) OCT 20 (2026) singable satire: 'RE-DUPLICATIONS" (part #2, L to Z)

 

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the eighth of nine in the series on Word Pairs. You can find the links to the lyrics of the previous songs at the bottom of the post. 

EXPLANATION:

 For a discussion of reduplications on an earlier post on this blogsite, click HERE. The current post also honours our previous venture of Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications'.  

UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE". Click HERE to proceed to this site. 

Many of these words and phrases have fascinating stories of their origin and subsequent use; the hotlinks highlight those with instructive or amusing information available on the web.

There’s lazy Daisy, loosey-goosey, Ling Ling, and lickety-split
And lovey-dovey, legal eagle, mellow yellow, and nitwit,
And mumbo-jumbo, muck-a-muck, Mau Mau, Bony Moronie
And Mai Tai, mole hole, nitty-gritty, phony (fake)--baloney.

There’s namby-pamby, no-no, ooey-gooey, okey-doke, ping pong,
And pom-pom, palsy-walsy, pasty faced, slap-happy, singalong
And pow-wow, pitter-patter, pooper-scooper, plain Jane, and pell-mell
And poo-poo (scat), pooh-pooh (reject), and pupu (snack); how can you tell?

There’s quick fix, quack-quack, razzle-dazzle, rail trail, ragtag, ring-aling
And razzmattaz, and rumble-tumble, Roger dodger, and Sing Sing.
And ready Freddy, rollick-frolic, “fuddle-duddle” (P. Trudeau)
And roly-poly, rinky-dink and super-duper, or so-so.

There’s shock jock, sure cure, snip-snap, sci-fi, smartcart, shipshape, stunning gun,
And silly billy, speed read, shilly-shally, squish-squash, stumblebum,
And shady lady, seesaw, space race, Star Wars, snail mail, PigglyWig’
And tutti-frutti, tittle-tattle, tiki, tip-top, thing’majig.

There’s teeter-totter, tootsie-wootsie, teentsie-weentsie, and tee-tee
And tom-toms drumming, tartar, tum-tum, tattle-tale, uh-huh, TV
And tubby-wubby, wishy-washy, willy-nilly, woman’s womb
And walkie-talkie, wingding, yo-yo, yoo-hoo! zig-zag and zoom-zoom.

Ta-Dah !!!

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Many of these words and phrases have fascinating stories of their origin and subsequent use; the hotlinks highlight those with instructive or amusing information available on the web, as follows:

Ling Ling, lickety-split, mellow yellow, nitwit, muck-a-muck, Mau Mau, mumbo-jumbo, Bony Moronie, Mai Tai, nitty-gritty, phony-balo-oney, namby-pamby, okey-doke, pom-pom, pow-wow, pell-mell, Roger dodger, Sing Sing, “fuddle-duddle”, roly-poly, rinky-dink,shock jock, sci-fi, stun gun, shady lady, seesaw, space race, tutti-frutti, , tiki, teeter-totter, tom-toms tartar, ,willy-nilly, walkie-talkie, yo-yo, zig-zag and zoom-zoom.

And, for those interested, here's how you find the lyrics-only-version

of the nine songs that make up this cycle. If you would like to  accompany yourself on ukulele or guitar, find relevant chord charts by following the links that will take you to the versions in our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". 

1. PAIRS, to the tune of "Words" in the style of the Beegees

...  the following songs in the style of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer

2. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#1

3. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#2

4. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#1

5. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#2

6. A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS

7. REDUPLICATIONS, part#1

8. REDUPLICATIONS, part#2

9. LEGALISTIC DOUBLETS, in the style of "Supercalifragilistic..." from  the musical "Mary Poppins"

OCT 15, 2026: ReDUPLICATIONS, claptrap #4 [3]

     

This post represents the continuation of a collection of verses about the grammatical device, REDUPLICATIONS, as displayed on this blog on October 15, 2023 (claptrap #1), October 15, 2024 (claptrap #2) and October 15, 2025 (claptrap #3).

previous poetic posts (Note that captions are available for poems displayed on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" as of 2024).

(claptrap #1): cootchie-(cootchie-)coo, claptrap, dilly-dally, fuddle-duddle, fuddy-duddy.  

(claptrap #2): hanky-panky, harum-scarum, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, hilbilly.

(claptrap #3): hobos, hocus-pocus, hodge-podge.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#4 -- October 15, 2026) 
Hoi polloi
Holus-bolus
Hubba-bubba. 

