The failure of a meme, how mondegreen and faux pas ruined the perfect set up

My first time in the States was a few years ago and we road tripped from Colorado through to Vegas and back.

I had a great time and was pleasantly surprised by the trail of craft beer that lined our route. I was fully expecting three weeks of Coors and Bud and had prepared myself as best I could.

Anyway in a novelty shop in Boulder, Colorado I stumbled on this Jesus action figure. Pure gold I thought and I snapped a few pics. "with poseable arms and gliding action!" well, I nearly bought one right then and there. My hardcore atheist mate Brendan would appreciate the sentiment. Only thing was, the shop assistant started to get irked that I was taking photo's and made it pretty clear. Thankful that the 'impulse' element of my buy was being interupted as well as enough of moral high ground to garner a touch of disdain, I turned my heals and gave my custom elsewhere. I got the photo at least

()

I couldn't get Depeche Mode's, Personal Jesus out of my head after that. Seriously, it became a mantra stuck in my head, a battle cry for my assault on the strip. Long Champagne buffet breakfasts followed by long margarita's, short walks to the next bar, casino floors and retail outlets all received the odd, random (more sustained than 'odd, random' if you believe my girlfriend at the time) "Reach out and touch Me!!! doled out with exuberance in the style of drunk Jordan.

Mondegreen: a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song.
I have been a fan, and an unwitting sufferer of this condition for way longer than i knew there was a coined term. Notable mention goes to Chumbawamba - Tubthumping , to me, this is what it sounded like, made perfect sense too . . .

"I get knocked down, but I'm an aeroplane, you're never gonna keep me down"

If it comes on on the radio, I'm probably still singing my version of it. But what about mass mondegreen. In the case of Personal Jesus, I'm willing to bet that 90% of the people who hear it, know it, heard it, have heard it, have it wrong. I know I did. Besides mega fans and High Fidelity esque music snobs, It's a safe to say every one thinks the words are
'reach out and touch me' almost always followed by an attempt at the guitar riff and often a bit of air guitar and or some degree of head movements. I preferred the arms up, palm forward "messiah stance' when in Vegas but each to their own.

I started sobering up somewhere in Utah on our way back to Denver and continued to annoy my travel companions, this time about a meme. A hat tip to the awesome time I had had in Vegas, it would encapsulate our entire road trip, and was sure to be so funny and well received that internet fame was a certainty (so probably not that sober). In the interest of due diligence and checking my sources my world was turned upside down. Reach out and touch faith? Huh? Why is Johnny Cash coming up, who did the original? They must've covered him! Would he cover them? Manson's def a cover.

It was too much for my dehydrated brain in the end. The self imposed time pressure of getting it up and out, the total shock and horror of the new lyrics as well as still being a little unsure about the chicken or the egg. I decided to appease the High Fidelity snobs and avoid faux pas. I chose historical accuracy over cultural reference. I negated everything I was trying to achieve and conformed to what I thought society expected from me. I obeyed the rules and I failed at meme making. I posted this brain fart of a meme and it lives on my instagram wall to this day, a constant reminder to calm the fuck down and think things through before posting it all over the web

Check out my early hashtag attempts too, lol.