Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Yesterday I posted about (among other things) the song “That’s Amore”, as made famous by Dean Martin. Immediately friends began providing plays on the title: That’s a Moray”. Eels! It turns out that there is a small industry in this bit of linguistic playfulness. On to the parodies, and then some words about morays.

But first a phonological note on amore / a moray. The two take-offs in comments on yesterday’s posting depend on the fact that in ordinary connected speech, the indefinite article forms a phonological word with the immediately following word, so that amore and a moray are normally identical in pronunciation. (They can be made distinct, but ordinarily they’re homophonous.)

Now the parodies, beyond the two in yesterday’s posting. Here are two from meme generators:

(#1)

(#2)

But there are more extensive parodies. Here, from the amlrite site, devoted to “making fun of music”:

Parody Song Title: “That’s A Moray”
Parody Written by: Malcolm Higgins

when you’re diving at night, and your feet feel the bite,
that’s a moray
when your hand’s in the cave, suddenly you’ll need saved,
that’s a moray
when you blubber and scream, but you have a bad dream
that’s amore
when he hits all your fingers, with teeth that are stingers,
a moray…

that’s a moray that’s a moray
little fella

when he bites on your thumb, takes a chunk of your bum,
that’s a moray
when you reach in his cave, he’s all bravo and brave
he’s a moray

and it’s not how it feels, and you know you have eels,
that’s a moray….
scuzza me, but you see, let them be, or you’ll see
lotsa morays…….

And a link from Rod Williams, a link to jokes from the rec.comics.funny archives, this one from Terry Morris:

(Italian accordion music and the sound of SCUBA in background.)

(Verse) If you see a big eel,
and his teeth are like steel,
That’s a Moray. (A Moray!)

If he’s big and he’s mean
and he’s slimy and green,
That’s a Moray. (A Moray)

(Chorus) If he slices the hose,
and then leaves you to doze,
That’s a Moray!
A Moraaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!
A Moray.

(Verse) When he’s fanning his gills,
Better head for the hills,
That’s a Moray. (A Moray!)

From a hole in the reef,
He will bring you much grief,
That’s a Moray. (A Moray!)

(Chorus) If he slices the hose,
and then leaves you to doze,
That’s a Moray!
A Moraaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!
A Moray.

No doubt there are many many more, with rhyming couplets on a moray theme, copying the pattern of “That’s Amore” — each pair together making a line of anapestic tetrameter (WWS WWS / WWS WWS), each followed by “That’s a moray”.

Morays. First the (essentially boring) etymology of the name, which came into English in the 17th century from Portuguese, where it descended from Latin, which got it from Greek, where it referred to a sea creature, possibly a type of moray.

Then from Wikipedia:

Moray eels [or morays] or Muraenidae are a family of cosmopolitan eels. The approximately 200 species in 15 genera are almost exclusively marine …

The smallest moray is likely Snyder’s moray (Anarchias leucurus), which attains a maximum length of 11.5 cm (4.5 in), while the longest species, the slender giant moray (Strophidon sathete) reaches up to 4 m (13 ft). The largest in terms of total mass is the giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus), which reaches 3 m (9.8 ft) in length and 30 kg (66 lb) in weight.

Morays live in burrows, have patterned bodies, and sport rear-hooked teeth. Here’s a whitemouth moray at the entrance to its burrow; you can appreciate the patterned body (different patterns in different species) and those fearsome teeth:

(#3)

Morays have a reputation for being vicious, but in fact they are reclusive and not at all aggressive. Unless, of course, you threaten its burrow, in which case it will attack. Also,

Morays have poor vision and rely mostly on their acute sense of smell, making distinguishing between fingers and held food difficult; numerous divers have lost fingers while attempting hand feedings, so the hand feeding of moray eels has been banned in some locations, including the Great Barrier Reef [off Australia]. The moray’s rear-hooked teeth and primitive but strong bite mechanism also makes bites on humans more severe, as the eel cannot release its grip, even in death, and must be manually pried off. (more from Wikipedia)

Moral: don’t mess with the moray. Except in song.

This entry was posted on October 17, 2015 at 2:57 am and is filed under Ambiguity, Language and animals, Music, Parodies, Poetic form, Pronunciation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.