Famous Fans

From This Might Be A Wiki

Fans of TMBG who are well-known or sort of well-known. This page will hopefully lead Wikians to other authors, musicians, and artists they might like--sort of a general review of everything cool, linked together by John and John.

Music[edit]

  • Danny Baker - British comedy writer and DJ (he won DJ of the Year 2004)
  • Chris Ballew - Lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of America (also opened for TMBG)[1]
  • Barenaked Ladies - Canadian rock band. Their iTunes biography page lists They Might be Giants as an influence for them. Former guitarist/singer/songwriter Steven Page has also expressed his admiration of "Fingertips": "They Might Be Giants records are awesome and I think... they've set the bar for me, for kids records, and for me, I just wanna be able to meet the standard that they've set, because we had, uh...we took a family vacation this year driving around Canada, and uh, we had XM on the radio in the car, and my kids were listening to the XM kids channel a lot of the time, and there's so much horrendous kids music out there. So what I'd hear a They Might Be Giants song come on it was a welcome relief. Because I had my iPod, we could listen to...to uh...'Fingertips' or something like that and the kids would be just happy."
  • Gene "Bean" Baxter - British DJ well-known to US West Coast residents since the late 1980s[2]
  • Frank Black - American musician, known for his work as the frontman for Pixies
  • David Byrne - Frontman of the equally influential new wave band Talking Heads. John Linnell collaborated on his solo album Grown Backwards and contributed a track for Flansburgh's project Future Soundtrack For America
  • Chris Carrabba - American musician, known as the lead singer and guitarist for Dashboard Confessional[3][4]
  • Neil Cicierega - American musician, filmmaker, comedian. Covered "Birdhouse In Your Soul" in his band Lemon Demon.
  • Cloud Nothings - American indie rock band. Dylan Baldi, frontman of Cloud Nothings, stated, "The first record I bought was probably horrible. It was probably like...It was a They Might Be Giants album, actually. No, and that's awesome. That's not terrible at all. That band rules."
  • Elvis Costello - British musician and songwriter. He has stated that he likes "Youth Culture Killed My Dog". TMBG opened for him at multiple shows in August 1995. He also came close to producing Apollo 18.
  • Jonathan Coulton - American singer-songwriter. He cites TMBG as an influence[5], and covered "Birdhouse in Your Soul" in 2008[6]. Flansburgh produced his 2011 album Artificial Heart, and TMBG have appeared on the JoCo Cruise.
  • John Darnielle - American musician and main figure of the band The Mountain Goats.[7]
  • Dan Deacon - American composer and electronic musician. He has stated, "As soon as I heard the first few chords of "Ana Ng", I was in love. Everything about the album was magic: the artwork, the lyrics, the instrument choices, the arrangements, the timbres of their voices. It was perfect. It was everything I ever wanted to hear but didn't know until hearing it." pitchfork.com [8]
  • Bob Dylan - American folk musician. According to Clive Langer and Bono (via Jeremy Chatzky), Dylan is a fan of the band. Dylan has also played a few TMBG songs on his "Theme Time" radio show.
  • Open Mike Eagle - Rapper from Chicago, who has referenced both "Don't Let's Start" and "Weep Day" in his lyrics, and has given glowing reviews to the band in Pitchfork Media. Served as the judge for the video contest for "I Left My Body" in late 2017. Vox produced a video in which he speaks about the influence TMBG has had on his music.[9]
  • Gordon Gano - Frontman of the folk-punk band Violent Femmes (see other bands you may like) Contributed to Flansburgh's Hello CD of the Month project; Linnell provided lead vocals for Darlin' Allison on his solo album.
  • Allie Goertz - American comedian and musician[10]
  • Greg Hawkes - American musician, keyboardist for The Cars. According to John Linnell, he and his son have been to several They Might Be Giants concerts in recent years.[11]
  • Joe Hawley - American musician and songwriter, and a member of the rock band Tally Hall. The lyrics to "Bring Her Along" include the line, "They might be giant servicemen!"
  • Sean Hayes - American singer-songwriter. Mentioned that TMBG is one of his favorite bands in a November 2021 episode of the Smartless podcast.[12]
  • Tim Heidecker - American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician, best known as one half of the comedy duo Tim & Eric.[13]
  • Mark Hoppus - American bassist of Blink-182. TMBG has appeared on his Fuse TV show Hoppus on Music.
  • Andrew Huang - Canadian musician. Covered "Birdhouse In Your Soul" and "Experimental Film" as "SongsToWearPantsTo".
  • Charlene Kaye - American singer, also known as KAYE, she was the lead vocalist for San Fermin from 2014 to 2019[14]
  • Kid Sister - American female rap artist has said whenever she plays They Might Be Giants' kids music, her dogs get really excited and crazy.
  • Julian Koster - American musician, leader of The Music Tapes, creator of the podcast The Orbiting Human Circus (of the Air), member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He has stated that while on the road on a Neutral Milk Hotel tour he constantly played Lincoln in the van, saying that the album is genius. He was featured on the song James K. Polk, playing the musical saw.
  • Roger Lima - American bassist of Less Than Jake[15]
  • Aimee Mann - American singer-songwriter, who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the band 'Til Tuesday and later released many solo albums. She cites "Dont Let's Start" as one of her favorites.[16]
  • Chris McCrory - British singer and guitarist for the band Catholic Action[17][18]
  • Tim Minchin - Australian musical comedian
  • Elizabeth Nelson - American musician and co-founder of indie band The Paranoid Style. Described growing up listening to TMBG in the 1980s. [19]
  • OK Go - Opened for TMBG and covered "Kiss Me, Son of God" live.
  • Amanda Palmer - American ukulele player and member of The Dresden Dolls.[20]
  • Adam Schlesinger - American musician and singer, who founded bands Fountains of Wayne and Ivy, and also wrote "That Thing You Do".
  • Al Stewart - Scottish folk singer of "Year of the Cat" (top ten in US and UK, 1976) and more, heard praising the band and doing a rendition of "Ana Ng" on UK Radio London (Danny Baker Show). Cited "Birdhouse in Your Soul" as his favorite pop song of the last twenty years when he played an acoustic guitar cover of it at The Point in Bryn Mawr, PA on New Year's Eve 2004. Also loves "Dinner Bell" and "Metal Detector".
  • Will Toledo - Lead singer of American indie rock band Car Seat Headrest. He is a big fan of TMBG and has cited them as an influence in the past[21]. He also referenced "Ana Ng" in his song "Cute Thing" and the band listed the Johns in the "Special Thanks" section of the release notes for their 2018 re-recording of their 2011 album Twin Fantasy[22][23].
  • Adam Turla, founding member of the group Murder by Death, cites TMBG as a primary influence in becoming a songwriter
  • TV On The Radio - Brooklyn-based rock band. They recorded a cover of "Dead", and also listed "Birdhouse In Your Soul" on an iTunes playlist saying, "A true miracle in lyric, and the oddest instrumentation."
  • Suzanne Vega - American singer-songwriter. She listed Lincoln as "one of the greatest albums of the 1980s" in Rolling Stone. She also thanked/credited the Johns in her 1990 album Days of Open Hand, in which the track "Tired Of Sleeping" features John Linnell on accordion.
  • Brian Wecht - American musical comedian/theoretical physicist, one half of the musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party as the character Ninja Brian. He has stated on an Instagram livestream that he loves TMBG, and the song Spider.
  • Weezer - American rock band, who has stated They Might Be Giants was an influence for them
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic - American musician and songwriter, known for his parodies of popular songs. He has stated, "TMBG... prolific, smart, funny, great guys. One of my all-time favorite bands." He wrote and recorded "Everything You Know Is Wrong" for his 1996 album Bad Hair Day, a pastiche of/tribute to early-period TMBG. On the commentary for the Weird Al Show DVD set, he noted that TMBG is his three-year-old daughter (now demonstrably much older than three) Nina's second favorite artist, next to Ben Folds.

