It's not easy to write a good parody, that is, one that the audience at hand appreciates. We think there are two essential ingredients. First, the audience must be familiar with the original at least enough to see how the parody relates to it. Second, the more original words are retained in the parody, the better it is. Where original words are not retained, if similar sounding words are used, the parody gets better, e.g., The Grey Flannel Line.

We love good parodies and have written a few. We write them when a striking similarity between what we want to say and the words to an existing song pop into our heads. We have never been offended by any parody but we have heard some that are pretty bad. Some even use another tune but seem to disregard the original words completely.

On the other hand, we were at a song circle once when a newcomer sang "Pleasant and Delightful". Someone followed it with what we thought was a good parody of it and the newcomer got up and walked out and was never seen again. Moral: Parodies can be offensive to some so be careful when and where you sing them.

Bev and Jerry