Voting Station

Firesign Theater

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Comedians

The Resume

    (1966-2011)
    Born in Los Angeles, California
    Members:
    Phil Austin (April 6, 1941-June 19, 2015), born in Denver, Colorado
    Peter Bergman (November 29, 1939-March 9, 2012), born in Cleveland, Ohio
    David Ossman (December 6, 1936- ), born in Santa Monica, California
    Philip Proctor (July 28, 1940- ), born in Goshen, Indiana
    Formed at the public radio station KPFK-FM
    Recorded the albums ‘Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him’ (1968), ‘How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You’re Not Anywhere At All?’ (1969), ‘Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers’ (1970), ‘I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus’ (1971), ‘Not Insane or Anything You Want To’ (1972), ‘Everything You Know Is Wrong’ (1974), ‘In the Next World, You’re On Your Own’ (1975), ‘Nick Danger: The Case of the Missing Shoe’ (1979), ‘Fighting Clowns’ (1980), ‘The Three Faces of Al’ (1984), ‘Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death’ (1998), ‘Boom Dot Bust’ (1999) and ‘Radio Now Live’ (2001)
    Published ‘The Firesign Theater’s Big Book of Plays’ (1972) and ‘The Firesign Theater’s Big Mystery Joke Book’ (1974)
    Featured irregularly on National Public Radio (2002-03)

Why they might be annoying:

    Their name was inspired by astrology: the troupe members were all born under ‘fire signs:’ Aries (Austin), Leo (Proctor) and Sagittarius (Bergman and Ossman).
    They recorded commercial parodies at the same time they were making ads for a local Volkswagen dealership.
    Bergman said their albums were ‘filled with hidden jokes and meanings that even we do not always intend when we write the material’
    Their popularity waned as the psychedelic era faded away.

Why they might not be annoying:

    Their performances felt improvised but were actually tightly scripted.
    They had a die-hard cult following that would memorize their albums word for word.
    George Carlin said, ‘Firesign Theater is like having American culture explode in front of you and land all over the wall.’.
    ’Don’t Crush That Dwarf…’ was called ‘the greatest comedy album ever made’ in the ‘Rolling Stone Record Guide’ (1983) and was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry of ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically important‘ sound recordings (2006).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying