maybe me cry and heave with laughter. I remember being little in the family station wagon and thinking the lyrics to Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You" were "When you walked into the room, there was doodoo in my pants."
I knew that didn't really line up with "voodoo in the vibes", but I had no idea what voodoo or vibes were, so that gave it some kind of context.
That Flashdance song "What A Feeling" was always on the radio when I was a kid and I swore she said "Take your pants down, and make it happen" 😅
As for Neil Diamond, I always heard it Rebel In Blue Jeans
I have a friend who misheard "And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the navy; And probably will be for life" from 'Piano Man' as "And he's talkin' with Davy, **who's covered in gravy**; And probably will be for life". He told me this easily 15/20 years ago, possibly longer, and I have not been able to un-hear that ever since. Thanks, Joe. LOL
John Fogerty's Bad Moon Rising has a commonly misheard lyric of Bathroom on the right and he actually incorporated the misheard lyric in one of his live performances.
I had a lot of these. One for example from my childhood was ELO's Evil Woman, which I heard as Medieval Woman (if you listen to the song, the mistake isn't as strange as it sounds).
I've always sang it that way and won't change
Secret Agent/Asian Man...I swear it sounds like either one is correct.
I remember, as a kid riding in the backseat of my parents' car: Aaron Neville's "Everybody Plays the Fool" was on. Towards the end of the song I asked, "Why isnt anybody playing the spoons in this song?" My momstarted laughing and asked me why I thought someone should be playing the spoons. "Because he keeps singing "everybody plays the spoons, sometimes."
A great song from the late Prince back in the 80s was “Pay the Rent Collette” about a hard-working prostitute with a heart of gold who “needs to find a job that’s gonna last”
OMG - that’s amazing. 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Conan should do a recurring segment about misheard lyrics. It would be amazing!
I would love that😂😂
@@shervongaskins1148 Me too 😁 👍
It's been done.. but it's always amusing
@@masterofallgoons True.
i remember a bit about misheard lyrics on jimmy fallon. hilarious!
I also sang it as "going down the old man with a transistor radio". Thanks to Conan I know better.
Same, like I always imagined someone going after an old man with the radio
2:18 brings back happy memories of the Conan learns Australian episode
When the Steve Miller Band sang about a “big ol’ jet airliner” I instead heard, “Vigo, Chad, and Lionel, don’t carry me too far away!” and assumed that his friends were a bad influence on him.
My dad used to think "hold me closer tiny dancer" was "hold me closer Tony Danza" hahaha
"Dirty deeds and they're done with sheep" That was my version.
AC/DC are Australian, not New Zealanders.
That fits Australians too. 😂😂😂
I was in traffic, driving in heavy snow, frustrated after a hard day at work, hungry and angry and just wanted to get home and crash on the bed. But as I was listening to the podcast, this part came up and I was howling laughing in the car like a madman and got to home in a much better mood. so, thanks team COCO for your public health service!
Mine was Jessie’s Girl… I swore that the chorus was “I wish that I was Jessie’s Girl”. I assumed it was another Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side-esque, ode to gender-fluid love. I walked around in the 80s singing it, and no one ever corrected me.
Lol damn I still thought that until I read this
Hmmmm. I still thought that’s what he was singing!
@@faytlyte25 Me too!
Omg what are the real lyrics? This is what I still sing.
@@cbmk788 It's "I wish that I HAD Jessie's Girl".
This reminds me of an interview Ozzy gave in the Don't Blame Me documentary about him. While discussing the misinterpreted lyrics from the Suicide Solution lawsuit against him he famously said that for years he believed Jimi Hendrix sang the lyric "Excuse Me While I Kiss THIS GUY" in Purple Haze
I misheard trouble in Suez in Billy Joel’s We didn’t start the fire as trouble in the sewers
i literally had this exact experience as a child and can still remember my mum endlessly laughing about it
What's also funny is when English is not your first language and you didn't learn it until you were a teen, and you listened to music in English as a kid and just had no idea what they were saying, but just mimicked the sounds... And then as an adult you hear those songs again and you recognize them, but now you understand the lyrics and you realize how wrong the sounds you were making as a kid were, it's really funny (to you, not anyone else 😄)
Right. But in my case wasn't much the case of misheard lyrics but more sort of hey this sound like. Give you can example. From Tom Petty's Free Falling. The part where he sings : yean I'm free, free falling. well it sounds like what any Mexican at lunchtime would belt out : I want free, frijoles.
My husband always thought it was dirty deeds/gang de cheap.
I kind of wish I was a non-native English speaker so I could experience that lol 😂
There's a Spanish pop song that was popular like twenty years ago called "Asereje," and that's what the song is about. It's about a young Spanish guy singing along to Rapper's Delight, but not knowing the words and singing gibberish.
Same here! That's a special non-English speaker's delight
I always would sing smash mouths all stars as “all that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break your nose”
It’s not easy to hear the lyrics clearly from an AM transistor radio in the late 60’s. I misheard The Buckingham’s “Kind Of A Drag”for Canada Dry, for many years. Lol
My sister insisted that "Juke Box Hero" was "Juice Box Hero".
To be fair she was 6 and juice boxes were a top 3 thing at the time.
