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Oblique Cliches Or Idiom

From This Might Be A Wiki

Sudden left turns in the middles of cliches. Clever references to cliches or idioms.

  • Absolutely Bill's Mood - "I know monkey see, but monkey's dead" ("Monkey see, monkey do.")
  • Bangs - "Are that on which the world hangs" (e.g., "The fate of the world hangs in the balance.")
  • Birdhouse In Your Soul - "Not to put too fine a point on it, say I'm the only bee in your bonnet"
  • Cage And Aquarium - "This is the spawning of the Cage and Aquarium" ("This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius," a lyric from the musical Hair)
  • Chess Piece Face - "There go I but for my face" ("There go I but for the grace of God")
  • Cowtown - "The yellow Roosevelt Avenue leaf overturned" ("The Yellow Rose of Texas," "Roosevelt Avenue," "A new leaf overturned")
  • Don't Let's Start - "Wake up and smell the cat food" ("Wake Up and Smell the Coffee," an 80s corporate slogan); "The tail that wags the hound"
  • Fun Assassin - "Stab me in the front" (stabbing one in the back); "Where did we bury the time?" ("killing time")
  • Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal - "I could never sleep my way to the top... 'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up"; "You scratch my back and I'll scratch your record"
  • Hide Away Folk Family - "Sadly, the Cross-eyed Bear's been put to sleep beneath the stairs" ("Gladly the cross I'd bear," a popular lyric from the hymn "Keep Thou My Way"; also the mondegreen "Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear")
  • How Much Cake Can You Eat? - "We can trust you, we can throw you" (e.g., "I trust him as far as I can throw him.")
  • I'll Sink Manhattan - "A river of tiny tears flow from your crocodile eyes" ("crocodile tears")
  • I'm Impressed - "On the one hand, he'll give you five good reasons to follow him" (an oblique mention of his fist)
  • I've Got A Match - "I've got a match, your embrace and my collapse" (the old joke: when someone asks, "Have you got a match?", you reply, "Yes, your face and my ass")
  • Letterbox - "Cause a little bird never tells me anything I want to know" (e.g., "A little bird told me.")
  • Louisiana - "They've pulled the wool down over me and I can't see" (e.g., "pulling the wool over" one's eyes)
  • Memo To Human Resources - "I'm searching for some disbelief that I can still suspend" ("suspension of disbelief")
  • My Evil Twin - "Bad weather friend" ("fair weather friend")
  • Narrow Your Eyes - "They say love is blind / I don't think you're blind"
  • Nothing's Gonna Change My Clothes - "And nothing's smellin' like a rose"
  • Out Of Jail - "I wish I'd gotten to know her before I fell in love" ("love at first sight")
  • Pencil Rain - "The possible dream" ("To dream the impossible dream," a lyric from the musical Don Quixote, a cinematic reference to which being TMBG's namesake)
  • Rhythm Section Want Ad - "Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank"; "Speak softly, drive a Sherman tank" (e.g., "Laughing all the way to the bank," and "Speak softly, carry a big stick," quote by Theodore Roosevelt)
  • Santa Cruz - "Somebody invented a gun that shoots flowers"
  • She's An Angel - "Somewhere they're meeting on a pinhead"
  • Snowball In Hell - "Money I owe / Money I-ay"
  • Stand On Your Own Head - The whole song contains well-known sayings that have been given that special Linnell twist -- or stood on their head.
  • Thunderbird - "Before you fall, you have to learn to crawl" ("Before you can walk, you have to learn to crawl.")
  • Triops Has Three Eyes - "There are two sides to every story, but triangles have three"
  • Unsupervised, I Hit My Head - "You could count on me with just one hand"
  • Upside Down Frown - A play on the request to "turn that frown upside down" and smile
  • We Live In A Dump - "While the monkeys type away" (Infinite Monkey Theorem - an infinite number of monkeys typing randomly on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually type out the collected works of William Shakespeare.)
  • We Want A Rock - Sounds like "We wanna rock."
  • Whistling In The Dark - Not really twisted, but not used in its usual context.
  • Withered Hope - "And he cut out a paper heart, pinned it to his arm" literally says he was wearing the heart on the sleeve (which is proved by the lines that follow: "Gave her everything he was holding in his head..." etc.)
  • Your Racist Friend - "He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking"
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