![\"They](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/They-Might-Be-Giants-John-Flansburgh-John-Linnell-1980s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ They Might Be Giants)<\/p>\n
Mon 8 December 2025 10:00, UK <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t like to think of what we do as wacky,\u201d John Linnell said in 1994. As one half of the Brooklyn alterno-absurdo band They Might Be Giants, Linnell \u2013 like Pee-Wee Herman, Devo<\/a>, or Douglas Adams before him \u2013 has always taken the goofiness of his art very seriously.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s work,\u201d Linnell told the Salt Lake Tribune. \u201cIf we knew exactly what inspires us to write, we could go out to the well each time we needed a new song. As it is, we have to wait and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n On the surface, the songs Linnell and bandmate John Flansburgh created for their best-selling album, 1990\u2019s Flood, do have a whiff of wackiness to them \u2013 maybe not to the level of a Weird Al, but certainly in a way that seemed to appeal to the tastes of \u201890s alternative nerds who\u2019d grown up on Monty Python and Dr Seuss. The compositions were often childlike and circusy, utilising accordions, melodicas, mandolins, and trumpets, and the lyrics were whimsical and bizarre, with an intellect behind them that suggested a complex riddle with a heavy meaning potentially lurking underneath.<\/p>\n In some cases, such as the breakout Flood hit \u2018Birdhouse In Your Soul\u2019, the mysterious \u201cblue canary in the outlet by the light switch who watches over you\u201d turned out to be a literal description of a canary-shaped wall light. In other instances, though, the weird simplicity of a TMBG lyric produces decades of debate and analysis from the band\u2019s devoted fanbase, with no firm solution ever offered up by Linnell or Flansburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cIdeas tend to take flight on their own,\u201d Linnell said in 2007. \u201cThen you stop worrying about the origin of the idea. Often you have a phrase, and you\u2019re not sure what you\u2019re saying at first.\u201d Take, for example, another fan favourite from Flood and arguably the song that laid the groundwork for They Might Be Giants\u2019 eventual move into recording children\u2019s albums<\/a>: \u2018Particle Man.\u2019<\/p>\n While it wasn\u2019t even selected as a single, \u2018Particle Man\u2019 was instantly a standout track on Flood, and when it was featured in a 1991 episode of the Warner Bros kids cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures, with Plucky Duck in the title role, it took on a whole new life for Millennials who were still too young to be reading Spin magazine.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason the writers at Tiny Toons felt \u2018Particle Man\u2019 was fit for cartoonisation \u2013 well, two reasons really. For one thing, They Might Be Giants were on Elektra Records, a subsidiary of Warner. The second, less cynical reason is that the song sounds like a cartoon, complete with an oompa bassline and accordion solos. Lyrically, it seems like a nonsensical re-imagining of the old \u2018Spiderman\u2019 theme: \u200b\u200b\u201dParticle Man, Particle Man \/ Doing the things a particle can \/ What\u2019s he like? It\u2019s not important \/ Particle Man.\u201d<\/p>\n