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Song Parodies -> "These Places I've Been Fired"
Original Song Title:
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
(MP3)Original Performer:
Billy Joel
Parody Song Title:
"These Places I've Been Fired"
Parody Written by:
wannabemustangjockey
The Lyrics
It's rough when you've gone through several jobs. But when you've gone through more than 120 jobs ... on two different continents ... you get this song.(More than 95% of the businesses mentioned in it are real.)
Barnes and Noble, Frito-Lay, Mel's Diner, Mary Kay
Sharper Image, Staedtler Pencils, Caravaggio
Falso Carting, Brown & Dixon, Martin-Baker, Univision
Broadway Kia, Mamma Mia's, Arlington/Roe
Budweiser, AllCom, Union Bay and Nordstrom
Brillo, Sunny Delight, Uncle Bob's Sightseeing Flights
Oscar Mayer, Walgreens, English muffin Q.C.*
JC Penney, Gibbs, Hitachi, Santa Ana Best Buy
These places I've been fired
Every time I land 'em
It's not like I planned 'em
These places I've been fired
If it wasn't sucking
I could keep on trucking
Baskin Robbins, Yamaha, Dashers and Wachovia
Bonwit Teller, Camper Central, H&R Block
Bridgestone, Texaco, Mitsubishi, Enron
Rent [a] Wreck, U-Haul, Howard Miller Clocks
Red Vines, Wendy's, Brooklyn's litter pick-up team
Dell Computer, Muffler Man, Matchbox/Lesney, Disneyland
Starbucks, Photofest, Kaplan SAT Prep
Hostess Cakes, The North Face, scrubbing out the sewers
These places I've been fired
They all claim I'm shirking
Say I'm never working
These places I've been fired
I would show industry
If they said they want me
Microsoft, Handi-Snacks, Lockheed Martin, Pontiac
Cheap Trick, Lover Spy, PhysOrg bionic eyes
Bennetton, CP Hall, California's Great Mall
Best Western, llama rides, building Fleetwood double-wides
Uncle Wally's, Gnad Fur, Brass Monkeys, Nokia
Phoenix Hoops, Castrol, Little Debbie Ho-Hos
JetBlue, Sara Lee, AOL and Krispy-Kreme
Carl's Jr., Tyco, registers at Costco
These places I've been fired
No I'm not a poser
Nor a cheap brown-noser
These places I've been fired
Well, they could have told me
Maybe tried to mold me
Gentry Way, Strike Ten, "Stranger Lazy"** stagehand
DelFin, Charmin, planning dream vacations
Hooters as the janitor, (later as the manager)
SiliconGlen, Landis Meats, Albertson's
Wal-Mart, Terminix, Off Fifth (a subsid.*** of Saks)
Triple-A, Chevrolet, where else can I work today
These places I've been fired
I may not be earning
But I'm always learning
These places I've been fired
Went to school on weeknights
Hit the job-search websites
Flood control, Wrigley Mints, Famous Fixins, Now & Zen
Chevron, Westclox, Shepherd's Gate, Clorox
Canon, Kragen, Gallo Wines, Continental Airlines
Coca-Cola (driving vans), Russian vodka salesman
"Wheel of Fortune", LG Pies, Harley Rentals, Saudi Tide
Tailor Decks, UPS, racetrack grooming tech
Microderm-abrasion Store, Old Montana Prison tours
Right now I'm castrating boars, I can't take it anymore!
These places I've been fired
It takes up ten pages
Of my resumee, yes
These places I've been fired
Scratch another one
Then I will move on, and on, and on, and on...
These places I've been fired
'Cause I need enjoyment
Not just plain employment
These places I've been fired
I just came from John Deere
Can I get a job here?
