Brainworm: Getting a song (usually one you dislike) stuck inside your mind that repeats endlessly.
- Urban Dictionary

Much to the horror of one particular h2g2 Editor, he recently realised that for several weeks the theme tune from The Simpsons had been playing in his head on constant loop all day, every day. Doh! you might well say. Poor chap. Anyway, it's quite revealing. He could have had, say, 'Capriccio Sopra la Lontananza del suo Fratello Dilettissimo' in B-flat major by Johann Sebastian Bach. But no, it was the theme tune from The Simpsons.

But once a sticky tune 'worms' its way into your head, it can be devilishly hard to get the blighter out again. Sometimes the only remedy is to actually dislodge it with an even worse piece of melodic nonsense. The Birdie Song, for instance¹. This of course is a last resort, but brainworms are no laughing matter. Actually, no, they are a laughing matter: have you ever played the game where you whistle a suitably 'wormy' tune in the office and then sit back and wait for it to burrow itself into the minds of your unsuspecting workmates, their zombie brains turned to mush as they start humming along? Weak and powerless fools that they are!

• What is the ultimate brainworm tune? That even the very utterance of it in this thread will send it burrowing deep into our skulls.

• Experiment: If any of you are sat in an office or where there are other folk around, can you whistle your worst brainworm tune and report back to us if you've managed to infect anyone else with, say, 'I Want To Know What Love Is' by Foreigner².

• Do you often have random bits of music playing in your brain, like lift music or piped shop muzak³?

• Is it actually a sign of a brilliant melody, one that hooks you instantly and reels you in?

• What are you favourite melodies, or your favourite pieces of melodic music, either popular or classical?

• Is melody going out of fashion?