The Hiccupping Earworms

Scott Hardie | October 21, 2004
Have you ever noticed that when you get the hiccups, whoever is with you has to tell you how to cure them? The same seems to happen whenever you get an earworm, a song stuck in your head. And you know what? Those cures never work, because you're not those people. Everybody has their own unique cure that works for them.

That said, what is your own personal cure for either affliction?

Amy Austin | October 21, 2004
HAHAHA -- an "earworm", eh? I've never heard that one before -- did you coin that, Scott, or am I just ignorant? ;D

Well, to me, it's damn near impossible to get rid of one without replacing it with another... but if that's a risk you're willing to take, the stupid commercial jingles will work.

Better (and more productive), I think, is to go read something or do something that engages you in a way that prohibits earworms. I haven't had any in a while, come to think of it, and now you have potentially jinxed me, Scott Hardie. If I get earworms, I will get you!

Todd Brotsch | October 21, 2004
hmmm....I can remember someone who said you need to drink water backwards. No Names of course. How exactly do you drink something backwards anyway? Isn't that called vomitosis?

Anna Gregoline | October 21, 2004
What drives me mad is when I sneeze at work (which is often, as it's dusty there). At least 3 or 4 people will say, "Bless you." But not at the same time, it's one after the other! Drives me mad, because then I'm expected as a duty of social etiquette to say "thank you" to every single person! It stinks.

Anna Gregoline | October 21, 2004
Oh, p.s.

I've had hiccups almost daily for my whole life, so I hear you. My mom said I had hiccups often in the womb! When I was a little kid, I'd literally have them for hours. Now, not as long and not as often.

The single one thing I've found always to work is to eat a spoonful of regular sugar. Honestly, it works like a charm for me.

Todd Brotsch | October 21, 2004
When that happens to me (sneeze) I rapid fire off 3-4 connseciutive thank you's takes care of everyone.

Anna Gregoline | October 21, 2004
I'd rather everyone just didn't say bless you, as I find it a bizarre custom anyway.

Amy Austin | October 21, 2004
Yep -- now you've gone and done it, Scott...

I was totally fine up until now... and now your "Bad Medicine" title has just crept into my head like a creepy-crawler from hell. You...

Scott Hardie | October 21, 2004
Haha... Didn't mean to do it... I've had the "Bourne Supremacy" soundtrack in my head for the last two days since seeing the movie at the dollar theater.

[Unimportant tangent: When I first saw that film, I was so blown away by the music that I quickly purchased the soundtrack album, something that I almost never do. I was disappointed not to find several pieces of music that I'd enjoyed in the film, and it's not like the disc used anywhere near its total running time. When I complained about the omissions to a friend, he argued with me that movies only have a little bit of original music, and it's reused many times over the course of two hours; I wasn't missing any music on my little 40-minute soundtrack. Well, I saw the movie again in theaters, and while I did hear the same piece played twice, I counted three pieces of music that were not included on the album I bought, and I would have been happy to have them. So score one for knowing what the fuck I'm talking about!]

Anyway, an old friend has an unusual cure for earworms: He plays the "M*A*S*H" theme note-for-note in his mind, start to finish, and the song is gone by the end. Me, I can pull off imagining the theme, but the earworm resumes immediately upon its final note. :-) What I do, and it doesn't always work, is play the song in the CD changer, all the way through, and concentrate on it. It's like my brain is stuck in a loop because it's trying to figure out how the song ends, and hearing the coda is enough to satisfy it.

My hiccups cure is more odd; so I'll wait to see what other people say first on that one.

Drinking water backwards: Maybe he meant upside-down? I know a few people who cure their hiccups that way.

Amy Austin | October 21, 2004
I feel you on the soundtrack gripe... I have had the same complaint more than once, I assure you -- and thanks for telling me, too, since I also liked the BS score. I have puzzled over this very same thing -- why *aren't* all the pieces there... is it a permission thing? Well then, I don't understand how it could be in the movie, but not on the CD! Maybe a royalties issue?

That is an odd cure -- but interesting, to be sure. And your own "cure" is very cerebral in nature, too! But I don't have "Bad Medicine" around in my collection (thankfully!) -- so what do you do when you get that kind of earworm, Scott??? ;D Suffer?

Yes, I think "upside-down" was what was meant there, too -- but the "vomitosis" laugh kept me from bothering to comment. Have you ever tried to drink this way? It isn't easy. Just gulping down enough liquid of any kind (but preferably water) used to be enough to rid myself of mine, but they seem more persistent whenever I have them anymore.

And Anna! You poor thing -- I HATE the hiccups so much! Mine are so uncontrollably loud... and painful! I hate when people act like they want me to stifle them, because that just makes them hurt more!!! I have gotten them three or four times in one day on more than a few occasions (man! is that frustrating!), but I think I would cry if I got them daily!!! However, a baby in the womb with hiccups is very amusing to me -- I have felt that (my stepmother's pregnancies), and it is quite humorous.

How weird it is to think that some people are more inclined than others! (Come to think of it, I distinctly remember meeting a guy in college, named Bill, who claimed to have had them every day also and a great portion of his life... startling. His friends liked to teasingly call him "Wild Bill Hiccup". True story.)

Scott Hardie | October 21, 2004
Not to bring up Dave Barry twice in two days, but wouldn't this discussion's title make a great name for a rock band?

When it comes to abbreviated soundtracks, I don't know the reason for it. I mean, sometimes you get a movie that is so long and contains so much music ("Titanic" comes to mind) that it won't fit on the disc, and a double album isn't economical. The same friend who argued with me tried to say that economics also justify the short soundtrack albums; they save money by not putting all of the music on the disc. But considering that they have all of the music, and it's all in one place, and they're already going to the trouble and expense of putting it together for release on compact disc, and there's unused room on that compact disc, what could possibly justify leaving out some of the material, even the weaker material? It's arbitrary and illogical.

When I get that earworm, yes, I pretty much just suffer it. :-) Or I play some loud rock music for a few minutes, something to leave my ears ringing and drown it out. But that's my solution to more than one problem.

I still love the guy on "The Simpsons" who had been having hiccups non-stop for twenty years. *hiccup* "Kill me." *hiccup* "Kill me." *hiccup* "Kill me."

Anna Gregoline | October 21, 2004
I've noticed in recent years the releasing of two seperate soundtracks however - the first instance I remember is with the modern version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio - they released a version with all the poppy songs on it first, and so many people clammored and complained that they then released a version with the orchestral music on it. Maybe that was the plan all along, but I've noticed that happening more and more. Personally, I'm always looking for the orchestra music, because in the off-chance I like a regular song from a movie, I can find out what it is and either buy it on the artist's album or download it.

Scott Hardie | October 22, 2004
That's a good thing, dual releases of scores and soundtracks; you buy only the music you want to hear. I bought the "Matrix" soundtrack when it was new and enjoyed it for years before finally breaking down and buying the score, something that probably would have come in handy back when I had a Matrix RPG. :-)

Then there are the cash-in albums, which are frivolous and generally worthless. Music "inspired by" the movie, as if there were artists so genuinely moved by "Space Jam" that it drove them to the recording studio at once. I won the second volume of the "Titanic" soundtrack on eBay for a penny, figuring that was a reasonable price for another forty-five minutes of James Horner's score and incidental music. Sadly, I had a tiff with the seller, and he sent me "My Heart Will Go On: The Dance Mixes" instead, a cheap knock-off product that's probably not even legal; I don't see Céline Dion's name anywhere on the package. (I'm too scared to listen to it.) Maybe I need to exercise more caution when bidding; my pennies would go to better use getting flattened by trains or something.