The Times Online reports:
Japanese doctors report a surge in the condition known as “karaoke polyp”, a growth on the vocal cords caused by excessive warbling in bars and parlours. Formerly an affliction of middle-aged businessmen, the malady has spread among housewives and young people because of the continuing popularity of karaoke.
Ear, nose and throat clinics report a doubling in cases of karaoke polyps and the operation necessary to remove them. A surge of popular songs of especially high pitch, which put excessive strain on the vocal cords, is being blamed for the polyp plague.
Gail, it's one of those cognitive thingies you were talking about before. Karaoke Polyps would be a great name for a musical group of medicated waifs, except that Karaoke Polyp is the perfect name for the lead singer of such a group, and then it can't be the name of the group. But Karaoke Polyp And The Karaoke Polyps can be a song they release, whose lyrics are the title over and over because it's so fun to say... except that beyond not being Karaoke Polyps they will never go for the name /The/ Karaoke Polyps, because it would be like /The/ Pink Floyd, which is just wrong.
This sort of thing is why garage bands spend more time thinking up names than practicing, and probably it's one of the reasons people sing karaoke; they don't have to go through this-- they can just drink and sing.
Posted by: Marco McClean | February 24, 2007 at 07:45 PM
They get stuck in an infinite cognitive loop. Spooky.
Posted by: gail | February 24, 2007 at 08:08 PM