---
* Q.C.: Quality Control
** Stranger Lazy: an indie rock band
*** subsid: subsidiary
Sharper Image, Staedtler Pencils, Caravaggio
Falso Carting, Brown & Dixon, Martin-Baker, Univision
Broadway Kia, Mamma Mia's, Arlington/Roe
Budweiser, AllCom, Union Bay and Nordstrom
Brillo, Sunny Delight, Uncle Bob's Sightseeing Flights
Oscar Mayer, Walgreens, English muffin Q.C.*
JC Penney, Gibbs, Hitachi, Santa Ana Best Buy
These places I've been fired
Every time I land 'em
It's not like I planned 'em
These places I've been fired
If it wasn't sucking
I could keep on trucking
Baskin Robbins, Yamaha, Dashers and Wachovia
Bonwit Teller, Camper Central, H&R Block
Bridgestone, Texaco, Mitsubishi, Enron
Rent [a] Wreck, U-Haul, Howard Miller Clocks
Red Vines, Wendy's, Brooklyn's litter pick-up team
Dell Computer, Muffler Man, Matchbox/Lesney, Disneyland
Starbucks, Photofest, Kaplan SAT Prep
Hostess Cakes, The North Face, scrubbing out the sewers
These places I've been fired
They all claim I'm shirking
Say I'm never working
These places I've been fired
I would show industry
If they said they want me
Microsoft, Handi-Snacks, Lockheed Martin, Pontiac
Cheap Trick, Lover Spy, PhysOrg bionic eyes
Bennetton, CP Hall, California's Great Mall
Best Western, llama rides, building Fleetwood double-wides
Uncle Wally's, Gnad Fur, Brass Monkeys, Nokia
Phoenix Hoops, Castrol, Little Debbie Ho-Hos
JetBlue, Sara Lee, AOL and Krispy-Kreme
Carl's Jr., Tyco, registers at Costco
These places I've been fired
No I'm not a poser
Nor a cheap brown-noser
These places I've been fired
Well, they could have told me
Maybe tried to mold me
Gentry Way, Strike Ten, "Stranger Lazy"** stagehand
DelFin, Charmin, planning dream vacations
Hooters as the janitor, (later as the manager)
SiliconGlen, Landis Meats, Albertson's
Wal-Mart, Terminix, Off Fifth (a subsid.*** of Saks)
Triple-A, Chevrolet, where else can I work today
These places I've been fired
I may not be earning
But I'm always learning
These places I've been fired
Went to school on weeknights
Hit the job-search websites
Flood control, Wrigley Mints, Famous Fixins, Now & Zen
Chevron, Westclox, Shepherd's Gate, Clorox
Canon, Kragen, Gallo Wines, Continental Airlines
Coca-Cola (driving vans), Russian vodka salesman
"Wheel of Fortune", LG Pies, Harley Rentals, Saudi Tide
Tailor Decks, UPS, racetrack grooming tech
Microderm-abrasion Store, Old Montana Prison tours
Right now I'm castrating boars, I can't take it anymore!
These places I've been fired
It takes up ten pages
Of my resumee, yes
These places I've been fired
Scratch another one
Then I will move on, and on, and on, and on...
These places I've been fired
'Cause I need enjoyment
Not just plain employment
These places I've been fired
I just came from John Deere
Can I get a job here?
---
* Q.C.: Quality Control
** Stranger Lazy: an indie rock band
*** subsid: subsidiary
(c) 2006 Jay the Wannabe Mustang Jockey -- I don't just write song parodies
Your Vote & Comment Counts
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Voting Results
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Voting Breakdown
The following represent how many people voted for each category.
| Pacing | How Funny | Overall Rating | |||||||||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||||||||
| 5 | 24 | 24 | 26 |
User Comments
Comments are subject to review, and can be removed by the administration of the site at any time and for any reason.
Good job working the places into the lyrics with the pacing and rhyme schemes. I was hoping to see more events that led to getting fired from some of them though, which I thought could add more humor rather that just a "list of jobs". (for example, Scarfed the ice cream from a troth, Baskin Robbins cut me off...). Don't get me wrong, I liked it, and I know it's a tough song. Just my take.