Authors' Note:

bubba: stereotyped male inhabitant of the southern US with an upbeat, but macho attitude

Bubba: frequent nickname for a specific male, as used by his buddies

rubba: rubber (American slang for condom), with typical non-rhotic pronunciation

chick: southern girl

hubba-hubba: intriguing (re)duplication, presumably originating in the US a century ago; an expression of approval voiced by males when viewing a sexually attractive chick.

 The previous page is sending you to https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/06/hubba-hubba.html.

OCT 10, 2026: PINKOS -- FORWARD THINKERS [3]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Communist church

Vegetarianism

Gamophobic socialist

Authors' Note: Liberal thinking seized Europe towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Emboldened by the partial successes of the politically-targeted Chartists, intellectuals were drawn to idealistic social movements such as communitarianism. According to Wikipedia, John Goodwyn Barmby (1820 – 1881), one of its principals, introduced the term 'communist', based on the French le communisme and founded a revue called The Communist Chronicle. Seeking a spiritual path, he later founded the Communist Church, a sect that had congregations numbering in the teens at its peak. When the church folded in 1849, Barmby became active as a Unitarian minister.

Authors' Note: The authors, Ontario anapestrians, have not eaten meat in two decades. The restaurant scene in Ontario, as in some other world-wide destinations, has gradually become more hospitable to vegan and vegetarian preferences, such as Theresa's and the authors'. This development can be attributed in part to our influx of newcomers from south and east Asia. Meat-eaters can still be readily accommodated, however.

Authors' Note:   Gamophobia is an irrational fear of getting married, or of interpersonal commitment. Gamophobic individuals, or gamophobes, whatever their political views, are people who harbour such neurotic anxieties.

The slogan "better red than dead" was mentioned in a book that British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in 1961, in the face of a potential East-West nuclear confrontation; it was subsequently adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, an organization that Russell helped found. The slogan has been used in both directions, with hardline rightwingers sometimes proclaiming "Better dead then red".

Note that a related disorder, gynophobia, is discussed in another of our intriguing and informative verses.                                                                                 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

OCT 5, 2026: Limericks and locks: The Poetry of CANALS

Swan guiding barge,
lower end of St-Martin Canal

The current offering meshes with a developing slew of map-art blogposts by Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH. With all this mental energy focusing backwards and forwards on palindromes, it is hard to avoid the subject of canals. And to help wordplay-buffs focus on palindromes about canals, here is an ancient blogpost on the subject: CANALINDROMES


...

Also, check out these collections of wordplay-maps by Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym)
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Old World #1
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Old World #2
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Old World #3
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Old World #4
and...
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Americas #1
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Americas #2
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Americas #3
 - Tourists' Palindromic Guide: The Americas #4
 - INTRODUCTORY CONCLUSION: The Tourists' Palindromic Guides  
as well as a didactic post explaining the origin and rationale of 

"Magical Palindromes"

To read more about the origin, creation and listing of magical palindromes, click or cluck here to get to Giorgio's original blogpost on the topic.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of February 2023, there are 1100 entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

) SEP 25 (2026) singable satire: 'STARTING POINT 1948'

MUSICAL UNDEPINNINGS: "Born Free", Matt Monro, 1966
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT: United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 , 1948. * 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January 2016.



* "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." 


STARTING POINT 1948

(to the tune of "Born Free" - these first 4 verses fit best with the melody of the 2nd and 3rd verse of the original)

All human beings are born free,

Of dignity worthy

And equal in basic fact.

Endowed with reason and goodness

A spirit of brotherhood

Should motivate their acts.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres

En droits ils sont égaux

Ainsi qu’en dignité

Doués de conscience et de raison

Ils doivent se comporter dans

Un esprit de fraternité.

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres

En derechos están iguales

Y también en dignidad

Dotados de razón y conciencia

Deben comportarse

Con ánimo de hermandad.

Vse ljudi rozhdayutsya svobodnymi

Dostoyny uvazheniya

I ravnymi v osnovnykh pravakh

Nadelennyy prichine I dobra

Dukh bratstva

Mozhet vdokhnovit’ svoi deystviya.

(sing to verse#1 pattern of the original song, then continue )

Some schemed, six decades before us
Their voices implore us
Hold course until we’re all free.

Their world had huge imperfections

They craved free elections,
Disbanding of colonies.

East, West: great walls did divide them
And victims of apartheid -
Disparities so wide.

Dreamed free, they helped us to get there
Their efforts we’ll all share
‘Til we’re ‘born free’.

(Instrumental bridge)
They dreamed of our works-in-progress
Abuses to be redressed
Whatever race or sect.

They framed a great Declaration
To challenge each nation -
We’re all born free.

  _________________________________________________________________________