Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?

I don't dare attempt to answer the question about the porridge bird and his hypothetical egg, but I do wish to tell you of the question's origin. It's a line (and a pivotal plot device) in an album by the Firesign Theatre titled I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus. The Firesign Theatre is a group of four (or five, so they say, but I don't believe them) guys with a very (and I do mean very!) unique comedic style. They've been around since 1968, and I discovered them in 1999 or 2000. Of their 20-something albums, I own 5, which I have listened to more times than I can tell without you thinking I'm a total dork (which I am, but I don't want you to know that yet). I really want to describe this group to you, but I find it hard to start. Their stuff can be pretty confusing and hard to put a label to. Here, I'll give you a quote from their website:

The Firesign Theatre is probably best described, if it can be described at all, as an audio-based production group specializing in unique, multi-media form of non-linear comedy. The troupe has undertaken film-making, book-writing, television, radio and stage productions. Some twenty-plus record albums, three films, three television specials, two books and innumerable radio programs have been the result.

That pretty much sums it up, but at the same time it doesn't. Let's take that phrase "unique, multi-media form of non-linear comedy" and run with it, shall we? The multi-media part doesn't necessarily mean different forms of media, really. It's very unique, though. They use what I would call "layering". That means that, aside from the main dialogue of their spoken comedy, there is a rich variety of background tracks. You've got sound effects to set the place, which are often done by the guys. The background is filled with running jokes, supplemental jokes (supplemental to what's going on), puns, music, nature sounds. The multi-media part applies because often you are to assume that one of the tracks (or the whole album, in some cases) is television or radio, which really changes the way you picture what's going on. Many of their older albums had to be played on quadrophonic systems (4 speakers). They truly create a landscape in their albums with sound, making you feel like there's a real world there. For instance, in a scene from the album pictured above, the Babe character is driving along in his new car. In his world, road signs and billboards talk to you as you drive by. Firesign creates here the feel of a Doppler effect. As the signs are talking, the audio track moves from one speaker to the other, while the main dialogue stays on both speakers--it really feels as though you were passing by the signs.

Now, for the non-linear comedy part. It becomes somewhat linear after you've listened to it a few times. That demands a lot in our short attention span generation, but it's worth it. I remember the first time I listened to one of their albums. I hated it. After a few listens, I got it...well, more of it, if not all of it. They create a whole world in each album, which is wonderful, but comes with its setbacks. It means you have to think, and be able to picture things well. It also means that the world has to be fit into a whole album, which means that there's a lot of talking, and a lot of references to the world itself. It can get pretty dang confusing, because you not only are not a part of the world they put forth, you're also trying to listen to two or three layers of dialogue at once. You pretty much have to know what's going on before you can understand it. Firesign albums are very self-referential. That is, characters pop up on many different albums, certain phrases, concepts, subplots, and jokes keep coming back. That, of course, means listening to many albums to finally understand a little bit more what's going on. Some jokes are started on one album, and ended on another.

There are a ton of hilarious one-liners, puns, parodies, and such, that you can get on the first listen and be amused. But the real gold in these albums is the kind of joke that takes more time, like the self-referential stuff. Not only is there self-reference, but they play on all sorts of stuff that you definitely are not going to notice the first time through. They allude to all kinds of stuff...some of the things I know of so far are Disney, the World's Fair, James Joyce's Ulysses, the Beatles, old western movies, old and new radio programs, Jackie Chan, princess Diana, Zeno's paradox, old war movies, all sorts of history stuff, Elmer's glue, and hundreds of other things, I'm sure. Now, you may be asking "Why are references funny?" Well, in many cases, they involve puns or send-ups of certain trends, or twists on familiar things, but that's not what I like most. Whenever you realize something new on an album, it's the same as finding something secret anywhere else, like the Easter Eggs on a DVD, the extra animations in a Strong Bad email, or the negative level in the original Nintendo Super Mario Bros. game. You feel like you now belong to a secret, exclusive club. You notice something that no one else has, and it makes you more "in the know".

Aside from that, their comedy has a lot of really poignant commentary that still rings very true today. For instance, in their first album Waiting for the Electrician, or Someone Like Him, the first track presents a summary of the colonizing and frontier times of America. When the Spanish meet the Indians, they almost immediately ask, "You got any gold?" The Indians, offering corn, reply "This is gold." The Spanish become ecstatic. "Hey, corn! Now we can make tortillas!" "We been waitin' honnerts of years for this!" "I jees invinnit tacos!" Later, frontiersmen make the observation that "We're in injun territory!" and immediately a salesman-type voice comes on announcing "It's treaty time!" with a backdrop of patriotic music. Another track presents an alternate present, where the counter-culture of the 60s has somehow become the mainstream, where police arrest those who aren't groovy, and Kennedy signs a world peace treaty with the Soviet Sociables Respublik and the Hippie Republic of China. This totally doesn't scratch the surface of what Firesign does, and I'm sure I've got at least 50 more listens to figure out what the crap is really going on. I sense that their jokes and social commentary are as layered as the audio tracks. Their worlds are fun-house mirror-images of our own, which are way too often strikingly familiar.

Okay, this is getting pretty long, and both of you are probably getting tired of reading this. Before I go, I want to admonish you, if you get a chance to hear Firesign, give them a chance and listen to the whole thing. You may find you were happy you did. I also want to let you know who these guys are. Even though I'm sure you've never heard about Firesign (except maybe from me), I'm sure you've seen or heard some of their work apart from the group. Phil Proctor is a voice actor with innumerable credits; he was Howard, Phil and Lil's dad on the Rugrats and the drunk monkey in both Dr. Dolittle movies (his website, also funny, can be found here). Phil Austin was Nick Danger, in- and outside of Firesign albums, and has done voice-overs for Pizza Hut and Nissan (his wife, Oona, has prepared Kellogg's cereals and Taco Bell foods for television viewing as well). David Ossman voiced Cornelius in A Bug's Life and many various characters on The Tick, and also writes poetry, I believe. The only stuff I've seen Peter Bergman do outside of Firesign work was the computer game Pyst, a hilarious parody of Myst. It starred John Goodman as King Mattruss, and I believe I got my copy for under $5 a few years back at EB. I hope I've described them well enough for a post that was way too long. But, it's one of my interests, and you're either reading this because you want to learn about me, or you're slacking off from work, so I hope maybe you've learned something. Otherwise, get back to work!

And hey, somebody comment already on a post or something. I want to know what you think. Also, are y'all clicking on the website links I provide?