Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 22, 2023

YAY! A Monstro sighting!

I wonder what song is stuck in Luann’s head? Shake it off? We will rock you? YMCA? Happy? It’s a small world after all?

Ear worm!

Baby shark-da-doo-da-do! Baby shark da-doo-da-doo!

Involuntary musical imagery (INMI; or “earworms”) describes the experience whereby a short section of music comes into the mind, spontaneously, without effort, and then repeats without conscious control.

Monstro’s tank is decorated now. There’s sand, a plant and even a little house.

The fish food container is decorated with Monstro picture?

Start singing it real loud Luann, so it gets stuck in Bernice’s brain.

Greg signed his name in music notes

For me, the best way to cure that is to binge-play a favorite album multiple times. Then those tunes get stuck in my head, but I don’t mind.

“Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, Miz Bernice is a MUMMY!” – Ohio Express

Does it happen to be that old “Gimme Back That Filet-O-Fish” jingle?

Anti-Hero

ear wprm!

Commercial JINGLES can flush away earworms. Because they are so short they don’t stick like songs do. Try the alka-seltzer jingle:“Plop-plop. Fizz-fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.”

And it really is a relief. Song gone!

That skinny biddy finally furnished the fish tank.

My cure is to sing “Who Let the Dogs Out, Who who who who“

It flushes anything musical.

Is that what it’s called? Never knew! Thanks, Bee!

Now I have the theme music from NCIS stuck in my head. Maybe because I just binge-watched eight hours of Season Two episodes. Michael Weatherly, rrrowll!

For days now: Hotel California. At least it’s classy, classic, and fits the season

Bernice’s first good suggestion.

Find another ear worm that’s super addictive, but you actually like, to replace it. For me, it’s the Inspector Gadget theme song. Go, Gadget, Go! Or ‘Mah Na Mah Na.’

I wonder how Bernice thinks using the proper term for the issue is helping.

Backfield in motion

Driving you nuts? My dear Luann, it’s a very very short putt my dear.

If you can sing it to the very end, you’ve achieved completion and it clears out. The problem is that the earworm is an incomplete fragment. Our mind likes completion.A tidy brain and all that.(I used to suffer before Uncle Google helped me out with lyrics.)

My vote, it being LuAnn…Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Some songs are that great and catchy.

“Psycho Killer”

Poor Luann, I understand her very well. That annoyance happens to me too often and unfortunately I don’t think there’s a cure. It’s nice to see Bernice taking care of Monstro and being happy doing it. For once I agree with her, it’s better to avoid the contagion, but maybe show to be at least a bit worried for Luann’s sufferance would be even better. Let’s hope she can help her BFF get that tune out of her head.

Pretty soon it will be “All I Want for Christmas”…

Tell her, tell her!!! Even hum/sing a bit of it. Bernice does things to drive LuAnn NUTS, so turn-about is fair play. Then LuAnn needs to watch Bernice to see what she does to get the tune out of her head.

For me, I play a non-catchy song to over play the one in my head.

Whenever I get an ear worm, I usually have to listen to Jethro Tull and Earnest Tubb simultaneously to drive it out. Yes, sometimes my ears bleed…

Come on, Luann, sing it to her!

She needs an “Ear Worm Killer.” That’s a song that you consciously repeat over and over in your head until it drives the song you are unconsciously thinking of out, but because you are consciously thinking of it, it doesn’t stay. Mine is “Black Betty” by Ram Jam, except that some times it’s “Nessun Dorma.”

One eight seven seven cars for kids

About the only hope is to listen to the song, start to finish, and sing along. Most of the time, you get a short section of the song stuck in a loop. Running it to the end can break the loop.

Never bothers me; maybe because I keep Alexa singing most of the time inside; and outside my IPod is always entertaining.

“Ya gotta lose your mind in Dee-troit, Rock City!

These two should just be relegated to the Sunday edition of the comic permanently. Watching paint dry has more depth and excitement than Luann’s and Bernice’s character “development”.

BTW, I love the little smiley goldfish face on the package of fish food!

Worse is when it is stuck in your head and you don’t know the title/artist.

It’s a small world after all…

The best thing you can do, Luann, is change the song. Or, make an alliteration of the song. You take control.

Why “imagery”? I thought it was called an ear worm. I usually deal with them by thinking of some other music, something strong but elaborate, like the 1812 Overture.

It’s sad that even the fish is more popular in this strip than the main character is. :P :P :P

i wanted to know

I thought they were called earworms.

Don’t tell Bern or her … BABY SHARK DO DO DO DO DO DO

I remember a dramatic “reading” about how the speaker was on a train when the conductor recited a ditty about the tickets that was very addictive, and he repeated it over and over. And the piece concluded, “And ever since that day, I’ve been compelled to repeat what he said, over and over… and now, I’ve told YOU!”

