Oops. I'm wrong; Barry and Arendt combined for 1400 parodies of this song, with Arendt doing 830 parodies in only seven years ... That would mean that a little more than 1% of all parodies in that time period was the work of one man parodying one single song

Oops, wrong again. The total number of parodies in the Amiright parody vaults is nearly 100K -- from a period between 2004 (when Amiright really got rolling) to today. ... Inasmuch as Amiright was at its peak between 2004 and 2011, when Arendt showed up, and started declining thereafter, that means the Arend-tian IPASOY parodic ouevre represented 2% of total parodic output in said, aforereferenced time frame

CML: I hardly visit the site anymore, but I happened to check in today. The etiology of the madness. After Thanksgiving 2005, my wife and I drove to Lake Tahoe. In October of that year, the great talent Johnny D challenged me to do 100 parodies over a weekend...nearly killed me, but I made it. As a follow-on, I decided to write 50 takeoffs on IPASOY. While my spouse drove, I did a bunch in the car and wrapped up when I got home. Such a short tune; so easy to parody. So I kept at it intermittently...then Rob Arndt showed up. The guy was incredibly prolific, and he and I started taking turns. He bested (should I say "worsted") me by several hundred. I suggested that he submit his "accomplishment" to the Guinness Book. I had tried it when I hit 500 but got no response. Wonder why. Anyway, thanks for the mention.

I looked up my contribution to the IPASOY phenomenon. Twelve in all. Most were written in a fit of pique over Tommy Turtle's negative reviews of my "American Pie" parodies. I just wanted to crank out some numbers quickly, using a song I still do not "hear" in my mind when I read the lyrics. Tommy also had a grudge against Rob Arndt and told me never to mention him in our personal email correspondence. I notice that I did one IPASOY in Spanish and another in Chinook Wawa, a trade language of the Northwest Frontier. I also wrote "Jay Hawkins Spell" to "MacArthur Park" to encourage Rob to find other tunes to parody. I recall doing a parody to Simon and Garfunkle's "Cecilia" chastising Jay Hawkins for domestic abuse. According to AIR rules, an artist must have 10 posted parodies to make the Authors list. I quickly churned out a half dozen or so to "I Love You" (The theme from Barney the Dinosaur) just to get my pseudonym to the bottom of the list. I topped, (or bottomed) out with an IPASOY. This lead Chucky G to promulgate a new rule disallowing short TV jingles. It's good to hear from a couple of "old timers". Tommy thought the site was going downhill in his day. I don't recognise many of the names any more, nor the original songs. Mostly political rants and scatology. My stuff doesn't even get comments. I'm aiming for 350, not sure when I'll make it, but it may not be for a "Spell". Maybe we could encourage a Rob Arndt imitator to churn out 1000 "Sky Pilots". By the way, does anyone know whatever happened to Leo Keough (aka, Leough)? He wrote what I regard as the best parody on AIR, "The Search for the Man from Nantucket". Note: Michael Pacholek, number three on the list of active authors, is "credited" with only two IPASOY's .

I knew SOMEBODY was doing it to piss off the Terrible Terrapin ;-D

I did six IPASOYs, mostly in-jokes about the whole phenomenon. So I did my first one about "popping my IPASOY cherry" called, "I Did This Parody, Too" Then there was one about Screamin' Jay threatening to sue Amiright because he realises we're mockng him . Then I did one in Scooby Doo voice, "Ri Rut Ra Rell Ron Ru" which earned me numerous metaphorical Scooby Snacks .... And then I did one in Eddie Murphy "Buh'wheat" mode which caused my adoring public to turn on me like a pack of rabid African Wild Dogs. What can I say; every once in a while you screw the IPASOY pooch

Tommy Turtle did three Spells + one with his sometimes partner, Fiddlegirl. I saw Screaming Jay recently in the 1991 movie "A Rage in Harlem", in which he plays himself. He performs "Spell" in a night club scene. There was a brief time when Rob Arndt was writing parodies of "Wild Honey Pie" by the Beatles. I never heard of it. It was even shorter than "I Put A Spell On You". I think that was the attraction. I wonder who has done the most "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" knock offs. Those take a bit more effort. My best effort in that line was "If Gordon Lightfoot Wrote 'Mary Had A Little Lamb'", a tribute to the best AIR writers active at the time. You are in there, as is Tommy, Rob, Michael, and Susanna from Finland. It was a fun project. Leough was in there, with reference to his frequent discussions of Jim Beam. I just noticed that the Security Code for this comment is XXX. I've got to get a few more parodies done to make my 350. And it would not be really official because there are a couple that were posted before they were finished, but are still counted. Maybe I can even do something that will get some comments.