Gobbledygook Songs

Happy Holidays!

Gobbledygook Christmas Song Title Quiz

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What if your teacher handed back an assignment and said, “I have affixed the most highly desired alphabet character to your scholarly endeavor as an expression of its meritorious attributes”? Well, for one thing, your teacher would be speaking gobbledygook!

Yes, it’s a real word with real definitions. Here’s one version: gobbledygook gä-bəl-dē-guk -noun Language characterized by high-sounding, pretentious wording that is hard to understand; double talk; double speak; balderdash; gibberish; mumbo jumbo; baloney.

The term was coined in 1944 during World War II by Texas lawyer Maury Maverick while he was working for the Smaller War Plants Corporation. Fed up with bureaucratic double talk such as combatemplacement excavator instead of shovel, Mr. Maverick dashed off a memo banning “gobbledygook language.” His made-up word purposely imitated the sound of a turkey call.

Rather than disappearing as Mr. Maverick commanded, gobbledygook has become quite commonplace. Bureaucrats still love it. Consider, for example, a hospital bill that lists disposable mucus recovery system as a chargeable item, or this announcement—Refuse and rubbish shall not be collected from the site or receptacles thereon before the hour of 8:00 A.M. or after the hour of 6:00 P.M. any day—issued by a town in Australia. Translation? Patients must pay for a box of tissue and the town will pick up garbage between 8:00 A.M. and 6:00 P.M.

It’s enough to drive your mental activity beyond the margins of reason as you leave home wearing gently-used attire and ride in your parents’ preowned vehicle to your assigned institution of instruction where you will inhabit the student station designated specifically for your occupancy! Or, you can have bunches of fun with the whole idea!

Here’s your chance to become proficient in spotting, investigating, and decoding this type of verbal pollution. Beginning on the next slide, you will find titles of familiar Christmas songs written in gobbledygook. Study the convoluted verbiage and then discuss and guess what the song is within your group.

01

An Anthropomorphic Representation of the Human Form Constructed of Two to Three Orbs of Compacted Frozen Precipitation, Hexagonal in Shape, Often with Facial Features of Mineral and/or Vegetable Matter with a Moniker Referring to Freezing or Very Cold Temperatures

01

Frosty the Snowman

02

That Most Famous of All North Pole Residents Is Approaching at This Very Moment

02

Here Comes Santa Claus

03

The Holiday Celebrated the Twenty-Fifth Day of the Month of December on the Georgian Calendar and Described in This Particular Musical Composition as Being the Color of Pure Snow or the Outer Margins of This Page.

03

White Christmas

04

A Member of a Group of Antlered Animals Inhabiting Northern and Arctic Regions of Europe, Asia and North America Made Famous by His Glowing, Scarlet Proboscis

04

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

05

The Sum Total of My Desired Receipts for the Yuletide Season Consists of a Set of Central Incisors Within My Oral Cavity

05

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

06

This First Person Singular Personal Pronoun Observed Its Maternal Parent Pursing Her Lips and Lightly Pressing Them Against Those of the Male Person Identified by Several Aliases, Including Kris Kringle.

06

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

07

The Musical Composition Designed for Singing During the Annual Festival and Legal Holiday Celebrated on December 25, Often Misnamed by Its Opening Line “Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire.”

07

The Christmas Song

08

Do Take It upon Yourself to Enjoy a Jovially Pleasant, Though Diminutive, December Holiday

08

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

09

The Yuletide Season As Described by a Group of Trees or Shrubs Having Glossy, Spinytipped Leaves and Red Berries and a Cheerfully, Festive Disposition

09

A Holly Jolly Christmas

10

To Be in One’s Own House, Apartment, or Other Shelter, Including the Residence of One’s Childhood During the Special Celebrations That Occur the Latter Part of December

10

Home for the Holidays

11

Rudimentary Indications of the Arrival of the Annual Merriment and Celebration That Takes Place Shortly after the Winter Solstice Are Becoming Apparent.

11

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

12

A Hollow, Metal Instrument, Typically Cup-shaped or Spherical, with an Internal Clapper or Pellet That When Suspended from Its Vertex and Shaken Will Render a Clinking or Tinkling Sound That Is Marked by a Heavily Accented Beat Compelling One to Dance

12

Jingle Bell Rock

13

Surely ‘tis the Jolly Old Elf Himself

13

Must Be Santa

14

The Greatest, Superlatively Fabulous Portion of All the Twelve Months Has Arrived

14

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

15

Exceedingly Joyful, Senior Citizen, Blessed Person Named Nicholas

15

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

16

Permit Precipitation in the Form of Hexagonal Ice Crystals to Fall from the Atmosphere to the Earth! Permit Precipitation in the Form of Hexagonal Ice Crystals to Fall from the Atmosphere to the Earth! Permit Precipitation in the Form of Hexagonal Ice Crystals to Fall from the Atmosphere to the Earth!

016

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

17

Dancing to Music with a Heavily Accented Beat while Circumnavigating an Evergreen Appropriately Decorated with Ornamentation Associated with the Yuletide Season.

17

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

18

The Mysterious Man Noted for Unique Red Ensemble, Manically Joyous Nature, and Unusual Means of Transportation Is Scheduled for a Visit to Our Local Municipality

18

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

19

A Set of Two Or More Hollow, Metal Instruments, Typically Cup-shaped or Spherical, with Internal Clappers, Pellets, etc, Cast from a White, Ductile Metallic Element: Symbol: AG; Atomic Weight: 107.870; Atomic Number: 47

19

Silver Bells

20

The Short Metrical Composition Intended for Singing Created Specifically for the Small, Striped Terrestrial Rodent of the Genera Tamias’

20

The Chipmunk Song

21

One-dozen Complete Rotations of the Earth Connected to the Festive Celebration That Takes Place Each Year During the Month of December.

21

The Twelve Days of Christmas

22

Elevated onto the External Upper Portion of the Building in Which Humans Live

22

Up on the Housetop

23

A Marvelous Region of Beautiful Scenes That Exists During the Cold Season Between Autumn and the Vernal Equinox in the Northern Latitudes

23

Winter Wonderland

24

Being Borne Along on or in a Light Vehicle on Runners, Usually Open and Generally Horse-Drawn, Especially over Snow or Ice

24

Sleigh Ride

25

I Very Much Desire That a Large Herbivorous African Mammal Able to Remain Under Water for a Considerable Time Be Bestowed upon Me as a Holiday Gift

25

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

26

The Despicable, Yet Loveable, Green Furry Being Who Devised and Carried Out a Failed Plot to Steal Christmas from the Citizens of Whoville

26

Mr. Grinch