I swear, you are not human. You just cannot keep spinning off such good material so quickly. I didn't find We Didn't Start The Fire so easy when I did it, but I don't think I could do it again. Geez.
What Jeff said. Nice list, not real funny but, still five-worthy.
quite the resume...lol
Love the concept on this one. And it points out yet another use for the Yellow Pages.
Regarding the "not funny" claims, here's my two cents. Even if a parody isn't side-splittingly hilarious, a good use of words and a sense that a lot of work was put into it can easily make up for it. How do you think "serious" works like Adagio's come to earn high praise? While I can be a pacing fascist at times, I only dock for humor if something is horribly awry. And it can also be argued that Stu's "These Women I've Desired" wasn't funny in that sense either since it was just really a listing of names...but there were some definite good lines in the choruses, and it was good enough to place second in SOTM. Don't get me wrong Stu, I really did enjoy your parody and don't mean to disgrace it in any way. (Or perhaps I can't "appreciate" it in the same way because I'm a heterosexual female. Go figure.)
Hmmmmm....this was good work, Jockey; well-written if not LOL funny. List parodies are a devil to write and put humour in, and you did this in spades when you strayed from the list, two examples being "Hooters as the janitor, (later as the manager)" and "Best Western, llama rides, building Fleetwood double-wides".....so overall not your best (and you've written some absolute corkers) but still 5's worthy without doubt
I thought it was very clever. And hey - you were that bagger at Albertson's who always leaves an item out of our bags, weren'tcha? Confess! ;-)
Cat, I did not insult wannabemustangjockey by saying this parody is not really funny. There is no need for anyone to come to his defense here. I said 555 and voted the same and, for the same reasons you gave. Personally, I prefer more humor. We're "Making fun of music, one song at a time" after all. The Declaration of Independence is a "good use of words, with a lot of work put into it" but, I don't want to come here to read it. I come here to laugh. Pardon me for expressing my opinion.
What Rick said...I also gave it 5s, and enjoyed it, but wanted to suggest another direction it might have taken. And, if you look back at Stu's version, he DID mix humorous lines in with his "list of women". Not just "Maggie Thatcher", "anyone near Maggie Thatcher", for example. The main theme of this particular song is always going to be a list of something, I have no problem with that, and wannabemustangjunkie did a great job.
I agree with Jeff, verbatim, (except maybe the "junkie" sub for "jockey" ;-)) regarding this parody AND mine - in fact I just reread mine and found it side-splittingly hilarious, even the verses!! - go figure ;-) - no offence, Cat!! - oh, and nice effort wannabe - 555
Oops...sorry about butchering your name WMJ!
Thanks to everyone for letting me know what you think of this song, both good and bad. WDSTF is a very hard one to parody, as those of us who have done it know (this is my 2nd time around, too). I agree that this one is not my best, but I did spend hours Googling the most random and obscure businesses that had names rhyming with the OS's lines in order to make the pacing as close as possible. To answer some questions, I didn't expand on some opportunities to give detail on the firing circumstances because I wanted to fit in more company names. I left it to the choruses to explain a general reason why the singer keeps losing his job. I tried to make it funnier, but it just wouldn't come to me. Sure, it's not side-splittingly funny, but neither is getting fired, if you think about it. Thanks again for your honest opinions.
(SOTM) Yeah, list songs are a challenge to make a good parody with, because they usually are crappily written to begin with, and "Fire" is one of the prime examples. You showed the skill in pacing here, but not as much funny in the verses. But you did change each chorus, which is more than I can say for my own "Fire" parody. 555
(SOTM) YAY! ANOTHER WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE... But now this makes voting so much harder... I'll have to scissors paper rock... LOL! Anyway, very good stuff, I like the alternating chorus's's's... Chorusy? Chory? it is now Chory.. I like your alternating chory and stuff, very funny, 5-5-5
(SOTM) Nevermind what everybody else has said, this was genuinely, side-splittingly funny! ...And a hard OS to parody. But maybe you should do a sequel song to explain why you got fired from so many jobs, since this song is supposed to be list-driven. I mean, the more jobs the character gets fired from, the funnier the parody. This list just might have a place on my list this month. All in all, a great job, WMJ! 555
(SOTM) i agree... this is a hard song to parody.. so i say good job!!! i thought it was pretty funny, a good topic which was hilarious... i loved it!
