I love this song, you bastard. I love this parody too so I forgive you. I guess this refers to 'Whitewater' affair in Little Rock? As a non-American, I can't speak for Hillary's culpability, except that I know she's no different. And I'm sure she knows what sexual relations is. I'm new to the site and just exploring. No comments here. Do they get deleted after a while? Do you get alerted of new comments on old posts?

lifeliver: That's a lot of questions and comments to answer! So, one at a time. Also, there's a limit on comment length - I think it's a few thousand characters -- so I'll have to split the reply into two posts.

1) Parodying a song does not automatically mean a parodist detests it. Quite the opposite, often. The songs we like are the ones whose words and melody are in our heads, so they're the easiest to do. Else you'd think TT hates "American Pie" (eight parodies) and "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General" (14 parodies.) Love both.
    OTOH, there's nothing more fun than skewering a song you find pretentious or inane. Long-gone writer alvin rhodes said that his least-fave songs of all time were "Unchained Melody" and "MacArthur Park", so he was delighted when TT parodied the first. Upon seeing alvin's comment (he always used lower-case, as you do), TT promptly did MacPark, to alvin's delight (a few others liked it, too, cough).
    There are some songs I won't parody, because I can't stand to listen to them enough to get the pacing (meter), stresses, and structure correct. Short version: You don't know a parodist's feelings about TOS (The Original Song, often just OS), unless the context, intro, outro, etc. make it apparent.

2) Actually, the ref to "FBI files on Republicans" refers to "Filegate". Just that term alone at Wikipedia will take you to the story. She was eventually found not guilty, but the parody was written at the time that it was a hot public issue, and it didn't look good for her. (More on the timing later.) Also, a watchdog group that is independent of the Gov filed a separate lawsuit, which dragged on for years, and is currently in Appellate Court. See the WP article.
    By implication, all of the other scandals -- Travelgate, Whitewater, and Vince Foster's suspicious "suicide" -- he died after having been possibly implicated in Travelgate, and may have been called to testify.

3) I too find it depressing that "corrupt politician" is practically a redundancy. No reason to just let them off the hook, though.

4) "And I'm sure she knows what sexual relations is" ... Sorry, you lost me there. Is there an implication that she doesn't?

5) "No comments here. Do they get deleted after a while?"
No, but the site had a glitch, possibly during a software changeover, sometime around 2006-2007, in which many comments and votes were lost forever.
    My own worst loss: The parody, ""O. J. Simpson: Your Debts Are Gonna Grow"
http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/johnnycrawford0.shtml
    has almost 800 page views, but exactly one vote and *no* comments. Doesn't make sense, does it? It was that bug just discussed.

6) "Do you get alerted of new comments on old posts?'
    Not directly alerted, as in e-mail alert, RSS feed, etc., but once an author has posted ten songs, they get their own song page, with their entire catalog on it -- I'm assuming you just started browsing through mine? -- and they also get their own "Latest Comments" page, which lists, in most-recent-first order, the date and parody title of every parody of that author that has received a comment. For example, TT's would be:
  http://www.amiright.com/parody/parodyAuthorLatestComments.php?author=tommyturtle

So all an author needs to do is to check that page, as often or rarely as they like, as it updates in almost real time -- which is exactly how I found your comment on a 6+ year-old parody. It's quite useful, especially as I've become very rarely active in the past year or two. But I check that page every couple of days or so, even when away from the site for months, and occasionally get a pleasant surprise at a comment at a song from years ago -- like yours. :)

7) About that timing of the parodies of H. Clinton, OJ Simpson (who also got skewered in "Wife Stabbers"), B. Clinton ("Lying King", back when Monica Lewinsky was the top story, and "semen-soaked dress" entered the vocabulary of the evening news) and others: As you can see from the date-sorted list of TT songs, I found this place in Jan. 2006. The usual noob mistakes: I submitted three songs, all from my back-collection, on a Friday. They didn't show up on Saturday, so I submitted three more. They didn't show up on Sunday, so I submitted four more, hoping to get *something* through. (Note the message that songs are reviewed by editors before being posted, and also that back then, there were occasional updates on Saturday, Sunday, or both.)

    Result: All ten showed up on Monday. Veteran Peter Andersson chided the noob for flooding on his first day, but admitted that it was a way for a noob to get some attention. When the situation was explained, he understood, and we became mutual fans. It's here:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/70s/abba122.shtml

The cool part was, I (quite accidentally) had my own Author Page on the first day! (The "Latest Comments" feature was added a bit later -- what a blessing!)

Welcome to AIR! It's nice to see a new user take an active interest in how the game is played, and if indeed you are browsing my song page, I'm honored. I like to think that those early ones don't compare to ones written even only a few months later (posted 100 songs in first three months, with considerable constructive feedback from the vets). That's your call, of course. ;) ... but if there's any other way in which I can help you, just ask at any of my songs, as you did here. I do check the comments pretty frequently.

