My Brain is Full

That headline's a reference to an old Far Side cartoon. This one:

Unfortunately, my brain isn't full from excessive learning. It's full of stupid crap from movies and TV shows that I can recall with perfect clarity.

For real. Out of everyone I know, I probably have the best overall ability to recall random, obscure dialogue from movies and TV. There is one other guy, Chuck, who can do this very well, as I've mentioned before on this blog, but even though he has a greater range of material from which he can recall quotations, I believe my brain has more depth.

In other words, he can pull a quote out of his ass from all manner of obscure Canadian comedy troupes, but I know every word to movies like Three Amigos and Clerks.

Unfortunately, my capacity for inane scripted blather doesn't stop at mere movie quotes. It extends to all kinds of weird shit I saw as a child and haven't even rewatched. I don't want to freak any of you out, but sometimes I wake up in the morning with some old song in my head that I haven't heard since I was a child, and sometimes I can't get it out of my mind all day.

Stupid songs, like things from "Sesame Street." For example, just today I woke up remembering for whatever reason an old "Sesame Street" sketch in which a shady salesman in a trenchcoat is attempting to sell a letter "O" (literally, a O made of muppet felt) to an unsuspecting passer-by. The lyrics to the song, as I recall, go "So buy the 'O' and take it home...tonight."

Now that's weird. I know those songs are written to be catchy, so kids remember to associate the symbol 'O' with the letter O. I get that. But it's 20 years later. And sometimes, I forget to wear socks. So how is it that I remember the entire Letter O "Sesame Street" song?

Basically, I really want to find out if everyone my age has these kinds of oddball childhood memories, or if I genuinely am wasting 90% of my brain power on these jingles. So I created, only from memory, a quiz based on songs I have stuck in my head.

I have entitled this quiz "Recollections from my Misspent Youth," and it's available at this link on the website "quiz your friends." It's only 10 questions, and there's only 2 pop-up ads on the site, so it's really not a huge ordeal to go through. Give it a try, and see how much of a total lame-o you were as a ten year old by how many of these songs you remember.

The way the quiz works, I'll give you a lyric from some dumb jingle or old tune. Then I'll give you four possible sources for that lyric or quote. Maybe a TV show. Maybe a movie. Maybe, even, a commercial if I'm feeling really tricksy. See how you do!

Take the Quiz