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- [Jim] For two 
high school friends

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who started out with 
a guitar, an accordion

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and some prerecorded 
drum tracks,

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John Flansburgh and John Linnell

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of They Might Be Giants have 
had a very good run indeed.

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In the past 35 years, 
they've released 20 albums,

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and contributed 
songs to films, TV

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and most recently, Broadway.

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But one thing they've never 
managed is a US hit single,

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and that, says John Linnell,

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has turned out to 
be an advantage.

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- We're not annoying the hell 
out of anybody, you know.

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There's not some thing 
in our repertoire

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that people are groaning about.

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I think the people 
who recognize us

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and remember us

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do so generally with a 
kind of pleasant feeling.

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- [Jim] More than just 
a pleasant feeling,

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but a level of devotion that 
keeps them singing along

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three decades later.

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Generations of die-hard 
fans have been taken

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with the Giant's 
infectious melodies,

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and reliably clever, 
occasionally absurd, lyrics.

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But while this music 
sounds like fun,

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the group's founders 
are deadly serious.

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- We are very uptight, in a 
way, about what we're doing.

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- Most people who work with us

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quickly come to understand 
that we are control freaks,

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(John Linnen laughs)

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and I am very 
specifically, like,

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this huge gatekeeper.

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I'm more than happy 
to be the bad cop

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if a bad cop is needed.

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- [Jim] If the 
duo is particular,

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it's because they've 
been captains

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of their own, fairly offbeat, 
creative ship for a long time.

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Even now, John and John retain

38
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the gritty 
do-it-yourself attitude

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that brought them 
success early on.

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In 1983, they 
started Dial-A-Song,

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which offered new They 
Might Be Giants songs

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as the outgoing message 
on the answering machine

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at John Flansburgh's 
Brooklyn apartment.

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Their early music videos,

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mostly homemade on 
a shoestring budget,

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earned them national 
exposure on MTV.

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But their real 
breakthrough came in 1990,

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with the band's 
third album, Flood,

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which has sold more 
than a million copies 
worldwide to date,

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thanks in part to 
Birdhouse In Your Soul,

51
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quirky tales of ancient history,

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as told by a blue 
canary nightlight.

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It reached number six 
on the UK pop charts.

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And though the group's 
light hearted approach

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resonated with 
British audiences,

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some in the media 
were less amused.

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- "Admit it, this funny 
thing can't last."

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"What were you thinking

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"when you thought 
you could succeed

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"with this humorous music?

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"Doesn't it seem like a mistake

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"that you're doing music 
with a sense of humor?"

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- The same question 
over and over.

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- The reiteration of the same 
question over and over again.

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And we're just like

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"Yeah, lady, it's cool."

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- [Reporter] Don't 
you ever get fed up

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with the sort of gimmicks,

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and do you ever think that they 
might wear thin, the humor?

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Are you into sort of gimmicks 
and everything, or ... ?

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- It's completely a gimmick.

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- We don't have a problem like,

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saying very glib 
things about our work,

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but we really have 
a difficult time

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hearing other people say it.

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- [Jim] But this sense of humor

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that so offended that reporter

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has made They Might Be Giants 
a big hit with young children,

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for whom they've 
made several albums.

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- We didn't want it to 
be some kinda remedial,

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good-for-you type of thing.

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- I mean, I don't think 
we're uniquely qualified

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for many things,

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but I think what happened 
with the kids stuff

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was we actually had a 
transferrable skill.

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- [Jim] Of their four 
children's albums,

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three have gone gold.

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One even earned a Grammy,

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but the duo still writes 
mainly music for grown ups.

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Despite its title, their 
2018 album, I Like Fun,

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explores more weighty topics.

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I Left My Body is 
what it suggests?

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- [John Linnen] Mm-hmm.

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It's a visit to 
the pearly gates?

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- Possibly, that's one, yeah.

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I mean, I think we don't,

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we're not nailing 
everything completely down,

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but there's a strong 
element of death

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throughout the album,

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but there's also fun.

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You know.

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- The fun of death (laughs)

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- There's also some 
fairly unveiled references

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to opiod addiction, 
if I'm not mistaken?

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- I Like Fun is about 
prescription drugs,

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which of, I guess 
there are some,

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- Could be opioid

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- It's in a sense a 
cautionary tale, it's sort of,

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I think one of the 
things that people,

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when people talk about 
drugs, is so strange to me,

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is the reason people 
get into drugs

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is that it's fun.

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So, it's like, you 
know, that part

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they skip over really gingerly,

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and the song is kind of 
about that confusion,

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how can something as 
simple as the idea of fun

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get so messed up by this,

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by this addiction stuff?

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- [Jim] With each new project,

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Flansburgh and Linnell 
strive to impress

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their most difficult 
critics, each other.

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- I put something together

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and I think "What 
will John think?"

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and even without him 
there, I'm already,

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I can see it possibly 
curdling, you know.

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- Oh, so you're 
almost self editing

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before it gets to 
the other person?

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- Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.

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- [Jim] Oh, that's interesting.

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- I think the idea 
of the other person

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being the first 
audience is very,

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in a way, I think that's 
what defines us as a group

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more than anything else.

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That's a part of,

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sort of invisible, part 
of the collaboration,

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it's that, you know, 
you just wanna kind of

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impress the other person.

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- [Jim] For your chance 
to win autographed

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They Might Be Giants swag,

140
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including an actual 
blue canary nightlight

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autographed by the 
band, visit our website.

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- [John Linnell] 
Thank you so much!

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(audience cheering)

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(gentle music)

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- [Announcer] Articulate, 
with Jim Cotter

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is made possible 
with generous funding

147
00:41:54,633 --> 00:41:57,033
from the Neubauer 
Family Foundation.

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(upbeat music)