Your [Your Topic's Name Here]'s Name Here

[bnewman]

"Your State's Name Here", by the Berrymans, abstracts over all US states. Parodies of it have been written abstracting over other categories — sci-fi cons in "Your Con's Name Here", crooked politicians in "Your Crook's Name Here", etc. This song abstracts over all categories, and thus all parodies of the original song. I think this is about as meta as a song can get without collapsing.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Your State's Name Here" by Lou and Peter Berryman

/ G - C G / C G (C) D / 1st / C G D G /

 

Sometimes when I think about [things of some kind]

My own seems unique, but then later I find

The features that make my [noun] special to me

Apply to all others about equally

 

I pick up my guitar when I want to point out

The sameness of [whatever we're talking about]

There's a song that expresses that feeling so clear:

It's called "Your [your topic's name here]'s Name Here"

 

/ D - - G / / " / " /

 

Oh, [your topic's name here]s, every one is the same

However they differ, they all share a frame

Where the blanks can be filled in to make each appear

Just like (your [your topic's name here]'s name here)

 

(Your [your topic's name here]), sure, we've all heard the hype

About its [some feature of things of that type]

Its [adjective] [noun] [verb] so [adverb] you must

Insist that it leaves other [noun] in the dust

 

But however it's special, we find, if we try

That much the same words can be made to apply

To every last [noun again] in the array

By abstracting irrelevant details away

 

Oh, [your topic's name here]s, every one is the same...

 

All [things of some kind], when considered en masse

Form what's called a type, category, or class

Which defines all the structures and features they share

If you look, pretty soon you'll see types everywhere

 

Types, too, form a type, but a type that's much better

'Cause anything things can do, types can do meta

I would mention them, too, if I thought that I'd missed 'em

But a song that abstract would collapse the whole system

 

Oh, [your topic's name here]s, every one is the same...

Comments

[mdlbear]

I may have to learn this one.