This can be done easily with the mouseover event as well. I've done it and it doesn't take 200 lines at all. Start with triggering the event, then use a function that will create the tooltip.
$('span.clickme').mouseover(function(event) {
createTooltip(event);
}).mouseout(function(){
// create a hidefunction on the callback if you want
//hideTooltip();
});
function createTooltip(event){
$('<div class="tooltip">test</div>').appendTo('body');
positionTooltip(event);
};
Then you create a function that position the tooltip with the offset position of the DOM-element that triggered the mouseover event, this is doable with css.
function positionTooltip(event){
var tPosX = event.pageX - 10;
var tPosY = event.pageY - 100;
$('div.tooltip').css({'position': 'absolute', 'top': tPosY, 'left': tPosX});
};