It's an old dance injury.

[mrissa]

One of the hazards of enrolling your child in dance classes is that 27 years later, she may be trying to get her vertigo-induced nausea to settle down enough that she can sleep, and she may be doing other things and concentrating hard on other things and find that, without planning on it, she is singing, "All I want is a happy hippopotamus to keep me companeeeeeeeeee."

You can be forgiven for not foreseeing this terrible eventuality. But some experiences stick with you for life, and apparently the happy hippopotamus song is one of them.

Comments

[zeborah]

I'm now earwormed with "but I can't 'hippopotamus'!"

Also the "baby elephants in action walk" song, which is so far in my past that that's the only line I remember.

And then I recall the "Walking talking living doll" song and... the lyrics (mind pop-ups and ads) are rather creepier than I remembered, what the heck were our primary school teachers thinking of???

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's...quite appalling. Wow.

[arkuat]

I'm just left thinking of Shweta and her mippo.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, apparently she has all I want. Or all I wanted when I was 4. Or all my dance teachers told me to want when I was 4. Or something.

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure V. will still remember the ballerina bear in 27 years. I'll put money in the therapy fund right now, thanks for the heads-up.

[cathshaffer.livejournal.com]

You should get yourself to a sports injury specialist ASAP. If you let something like that go, it could spread and you could find yourself embroiled in a dance battle in the bread aisle at your grocery store.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, timprov does the grocery shopping, but I realize that's just a stopgap measure.

[moiread]

Now I have the hippopotamus for Christmas song stuck in my head.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know this song, but I take responsibility anyway.

[moiread]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7xjjlUbpJ4

Now it can be stuck in your head too. ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Aren't you sweet.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Yes, this was the hippo song that my kids ended up dancing to.

[pmrabble.livejournal.com]

Go hug your parents. They've been having flashbacks to this for the last 27 years. I speak from experience.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

I am earwormed. "A lion is fion..."

Did you only get this one in dance class, or did you have the whole album (with all its other earworms), as we did?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Al...bum?

I know that dance teachers do not tend to write and record songs from scratch just so their 4-year-olds have something to dance to, but it did not occur to my adult brain that this would be part of something larger. Gosh.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

Album, indeed. It was called something like Paddy Muldoon and His Magic Green Balloon.

Hang on a sec, I've got an internet right here.

It's Patrick Muldoon and His Magic Balloon, narrated by Carmel Quinn. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1966, and my family acquired it shortly thereafter. We were about the right ages - I was five. It furnished my childhood but is far too twee for anyone over the age of nine. I can still remember bits of every song on it; two or three earworm me frequently.

The NFPA lists it as a class 2 memetic hazard (strong earworm, no chance someone will beat you up for singing it aloud) and recommends appropriate safety gear.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Looking at the track listing, I guess they only wanted to use the one song, because none of the rest rings any bells, and I often remember music involuntarily, so I think I might if we'd heard it.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I wonder what kind of memetic hazard the Letter People songs are. I can still do bits of some of them, one or two with choreography.