Sing hymns. Hymns will drive out the Ear Worms: “Look ye saints, the sight is glorious, see the Man of Sorrows now … .”

Leave to Bernice to use a technical term for something that even a true professional would use the simple term for.

I listen to my favorite songs so I will have them stuck in my mind. Currently it’s “Take that Look off your Face”, from Tell me On A Sunday. Love it.

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has been a worm in my ear for years. Oh no why did I bring it up, Galileo Galileo ARRGH!

True. Wheels On The Bus (the AC/C cover) IS unpleasantly memorable.

Ah HO, Count and Ann❤️Eiffel ❤️ers all! The ear worm song is, of course, “O Dio Mio” by one of the Original ❤️Eiffelettes…. Mouseketeer❤️Annette!! Stop Our Be❤️ed Count if you’ve heard this before as The Count reCounts…(OK… don’t…) But Once Upon a Time… In a Galaxy Far Far Away… In a Terrifying Place known as MCRD in San Diego CA… A Close Friend of The Count was in Boot Camp with Gomer Pyle, Pvt Snowball, Pvt Joker and other various and assorted maggots. Conversation around the quonset hut turned too… yep, ❤️Eiffelette Mouseketeer❤️Annette and how each and every maggot ❤️ lusted after her. One lowly unworthy maggot casually mentioned that Mousketeer❤️Annette was… his cousin. HUH! No way! Bull Puckey! Fast Forward a couple weeks… the aforementioned Lowly Unworthy Maggot had a letter from home which included a few Brownie Kodak black and white snaps of… ❤️Eiffelett Mousketeer❤️Annette!! AND IT WAS REALLY HER! Believe it of NOT! Not all dolled up and decked out but still very recognizable as an attractive and well endowed young lady. That guy instantly because everyone’s BFF. Everyone hoped she would come to the graduation ceremonies for Platoon 2004 when they went from Lowly Unworthy Sheet Bird Maggots to Official Pepsi Generation Killers but… alas… Mouseketeer❤️Annette was a no show :.(. All told to The❤️Count by a friend, of course). AND… today, October 22 just so happens to be ❤️Eiffelett Mouseketeer❤️Annette’s Birthday! “O Dio Mio” Earrworm… Mouseketeer❤️Annette’s Birthday? A Coincidence? The Count doesn’t think so. Rest in Peace Mousketeer❤️Annette. See ya’ in Church. TTFN… Count …OUT!

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, his name is my name too. I had earworm for hours a few days ago. I was ready to open a vein

That isn’t, by chance, Hecklefish?

Round and round the record spins all day

Listen again, it takes you far away

Trying to stop it is futile

So just listen now to my musical doodle

Bingo, A&W Rootbear song, Colonel Bogey’s March, This is the song that never ends, Mary Anne, etc.

Agreed, Bernice. You don’t want someone else’s earworm.

QUITE LITERALLY THE SMARTEST THING BERNICE HAS SAID IN ABOUT 5 YEARS.

The cure? You cultivate a DIFFERENT song in your head.

SEND IN THE CLOWNS has been stuck in my head for several years now. I’m still enjoying it and most of the people around me don’t seem to mind.

Garry Owen. That song seems to always get in my ear when I’m working in the yard!

I wish Greg would give Luann a more grown up nose. She still has that Charlie Brown little kid pushed up nose. Brad outgrew his.

There’s a great unmet need for a profession that does not yet exist: song exorcist.

I call it jingleitise, the only way to get rid of it is to give it to some one else.

WHATEVER YOU DO!!!!!!!! DONT THINK OF ZEBRAS!!!!!!!!

I once had an earworm and went to my ENT doctor and asked him if he could remove it. He looked inside my ears, and said NO.

These Sunday comics used to be the place for more long form, multi-panel narratives, but this one should’ve been a weekday comic.

I usually find that if I play the sticky song through it kills it

Say it! Spit it out right now! Plant it in Bernice’s ear and be free of it.

I just figured out that Sunday’s strips aren’t a Karen/Greg collaboration- only Greg’s name appears above the actual strip. Since they’re not part of an ongoing story-line, they’re less edgy, more folksy.

I bet Bernice enjoys being a little nicer, a little more relatable.

I sang one thing by one direction to Fernandes outside my window to him last night. It was amazing and he said that He HAD ME!

Try Guinea Pig Bridge. The video is cute but the song stays in my head for days.

Spoonful from Cream (Live Performance)

Sing it, out loud, to the end. Hearing the actual dénouement will often shut it off.