Cheers!
- Tommy

I haven't thanked you yet for all your advice yesterday. It must have taken you a while so I appreciate the generosity of your time. I'm much more in the picture now about how the site works. I'd like to respond to each of your points in turn. 1) Yeah, I see three categories here: those I love, those I hate, both worthy of parody, and those of no interest. I'm v interested in religious and sacred music because I find that I usually love the songs but hate the lyrics, but I understand on this site I have to be careful not to offend. I have on file some that are quite visceral exercises in blasphemy but I wouldn't submit them here. I'm hoping to find a courageous publisher for them actually. My personal no 1 hated song is the Monkees 'Daydream Believer'. I've noticed a couple of parodies here. I wonder if I can stomach having a go at it? 2) The problem with topical/political material is it goes out of date quickly. Michael Palin of Monty Python once remarked that one of the the reasons their comedy had such longevity is they used little topical material, rather putting a surreal twist on history and classical philosophy. 3) Ain't it the truth? 4) The implication here is that she knows what sexual relations is but her husband doesn't: ('I did not have sexual relations with that woman'). 5-6-7 ) very enlightening, thanks. I'm delighted to find people here that are passionate parodists. I hope to have 10 notched up within a couple of weeks, and to be as prolific and generous as possible in my feedback to others.

lifeliver: If you knew how many new writers ignored or resented information and constructive suggestions, or even call the commenter a "parody Nazi", then you'd know why those like Andy Primus and myself are happy to share knowledge with someone who actualy *wants* it. Yes, time is a limitaiton, so please don't be offended if I (or anyone else) doesn't respond right away.

First thing we need to do is to help you put line breaks and paragraph breaks in your comments. If you know any HTML code, the standard line break works fine, but it must be capitalized. (site quirk). If that was all Greek to you, then do this: (BR) to start a new line, and (BR)(BR) to skip a line and start a new paragraph or section. However, I couldn't use the actual symbol, because it woud be interpreted as a line break instead of as text. The real symbol -- you said you're mathetic, so skip "less than" and "greater than" -- for the left parenthesis, substitute the left-pointing angle bracket, which on my US laptop keyboard is Shift + comma. For the right parenthesis, use the right-pointing angle bracket, which for me is Shift + period (full stop, in BR). Try those in the "Comment Preview" function, and let me know if you get it right.

You can also use those if your parody intro or outro (top and bottom comments, in italics) need line breaks. You can see that they're not needed in the parody lyrics themselves; the code automatically honors your line spacing there.

OK, to your points:

1) TT said the same thing once before: Two reasons to parody a song: Because you love it or because you despise it. The "not interested" ones can be useful if they're the best OS to suit your concept. (You'll find that matching the right OS to the right concept not only makes for better parody, but makes it much easier to write.) Re: "I'm v interested in religious and sacred music because I find that I usually love the songs but hate the lyrics, but I understand on this site I have to be careful not to offend. I have on file some that are quite visceral exercises in blasphemy but I wouldn't submit them here."

I was pleasantly surprised that several devoutly religious people, including an ordained minister, liked this one, although their reasons made sense:

http://www.amiright.com/parody/misc/williamchattertondix0.shtml

You'll find people of varying religions and degree of same on this site, including some atheists. IOW, a cross-section of the population. So long as you aren't mean-spirited, most will tolerate; ignore those who don't.

2) "The problem with topical/political material is it goes out of date quickly." Depends on how well you do it. Note the OJ songs still getting hits six years after posting, and 16 years after the incident. Same with B and H Clinton, Condoleezza, and many others. Make it memorable -- and include facts, esp. those the news media omit, and people will continue to read for many years. Lots of other examples.

4) "The implication here is that she knows what sexual relations is but her husband doesn't: ('I did not have sexual relations with that woman')" ... Ahhh, thanks! ROFLMAO! ... Bill actually rationalized in his own mind that without intercourse, it was not a "sexual" relationship. Questioned about whether he had had such a relationship, he said, "It depends on what the meaning of 'sex' is". Also, on the meaning of "alone", and in one famous reply, "It depends on the what the meaning of 'is' is".
    Probably not the only married man to rationalize that non-penetration=non-infidelity, BS though it is, and women may do some of that, too.

5-6-7 ) "very enlightening, thanks. I'm delighted to find people here that are passionate parodists. I hope to have 10 notched up within a couple of weeks, and to be as prolific and generous as possible in my feedback to others."
    Focus on quality, not quantity. On that "prolific", this writer takes a lot of shots for being too prolix, so be warned.... "generous" - with feedback, yes, but being overly generous with *undeserved* praise doesn't help anyone to improve, encourages mediocrity, and detracts from those whose praise is deserved. That has been a running issue on this site for years, parodied by this writer under a pseudopseudonym, fearing a flame war, but the response was actually a thoughtful discussion. (Didn't do any good, though. Meaningless Fives and praise for cr*p are still the rule here these days. Not so when TT started. Veterans pointed out your errors --- and how else does one improve?)

http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/franksinatra195.shtml