Clerihew Crazy

Tzara · Oct 1, 2006

I love clerihews, because I like to be silly and they are usually very silly. What's a clerihew? Read this, from Wikipedia:

A Clerihew (or clerihew) is a very specific kind of short humorous verse, typically with the following properties:

It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; but it is hardly ever satirical, abusive or obscene.

It has four lines of irregular length (for comic effect) .

The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of a well-known person's name.

The form was invented by and is named after Edmund Clerihew Bentley. As a student, Bentley invented the clerihew on Humphrey Davy (see below) during his studies, and it was a great hit with his friends. The first use of the word in print was in 1928.

Bentley's friend, G. K. Chesterton, was a practitioner of the clerihew and one of the sources of its popularity. However, other serious authors also produced clerihews, including W. H. Auden. Clerihews are not satirical or abusive, but they target famous or otherwise lofty individuals and reposition them in an absurd or commonplace setting. The unbalanced and unpolished poetic meter and line length are parodic of the limerick. The chief literary form the clerihew parodies is that of eulogy and of schoolboy notes (which is its origin).

Also note that the form is two rhymed (though metrically unbalanced) couplets. The very first clerihew was this:

Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

I love this one:

Carl Gustav Jung
was very well hung,
a fact which annoyed
Sigmund Freud.

They're easy and fun. Try one.

Tzara · Oct 1, 2006

Sarah Lucas
sometimes causes me to puke as
in the photo where in her skivvies
she sits atop a dirty privy.

Tzara · Oct 1, 2006

Mick Jagger
is known for swagger,
his pouty lips and longish tongue.
His trousers always seem undone.

clutching_calliope · Oct 1, 2006

First try - cut me some slack.

Tristan Tzara
left Tuesday for the Sahara,
forgot his canteen
but not his sunscreen.

Tzara · Oct 1, 2006

clutching_calliope said:
Tristan Tzara
left Tuesday for the Sahara,
forgot his canteen
but not his sunscreen.

Very good, I think, and the right idea.

Sylvia Plath
was failed in math.
Not a subject she would normally choose.
At Cambridge, she read English. Married Hughes.

bogusbrig · Oct 2, 2006

Francois Gall
Who sucked on a lollipop
Was annoyed to find it had balls
But it was all in the name of the song

Les Sucettes

bogusbrig · Oct 2, 2006

Tzara said:
Sarah Lucas
sometimes causes me to puke as
in the photo where in her skivvies
she sits atop a dirty privy.

Sarh Lucas
Made her mark
With a fart
In art

clutching_calliope · Oct 2, 2006

Monet,
they say, may have been gay.
No matter which way he leans,
he goes good with my colour schemes.

clutching_calliope · Oct 2, 2006

Mona Lisa
watched a man eating pizza.
It's speculated she was with child.
I think she was hungry, so smiled.

clutching_calliope · Oct 2, 2006

M.C. Escher
was a bit of a refresher
but what was then Rah!Rah! Man!
is now McCommon.

clutching_calliope · Oct 2, 2006

Patrick Maidorn
was my German May thorn.
A math professor from Luxemborg who
was not famous except in my own skewed, lustful view.

sweetjain · Oct 2, 2006

George W. Bush
talked through his tush
his facts fashioned from hope
of mass weapons, but nope!

Lauren Hynde · Oct 2, 2006

Mathematician Andrew Wiles
was born on the British Isles
and solved Fermat's Last.
It got him mentioned in Star Trek, but no extra piece of ass.

Tzara · Oct 2, 2006

Lauren Hynde said:
Mathematician Andrew Wiles
was born on the British Isles
and solved Fermat's Last.
It got him mentioned in Star Trek, but no extra piece of ass.

Lauren wins. That one is hilarious.

Lauren Hynde · Oct 2, 2006

Tzara said:
Lauren wins. That one is hilarious.

It was my first one evah!

GuiltyPleasure · Oct 2, 2006

For Yo-Yo Ma
no guitar
clever fellow
chose the cello.

Tzara · Oct 5, 2006

Merkin Muffley,
kinda snuffly,
fretted about the world's end.
By closing credits, his thoughts were er, hem.

Yeah, yeah. Kind of like a Jeopardy answer. Please pose yer criticism in the form of a question, folks.
And Ken Jennings? Go home. You're not wanted here. )

clutching_calliope · Oct 5, 2006

What's a Merkin? snigger.

.....

Tzara · Oct 5, 2006

clutching_calliope said:
Philip K. Dick
wasn’t really a prick,
although he wrote about policemen a great deal
and wondered if any of us are real.

Dick, Philip K.,
was not gay,
but he definitely needed a shrink
after he got blasted by rays that were pink.

GuiltyPleasure · Oct 5, 2006

Lauren Hynde
doesn't mind
if she's maligned
by the less refined.

Tzara · Oct 5, 2006

John Keats
was given to feats
of writing poetry asleep.
Sam, with Khan, though, had him beat.

clutching_calliope · Oct 5, 2006

.....

GuiltyPleasure · Oct 6, 2006

Wicked Eve
will never grieve
but just get pissed
when not on the top....

....of the list.

Tzara · Oct 7, 2006

She is not sad. Our own Tristesse
two is all completely so sweetness,
like as to sugar, honey, or high fructose syrup.
Why, sure her poems are sweet—why she's a poet!

clutching_calliope · Oct 11, 2006

John Cusack
had an 80's style rucksack.
He loads it up with Run DMC blare,
Minnie Driver, spandex, and big hair.

Clerihew Crazy

Continental

Continental

Continental

by the ankles

Continental

Literotica Guru

Literotica Guru

by the ankles

by the ankles

by the ankles

by the ankles

Really Experienced

Hitched

Continental

Hitched

AWTSS

Continental

by the ankles

Continental

AWTSS

Continental

by the ankles

AWTSS

Continental

by the ankles

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