(SOTM) See above. Not bad, jockey, but not up there with your very best work.
This song is very high on my list, too, but it will be about the people who try to get you fired, not the bosses who are too wimpy to stand up to them. -- MM
(SOTM) See above.
SOTM-See above
(SOTM) See above! (repetition much??)
DID YOU EVER KEEP A JOB?!
This is a good parody but if I may present a theory I'd say that Spaff and Kristof and some others has raised the bar for name dropping parodies in SOTM. I feel the same way as some have mentioned above that this could have benefited from more funny lines about why you did get fired, and I also feel a bit bad about feeling so but that's the way it is.
This is great. I'm thrilled to give it a 5 for "How Funny" without having to fool myself into thinking that "How Funny" really means "How Humid" or "How Chartreuse" or "How, Um, Gee, NOT Funny." It's clear that a ton of effort went into this, and it pays off. It would be fun to hear it, especially if performed really really fast. I was in a (non-Amiright) parody contest recently; one of the judges was a guy from the Capitol Steps, and he chose a WDSTF parody as one of the winners because of the author's skill in fitting a huge list of related items into the meter and having it rhyme in all the right places. This one kicks butt over that one.
(SOTM) Spaff just gave away the reason that I like WDSTF parodies. It's amazing to see someone rattle of a list of whatevers, with an original topic, have it paced right...it could almost be a certified SOTM gold! Technically it already WAS, eh, wannabeustangjockey? Nice work on doing this OS...TWICE...now we just need me to do it. Actually, maybe Spaff should do it.
(SOTM) I agree with Agrimorfee's first sentence about this OS, and most parodies are an improvement, this being no exception. Fitting all this in to the pacing/rhyming of TOS is a major feat in itself, and there were some really good bits like "llama rides", "Gnad Fur" (lol), but "Right now I'm castrating boars" was awesome. Great "job" varying the chorus(-es? -i?) too.
@ Red Ant: I checked on Google; Gnad Fur is a real company. The "castrating boars" line was inspired by my cousin's new husband - part of what he does for a living is castrate bulls. But "bull" doesn't rhyme with "store", does it? lol
(SOTM) This parody deserves a huge sum of cleverance pay!
(SOTM) firstly this is masterfully-written WBMJ, and some very clever rhymes (eg. "pages/resumee, yes") and the "Wheel Of Fortune"-like gets were funny, just by suggestion - secondly, this has been an interesting debate on this thread, and although I still totally agree with Jeff, I'm coming around to Cat's opinion too - I'm getting a bit worn-out by the WDSTF parodies (and I know I've contributed to the deluge) in the same way as I'm worn out by MMG parodies, and Be Our Guest is starting to get to me too - but that's to take nothing away from the outright skill required to achieve the standard of this one - 555
(SOTM) That's a lot of extar pages on your next application.
SOTM...you know, if you applied your work ethic when it comes to writing parodies to your work ethic when it comes to...well, working...you might not have such a long list...; ) Nice job on a tough OS!
Well done, and see above comments =)
I just thought I would add that this guy has most awesomely added in Stranger Lazy.. which just so happens to be the band I drum for. I wonder how he heard about Stranger Lazy? Hmmm life is interesting, isn't it? Thanks for rockin the name.. www.strangerlazy.net
How did I miss this one? Guess I was out looking for a job at the time. You got a five-month extension of your unemployment insurance.
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