The Firesign Theatre: Difference between revisions

[[File:FiresignTheatre.png|frame|Four Or Five Crazee Guys]]

 

Working in radio in the 1960s, they started releasing albums in 1968, debuting with ''Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him'' and followed in successive years by ''How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?''; ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'', ''I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus'' and others. Their comedy was based around improvisation and surrealism, with a touch of social commentary buried deep below the surface. Many of their longer pieces seem to be set in a bizarre and somewhat darker [[Alternate Universe]] that still somehow manages to bear a direct relevance to our own.

 

 

You can learn more about them at [http://www.firesigntheatre.com/ their Web site].

* [[Brick Joke]]: Scattered everywhere through their albums.

** In what must be one of the most elongated examples ever, during ''The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye'', Nick receives a call from a guy who thinks he's called a pizza place, and says "I want a pizza to go, and no anchovies," to which Nick replies, "Sorry, you've got the wrong number. I spell my name 'Danger'," and hangs up, causing the caller to say, "Wha?" On their next album, ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers'', the main character, George Tirebiter, calls to order a pizza, saying, "I want a pizza to go, and no anchovies," and then, after a brief pause, he says, "Wha?"

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: All of them.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Out there, somewhere, there is a Firesign Theatre fan who is making a life's labour of love out of laying out the Theatre's huge and intricate web of in-jokes and (self-, meta-, self-meta-)references.

* [[Culture Police]]: "Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde", on ''Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him'', describes a hippie-run future where drug use and rebellion are rigorously enforced by the Establishment. See [[Government Drug Enforcement]] below.

* [[Curse of the Ancients]]: In the episode of "Mark Time" heard on ''Dear Friends'', Dr. Technical says "Dad ding blast it to blazes! ... If I could just get this dad blame water pump to turn over."

{{quote|Player: What the FUUUUUUUUU-}}

* [[Emergency Presidential Address]]: In an episode of "Nick Danger" (a parody of old private dick radio shows), the moment of climax is cut off by a special announcement from the president.

* [[Flash Back Back Back]]: From ''The Further Adventures of Nick Danger'':

{{quote|"No, no, no, no, no, no! You don't understand how radio works. Now, this is my flashback -- all I have to do to return us to the present is fade my voice out like this and cue the organist!"}}

* [[Former Child Star]]: George "Porgie" Tirebiter, on ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers''

* [[Funny Background Event]]: It often pays to try and listen for what's going on in the background.

* [[Gag Dub]]: Their most successful film project, 1979's ''[[J-Men Forever!]]'', took several '30s serials about catching spies and criminals and turned them into the adventures of a federal agency fighting for, among other things, our God-given rights to smoke dope and enjoy non-rock music.

* [[Genius Bonus]]: A typical feature of their comedic style.

{{quote|"It's like in the Army, you know? The great prince issues commands, founds states, vests families with fiefs. Inferior people should not be employed."|Nick Danger, from the album ''How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?'' This is {{spoiler|a hexagram from the ''I Ching''}}.}}

** "[[wikipedia:Zeno's paradoxes#Dichotomy paradox|Antelope Freeway, one mile. Antelope Freeway, one half mile. Antelope Freeway, one quarter mile.]]"

* [[The Goon Show]]: Early Firesign was under heavy Goonish influence. The original Hemlock Stones adventure, ''By The Light of the Silvery'', is done in perfect Goons style, right down to the voices.

* [[Inner Monologue]]: Frequently parodied, particularly with Nick Danger: ''"How do I make my voice do this?"''

* [[Inventing the Wheel]]: On ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers'', the host of a "this day in history" TV show claims that the wheel was invented by Mr. George Antrobus on the 38th of Cunegonde, 1938 BC. ("And just in time!" chirps his female co-host.)

* [[Larynx Dissonance]]: Being all men, they do male and female characters. Some of the female ones, especially those voiced by Phil Austin, are downright eerie.

* [[Least-Common Pizza Topping]]: "No anchovies? You've got the wrong man. I spell my name...Danger!"

* [[Left the Background Music On]]: In "Nick Danger", a character demonstrates that all they have to do to time-travel is "to fade out the sound and cue the organist!"

* [[Long Title]]: Most of their albums, although most notably ''How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?''

* [[Mad Libs Dialogue]]: On ''I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus'', the robot president ([[No Celebrities Were Harmed|who sounds oddly similar]] to [[Richard Nixon]]) uses voice clips of the guests saying their own name to refer to them, that is, until the protagonist, Uhclem, breaks him.

* [[Parody]]: Practically the defining value of their work.

** ''The Further Adventures of Nick Danger'' is an extended parody of [[Film Noir]].

* [[Police State]]: From "Forward Into The Past":

{{quote|Police State!

* [[Token Minority]]: Lampshaded with the Mexican students in "High School Madness". See [[Mighty Whitey]] above.

* [[Tomato in the Mirror]] {{context}}

* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Captain Equinox: his powers are unspecified, but true to his name, he is only Captain Equinox twice a year.

* [[Which Me?]]: "Nick Danger" features a flashback told by Catherwood the butler -- twenty years earlier he surprises his bride Nancy with a time machine, intending to honeymoon in ancient Greece. He tries it on himself first and when he returns minutes later he's a shaky-voiced 1,000 year old codger, to her horror. Present-day Nick bursts in unexpectedly and uses the time machine to travel forward 20 years back to the present, taking the couple and shady character Rocky Rococo with him. Back in the present they're shocked at finding there's two of all of them -- they fight with their other selves, except the two Catherwoods who enjoy having someone their own age to talk with.

* [[Who Writes This Crap?]]: It's a running gag in recent releases: "Boy, those Canadians can really write!"

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Radio]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firesign Theatre, The}}