# Firesign Theater, MST3K, Jack Flanders, Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 1999, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386 "1999-09-01T08:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Byzantine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@Byzantine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byzantine)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/1 "1999-09-01T08:15:00Z")
## If you know one of these things than I am glad, if you know two I am thrilled, if you know three I’m flabbergasted. If you know all four of them then I’m in LOVE! These are four of my most favorite things in the world. Let me know if you know! The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/2 "1999-09-01T10:44:00Z")
Firesign Theatre - A comedy troup consisting of David Ossman, Philip Proctor, Philip Austin, and Peter Bergman. In addition to their live performances, they have produced a number of albums and videos. MST3K - _Mystery Science Theather 3000_ is a cable TV series in which Joel Robinson or Mike Nelson, assisted by robots Crow and Tom Servo, make witty and obscure comments while watching bad movies and outwitting evil scientists. Jake Flanders and Ruby - The stars of two science fiction adventure radio series produced by ZBS. Now come with me to the Casbah. ---
**Author:** ![Byzantine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@Byzantine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byzantine)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/3 "1999-09-01T11:43:00Z")
I’m yours! Just tell me where to go! Wow, I really didn’t think anyone out here would know all of those wonderful things! I just have to ask, how old are you? Most people my age know MST3K but not the rest… I’m 33 but had wonderful parents who exposed me to the rest. Sigh… I’m gonna go to bed happy knowing that someone else out there knows! * * * The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/4 "1999-09-01T12:21:00Z")
Byzy, I have to know. Do you also like the Marx Brothers? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/5 "1999-09-01T15:38:00Z")
Alan Sherman, anyone? Umm, Vaughn Meader? No? How about Sophie Tucker? ---
**Author:** ![GLWasteful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f05b48/32.png) [@GLWasteful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GLWasteful)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/6 "1999-09-01T15:59:00Z")
I know the first two. . .the last one, I fear not. I’m only 33, too, but was exposed to Firesign Theatre at an early age, as well. Always nice to know that I’m not the only person too young to remember them in their heyday, but who appreciates them, nonetheless. Dunno if anyone is familiar with it, but there’s a website out there that has all of their stuff available. Alas, I can’t find it, and it’s not in my bookmarks. But it’s there, really! Waste Flick Lives! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/7 "1999-09-01T16:46:00Z")
Flora, Sophie Tucker is my favorite American group! (For those of you who don’t get it, it’s a Beatles joke. At a live performance in front of the Queen, Paul McCartney introduced “'Til There Was You,” as being a number by “our favorite American group, Sophie Tucker.”) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/8 "1999-09-01T20:16:00Z")
As long as we’re talking obscure comedy, any fans of Barnes & Barnes or the Bonzo Dog Band? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/9 "1999-09-01T20:38:00Z")
. . . And to explain PL’s joke: Sophie Tucker was rather overweight by the mid-1960s. Soph was a great comedienne and singer, “the last of the red-hot mamas,” whose career lasted from about 1910 till she retired in the mid-'60s. Very bawdy & funny, one of the vaudeville greats. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/10 "1999-09-01T20:59:00Z")
In high school (1974-79) I used to quote the Firesign “commercials” for Ma Rainey’s moleskin cookies and do a verbal version of “The Intro and the Outro” by the Bonzos…people though I was very, very weird. Also a huge fan of the Goons, a 1950’s BBC anarchic radio show featuring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and the insane genius of Spike Milligan. Does anyone remember “Doctor Bundolo’s Pandemonium Medicine Show”, or “I’m Sorry, I’ll Read that Again”? Tony Hancock? One of my favourite characters on SCTV was composer Irving Cohen, who would always talk about “We had a thing, at that time, called…Vaudeville. I recall Sophie Tucker, the last of the red-hot mamas…give me a ‘C’, a bouncy ‘C’,” and a nonsensical 20s style Tin Pan Alley song would follow. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/11 "1999-09-01T22:05:00Z")
Alan Sherman: Comedian responsible for “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”, “I Hate the Beatles” etc. Vaughn Meader: Comedian known for his uncanny impressions of John & Robert Kennedy. Popular in the early 60’s his career pretty much died when JFK was assassinated in '63. * * * Tim “My hovercraft is full of eels.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 1999, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/12 "1999-09-01T23:10:00Z")
> [@](#): > > As long as we’re talking obscure comedy, any fans of Barnes & Barnes or the Bonzo Dog Band? The Bonzos are the epitome of humor in music. You’re a man after my own heart (but you can’t have it – I left it in San Francisco). * * * [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![PTVroman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bb73d2/32.png) [@PTVroman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PTVroman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 1999, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/13 "1999-09-02T16:21:00Z")
As a high-school english project, we had to perform a radio play. I talked my group into doing the Nick Danger side of “All Hail Marx and Lennon”. I can still quote the entire thing “Los Angeles, he walks again by night…” Every so often, I throw out a Firesign Theatre quote (such as “Why he’s no fun, he fell right over!” or “Golly! Isn’t that bridge built yet?”), and have yet to have anyone recognize it. BTW, the Allen Sherman song is “Pop Hates the Beatles”. I believe that was on “My son, the Nut”. * * * _“The large print givith, and the small print taketh away.”_ Tom Waites, “Step Right Up” ---
**Author:** ![Byzantine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@Byzantine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byzantine)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 1999, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/14 "1999-09-03T05:24:00Z")
Slythe: Yep, I do! WHY? Is that good, bad or ugly? ## I guess it doesn’t matter since we’re all bozos on this bus anyway! The moon looks on many flowers, the flowers on but one moon. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 1999, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/15 "1999-09-02T23:46:00Z")
PLEASE check out a movie called BRAIN DONORS. It’s a dead-on pastiche of A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, with John Turturro. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 1999, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/16 "1999-09-03T00:19:00Z")
Sophie, MST3K, and Firesign here. I’m not as familiar with Firesign as I should be, but I had a boyfriend a while (a long while) ago who was nuts for them, and allowed me the pleasure of listening to the albums. Funny, funny, funny! ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 1999, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firesign-theater-mst3k-jack-flanders-ruby/7386/17 "1999-09-03T03:06:00Z")
Anybody here love Spike Jones and his City Slickers? How about “Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater?”