My daughter sings van Morrison's Gloria as 'oreo', so I can relate
The part of the video where Conan talks about mixing up the lyrics of Forever In Blue Jeans reminds of the King of Queens episode where Doug tells Carrie he use to do the same thing when he was younger. 😂
Ah yes, thanks! I knew that sounded really familiar, but couldn't quite figure what sitcom had the exact same story. Weird.
Yes!
Worked with a guy who swore the song Fat Bottom Girls by Queen was called Black Bottom Girls. He was the musical guy of our job too which made it even more funny.
I thought it was “Flat Bottom Girls” for the longest.
Googled it and many people thought the same thing, but in the song “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers it sounds like he’s saying “Secret Asian Man” and I cannot for the life of me unhear it. 😂
I literally always thought it was “hold me closer Tony Danza” so I completely understand
wait that not the lyric? XD
Like phoebe in friends
@@ooscardls Tiny dancer, not Tony Danza, lol.
Oh bullshit
Hahaha
another wild example of misheard lyrics (Jeff Davis story from Harmontown) is in Van Halen's Panama: "reach down between my legs... ease the seat back" as "reach down between my legs... ease the seed bag"
‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy’ lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one mishearing, or simply not understanding, lyrics at all!
looking up lyrics online has given me many instances of "oh so that's what this song is all about!".
"Get your money for nothing and your chips for free"
I thought that it was “cheques for free” and used to wonder why they were excited about not playing banking service charges if they got their money for nothing anyway.
Mine was “Michael rowed his boat ashore, 'How'd He Do That?'"
I laughed at this one. 🤣 That's great!!
When I was a kid my mom made fun of me for singing “dirty deeds and the thunder chief!” Lol
I heard it as 'Thunder Cheese!' Obviously I knew that wasn't it, but I still can't help but hear it.
I thought, "I want a new drug", was I want a new TRUCK... for too long.
reverend blue jeans is what I always thought it was lol.
Same here :)
Till Tuesday - "This is scary"
3:29 Matt Gourley's laugh is so contagious
Ohh Conan! This is why I love listening to you. Your little stories❤️
Sometimes it's fun to mishear lyrics. It's a small step from that to parody.
it's also a great way to write your own rap lyrics, just throw on some fast paced rap and your brain will figure out new rhymes that aren't actually what is being said
For the longest time, I thought the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive" was "Stay in the Light". I dunno, they're urging you to stay in the light! Sounded like reasonable advice to me.
I think the number of songs are endless and often times the lyrics we hear are better than the original.
O'Briens just love giving clock radios as gifts.
I was prepared for this being funny based on the comment, but I was shocked how hard I laughed when he finally revealed the misheard lyric. Its funnier than you could think.
Make this an ongoing segment!
i don't want to imagine a world without conan
I misheard the Lyrics to Depeche Modes "Pesonal Jesus" as: " You know ... That's enough ... JESUS". Like Jesus is sitting in a Bar and is having too many drinks and some guy just want's him to stop and go home,
The song "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi - until I was 18 I thought he was saying "I just wanna live without a life", and then I thought he was saying "I just wanna live without a wife", and then I finally looked it up and it's "I just wanna live while I'm alive".
Huh, I thought he was saying I just wanna live my life haha
I thought it was "I just want to live while I'm a guy" for the longest time
OMG! I also thought it was "Reverend Blue Jeans"! That's hilarious - at least I was in good company.
I think part of it is that as a child, there are so many expressions that make no sense, and have words you don't really know, so any combination of words seems plausible. As an adult, I enjoy letting my mind find the most ridiculous interpretations of lyrics I can come up with... :)
As someone whose Mother Tongue is Spanish but didn´t learn English until older, to my childhood ears Jim Diamond's "And I Should Have known Better" sounded "Es un chino bombero" [Is a chinese fireman].
Good times... and a good laugh when I learned the actual lyrics.
This is hilarious and so true that a lot of people mishear lyrics! I remember a popular local DJ once said that he thought (before he saw the song title) the lyrics were "There's a bathroom on the right" instead of the correct "There's a bad moon on the rise." I'm with Sona in that I also don't really listen to the lyrics a lot of the time, which is strange, I know, but half the time, I just can't make out what they're singing. Glad to see I'm not the only one who listens to a song as a whole, which is not to say I never take note of the lyrics. After all, that's the whole point of a song---to convey a message.
Sometimes a singer doesn't enunciate the lyrics well, so you have to guess.
Little boy blew.
He needed a transistor radio.
Oh!
I used to mishear James Ingram and Michael McDonald's "Yah Mo B There" as "I'm a Beaver"
"Hold me closer, Tony Danza"
"Count the headlights on the Highway"
I had a friend who heard “Do it Like a Lady” for “Dude Looks Like a Lady”. My wife thought “Heard it in a Love Song” was “Pretty Little Love Song”.
"there goes my hero, Sergeant Air Raid!"
Embarrassed myself at a sleepover singing along to Bette Midler’s “From a Distance”. The lyric is “from a distance, you look like my friend even though we are at war”. I thought it was, “you look nice, my friend, even though we aren’t warm”. In my defense, I live in Canada and it was released in January.