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The Firesign Theatre: Difference between revisions
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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.
They also made at least two movies, one a film version of ''Nick Danger: Third Eye'' and ''[[J-Men Forever!]]''.
Their popularity peaked in the early 1970s and ebbed in the Reagan Era. They experienced a revival and second wave of popularity in the 1990s and continued to write, record and perform until Bergman's death in 2012.
In 1997, ''Entertainment Weekly'' ranked the Firesign Theatre among the "Thirty Greatest Comedy Acts of All Time". Their 1970 album ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'' was nominated in 1971 for the [[Hugo Award]] for Best Dramatic Presentation by the World Science Fiction Society, and their next album ''I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus'' received the same nomination in 1972. Later, they received nominations for the [[Grammy Award]] for Best Comedy Album for three of their albums: ''The Three Faces of Al'' (1984), ''Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death'' (1998), and ''Bride of Firesign'' (2001). In 2005, the US Library of Congress added ''Don't Crush That Dwarf'' to the National Recording Registry and called the group "the Beatles of comedy."
You can learn more about them at [http://www.firesigntheatre.com/ their Web site].
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{{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.
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* [[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!"
* [[Viewers Are Geniuses|Listeners Are Geniuses]]: A core value of their comedy.
* [[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.
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** ''The Further Adventures of Nick Danger'' is an extended parody of [[Film Noir]].
* [[Parody Commercial]]: Given their origins in radio, it's not surprising that their albums are frequently structured like broadcast media, with interruptions for mock commercials. Most notable in this regard is ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers'', which comes across as mostly eavesdropping on someone watching TV in a twisted alternate version of Earth. The story, such as it is, is punctuated by commercials for products like [[Captain Ersatz|Ersatz Brothers Coffee]] and [[Yellow Snow|Bear Whiz Beer]], and political ads for candidates whose ideology is... difficult to understand.
* [[Pass Fail]]: The girl arrested by the police in "Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde", on ''Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him'', for unsuccessfully trying to pass as a hippie.
* [[Police State]]: From "Forward Into The Past":
{{quote|Police State!
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Radio]]▼
[[Category:Firesign Theatre]]▼
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Names to Know in Comedy]]
▲[[Category:Radio]]
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