Pretty sure it’s this lil ditty here >

I hate it when I get 4 part harmonies stuck in my head; makes it hard to do integral calculus and physical chemistry

“Punch, brothers! Punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare!”

(See Mark Twain, “A Literary Nightmare”; also Robert McCloskey, “Pie and Punch and You-Know-Whats” from Centerburg Tales (more stories about Homer Price).

What Luann should do is get new friends who aren’t snobs.

Sadly a song stuck in her head is the most activity her brain ever gets

I had “Puff the Magic Dragon” stuck in my head on a 3-day car trip when I was a young boy. To this day I cannot even look at a postcard from Honah Lee without starting up the old earworm. :)

I find playing Dave Brubek’s “Take Five” in my head evicts most earworms.

Just hum a few bars.

When I get one stuck I immediately start “Playing” a song I like. Usually “Smiling Faces” by the Undisputed Truth. Something about the baseline knocks the undesirable song right out!

Nananananananananananananananana BAAT-maaaan!

When my husband starts complaining that he has this or that song stuck in his head, I start singing, “Baby shark, doot do do doot doo…”

That works alright.

May I recommend “Boot to the Head”?

I’ve found that any good Iron Maiden song chases that stuck song right out of there

Sticking it in someone else’s head is about the only fun thing about earworms.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

My friends and I call it an ear worm.

“There is just one moon and one golden sun, and a smile means friendship to everyone…”

I’m good with the music—it’s the voices that bother me, especially when they go “Ah, but the strawberries.”

I know JUST the ear worm to drive Bernice to the Seventh Level of Hëll, “Escape” by Rupert Holmes! ;-p

“This is the Song that never Ends….

Probably the horrible song about Jardiance.. One little pill with possible side effects like gangrene of the perinium, for diabetes. Annoying and airing super often.

So often it is a song you don’t like that well.

Stop listening to Coldplay Luanne

The only surefire way to get out a song that’s stuck in your head…is to get it stuck in someone else’s! “Camptown races sing this song, do-dah, do-dah. Camptown races sing this song, oh dah-da-do-dah-day!”

Johnboy, my rich and spolied father said to leave me alone or he’ll shoot you with the gun he likes to wear behind his back on his favourite black jersey. He said if I say I was still hearing you talking I’ll make him shoot you in both eyes so you can’t see me or nothing!Consider this a warning! P.S. You still going and get shoot behind your back rell bad so you can’t sleep or sit again for interfering with me!

Earworms are the tinnitus of music.

Baby shark, doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo

Bern is funny…. ‘just don’t tell me what the song is’

Ah, Bern. The song is Disco Duck by Rick Dees. Have fun with that…..

Tell her please, she deserves it.

I’ve DREAMED a song, over and over, and not even ones I particularly like. Very strange!

“Forget-Me-Notes”

“A Ditty, Girl, Is Like A Malady”

“The Loony Tune”

“Stick It In Your Ear, Worm!”

“I Can’t Stanza No More!”

“A Turn For The Verse”

“A Chorus Whine”

Preview for tomorrow: those of you hoping for Luann and Gunther to get together may get your wish. . .

It is more commonly called an earworm, smug Bernie. I do hope that Luann names, plays, and sings it for you!

Good [sarcasm font] luck!

Sing Everybody Wang Chung in your head. It’ll clear out the worm, and not get stuck itself.

Here’s the trick I use: first, drive it out with a series of jingles. These have to be catchy but very short, and advertising jingles fit perfectly. The trick is they’re catchy enough to tick all the usual boxes of an earmworm but too short to trigger the looping effect of an earworm. Now hammer that jingle hard. I find playing a series of different jingles works the best, and I have a mental selection of them that I use for exterminating earworms. Funnily enough, I learned this trick from an episode of the the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he mentioned he got this trick from an acting coach. Obviously performers can be plagued by earworms too, and it’s very distracting. He said his preferred jingle is the incredibly short “By Mennen” tag. It’s just three notes.

Now, if you have a really bad earworm that’s been persisting for a long time, it might overpower the jingles. In this case, you may need to enlist a second earworm. Pick a really earwormy song and just surrender to it until the first earworm is gone. As soon as you’re no longer hearing the first earworm, pounce with the jingles to kill off the second earworm.

This has been pretty reliable for me.

AWWW But sharing is caring…

A Guitar Hero ad got Deep Purple’s Highway Star stuck in my mind.

Fortunately it’s a good song.

Ice, Ice Baby!

Mark Twain first described an earworm in 1876 in his short story, “A Literary Nightmare”, later republished as “Punch, Brothers, Punch”.

Apparently, it is no longer possible to post links in the comment boxes, so I’m sorry you’ll have to do the search for yourselves.

Worse,it’s a TV commercial song.