Bear, I think that the real "point" of a limeroid is that the first four lines do what they can to create an expectation in the reader, and then it's humorous when the expectation isn't actually met in the fifth line. This will work best with "dirty words" because we all know what "truck" and "Venus" rhyme with, and it's relative easy to set up a specific expectation, but there's no theoretical reason why a limeroid would be unable to set up an equally specific expectation without getting ribald. Let me improvise an example:

As President Grant sat there drinkin'
The hard whiskey started him thinkin',
..... "As presidents go
..... I'm the best one I know
Yet somehow the world prefers Millard Filmore."

Okay, not the funniest thing ever written but I think it proves my point. The appeal of a limeroid isn't to come up with euphemisms for dirty words, but to set up and humorously fail to fill an expectation.

And ChrisW, the Gazebo thread now knows quite well that yours is the immortal honor of coining the the term "limeroid."

In business he liked being blunt,
took pride in being up front.
. .But in sexual play
. .'twas his lickerish way
to keep tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

Jan

I concede! Let's limeroid our way in whatever direction our whimsy takes us. I'm not especially partial to the salacious perspective on life anyway.

(music)

OOps - double post!

There's a limeroid in that.....

[This message has been edited by Robert Swagman (edited February 21, 2002).]

So a limeroid is just a ditty
That's metrical, clever and witty;
It can sometimes be clean
{Not always obscene}
But the rhyme I imagine is 'risque'.

Fill in your own word, as you prefer http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Robert Swagman (edited February 21, 2002).]

No no no! Of course the implied last word of a limeroid should be dirty/sexual. Where's the fun in blanking out "flower" or "horse" or whatever? May as well just write the bloody thing in. The whole point is to make readers expect some swear word or sexual reference and then whip the carpet out from under their feet. Otherwise, it's just lame.

There, I've said it. Now I'll sit back down. Carry on.

Clive, I think the technique could be used effectively if you had an unlikely rhyme pair going and there wasn't a workable third rhyme available, or if the end was so predictable that you just wanted to throw a curve.

Carol

I almost agree with you Clive -- but I might generalize a bit more. There ought to be SOME reason why you would censor the final word -- but we might do that for other reasons. Suppose you're saying something unflattering about someone who comes into the room -- and you change the subject at the last minute.

Still, as Carol points out, it's easier to anticipate a dirty word -- and if the unflattering remarks dealt with the person's sexual organs -- well that would be all to the good, of course.

But if there's no motivation behind the switch, why bother?

Actually, on reflection, I can see one reason: the limeroid might function as a sort of shaggy dog story -- where the whole point is to raise expectations and then disappoint them -- make the reader wonder what your third rhyme could possibly be and then just don't rhyme at all.

There was a young lady, Miss Goringe
Who liked to dress up as an orange...

(Ogden Nash should get credit for the name "Miss Goringe" -- he claims to have stared at the poor woman very rudely just because he realized he could use her to rhyme 'orange'.)

Well, in theory that's possible, but I didn't finish the above because it looked like it'd probably be pretty lame.

I will say I got a chuckle from the Millard Filmore one -- even though the disappointment seems motiveless.

Oh Carol, we cross posted -- and you were so much pithier than I -- there really has to be a way to avoid that!

Well, in my Grant/Lincoln/Filmore example above, the "reason" to blank out the last word, Lincoln, and substitute Millard Filmore, was the presumed comic effect of implying that Filmore was a greater president than Lincoln. And the reader "expects" to hear Lincoln, as well, because Grant and Lincoln had rather a strong historical connection (as you history buffs will recall). It sees to me that there was as much "reason" for this substitution as in any of the dirty limeroids above. Create an expectation and then fail to meet it in a way that is not a "cheat" because it makes some kind of sense on its own. This kind of thing lends itself beautifully to dirty word substitutions, but any occasion where the speaker might suddenly decide to do a coy substitution at the end can serve the turn.

PS--

And Carol, you wrote "I think the technique could be used effectively if you had an unlikely rhyme pair going and there wasn't a workable third rhyme available," but I'm not sure I agree with this. Doesn't the humor derive from suppressing the third, expected rhyme? If there aren't any rhymes left, the failure to rhyme doesn't end up being comical but just a miscalculation by a poet who ended up finishing his poem with a clunk.

[This message has been edited by Roger Slater (edited February 22, 2002).]

Well, Roger, what I meant by a motive was a reason for the speaker (not exactly the poet) to suddenly change course.

Most of the limeroids seem based on the experience we all have of needing to change the subject at the last minute.

In your Fillmore thing, the rhymes create a sort of dramatic irony -- Grant is speaking unironically, but the rhymes whisper that his perspective is out of whack. Well, something like that.

Do you think there's an article in this, "Limeroids: Theory and Practice"?

Gee, Chris, this is the first time I've ever seen verisimilitide suggested as a requisite for a limerick (or its first cousin, the limeroid)! http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

Gosh, betrayed expectation is one of the oldest (and surest) tricks in comedy. Surely the speaker [or poet] can just want to surprise the reader--the same motivation as the "mishy-phen." Of course the surprise is more effective the more clever and dramatically coherent the context . . .

You mean the article hasn't been written yet? http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/wink.gif

Cheers,
Jan

Golly, Gee Whiz and Good Gracious, Jan, DID I say that? And I thought I mentioned the shaggy dog story (which raises expectations to disappoint them) as a model myself.

I was just idly reflecting, not trying to outlaw any kind of limeroid! http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

"To be or be not" is my riddle,
not halfway or just on a fiddle.
But old Heraclit
said "Once - that is it.
You never repeat your own twiddle."

---

Svein Olav

.. another life



[This message has been edited by Solan (edited March 01, 2002).]