The things I accomplish with songs are prompted by them having these hooks.

The Black Pearl Crew are the driving personification behind my parodies, with my fodder ratings being based on how relevant a song is to Pirates of the Caribbean characters such as them. This page explains what they do or do not like in a song.

Hooks

Hooks is the term I use for what about the original song helps me figure out what aspect of Pirates to make my parody about. Below is a list of common topics for their parodies and the associated hooks. It is based mostly on which songs are 5-fodder and why. As unlikely as some of them seem, all of these are things I have found in at least one real song. If you cannot find any example of a hook in any song on my 5-fodder list, it means it appears in a song I am planning to add.

Even a particularly difficult song can draw me in if its has one or more hooks, which explains how songs that plenty of you would balk at the idea of parodying can be at the top of my fodder. As you can see, most songs are not necessarily bad choices. It largely depends on who is working with them.

The story of Davy Jones and Calypso

Because of this lost love, songs about bad relationships are a major theme on the 5-fodder list. If the song mentions any of the following things, that detail can remain unchanged to support the theme:

• Not wanting to face life
• Feelings of betrayal
• Insane desires
• Never going to be in love again
• Personal disaster or tragedy
• Bittersweet feelings
• Ending up alone
• Feeling like dying
• A heart’s apocalypse
• Suicide, especially if it is emotional
• People disliking and leaving someone
• A relationship resulting in injuries
• Self-destruction
• Bleeding or blood
• Ending up without a kiss
• Open wounds
• Broken hearts
• Pain, whether hurt literally or figuratively
• Dying for someone
• Falling in love, or not
• Playing emotions
• Fatal attraction
• Psychotic reactions
• Sad old stories
• Trying to find a woman, and failing
• Eyes filling with tears
• Basically, any bad relationship

Aftermath of the tragedy

Some things the lost love can have one calling attention to include:

• The fact that your heart is beating from you
• The fact that he appears to still be alive, or at least did not truly die
• Asking where his heart is

Caribbean things

Things common in the Caribbean or on islands in general that can therefore be worked with include:

• Falling rain
• Bays and seas
• Being stranded
• Water
• Sailors
• The tropical regions of the world, especially of course the Caribbean
• Brown skinned people

Pirate appeal

Things one might see if pirates had their way include:

• A company losing a war
• Protestors, outlaws, and the like
• Not listening to others, being in their own world, preferring to do something else, et cetera
• Wanting to be free
• Treasure, especially if it is buried
• Sinking ships
• Jewels
• Boats or ships
• Adventure. (The title of Born for Adventure pretty much says it all.)
• Pieces of eight

Film critiques

The things I dislike about my chosen subject make me attracted to things such as:

• Watching TV and changing the channel for an hour or two, as this would be the perfect reaction if a movie you disliked came on
• Not being given reasons
• Lacking motivation, which is something I often accuse Disney-made antagonists of
• Making no sense at all

Reactions to the Flying Dutchman

Things those cursed, uh, sea creature, sailor things invoke in me include:

• Confusion
• Sickness, suffering, and the like
• Wanting mercy on a soul (emphasis on soul)
• Freaking out
• Screaming
• Getting the creeps
• Disliking and/or wanting to get away from them
• Not wanting someone around

The crew on the Flying Dutchman

This crew can be described by lyrics about things such as:

• Souls, especially lost or stolen ones
• Finding a heart beating
• Going crazy, first saying one thing and then saying another, and the like
• A father-son tragedy (but this only works as long as the father in the song is still alive)
• Being changed
• Devils
• Minds in disarray
• Sailing eternally

Legends and the supernatural

These give relevance to:

• Tall tales, not believing things, et cetera

Problems

It is also important to know why the Crew may not be on board with a particular song. I do not have a lot to say here, but basically, anything that does not appear in Pirates of the Caribbean is a problem, especially if it has a long, hard-to-rhyme name. You can see a number of examples by reading the poor fodder example and the glimpse into my creative process. Both pages tell you about a lot of songs I passed over and why.

Red herrings

The problems the Crew feel the most need to discuss are things that non-canon things such as the LEGO Pirates video game or fan fiction might make you think to be hooks, but really are not. Some red herrings are:

• Because of LEGO tie-ins to their franchise, the Crew are concerned about any song that mentions bricks, things falling to pieces, or almost anything or anyone broken.
• The LEGO game featured a cutscene in which the bad smell of Mr. Gibbs got him sprayed with perfume. This makes the Crew at unease if a song mentions perfume.
• Fan fiction will vary, of course, but the Crew warn you to keep it out of your head with regards to them. For example, the Comic Five came up with a theory that the crew of the Flying Dutchman were transformed by a disease, but that does not make going to the doctor a hook. (This was a minor contributor to the downfall of the Five.) The Crew are generally down on lyrics about actual literal illness (e.g. anything about a fever) because of this speculation by their predecessors.
• The mockeries the Five made of their enemies make the word stupid and words with similar meanings red herrings.