Authors and artists[edit]

  • Orson Scott Card - American novelist and columnist. He has stated, "Oh, I love They Might Be Giants. I just don't think of them by their initials. Mystery solved. Thanks." - After being told what TMBG stood for in a username on his online forum.
  • Dave Eggers - American author and publishing mogul[24]
  • Neil Gaiman - British author, notably of Coraline
  • Eric Jones - American comic book artist[25]
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda - Puerto Rican-American creator of the Broadway hit musical Hamilton. Miranda has tweeted TMBG lyrics and his Spotify "frequent artist" list, which included TMBG prominently in 2017.
  • Terry Pratchett - British author best known for the Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, which contain several TMBG references, the most obvious being the dwarfish rock band "We're Certainly Dwarfs" in Soul Music. Once claimed that "Where Your Eyes Don't Go" is the creepiest song he's ever heard, and used Particle Man as inspiration for a famous phrase uttered by several of his characters.
  • Nathan W. Pyle - American cartoonist and writer, notable for producing the comic Strange Planet. Said he became a fan from TMBG songs included in the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures.[26]
  • Paul Sahre - American graphic designer who has worked with TMBG on many of their projects. He states that TMBG is one of his favorite bands.
  • Doug TenNapel - American animator and writer, known as the creator of Earthworm Jim and Catscratch
  • Jhonen Vasquez - American comic book writer, cartoonist, and music video director, who created Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim. "I used to be big on them a looooooong time ago."

Film and television[edit]

  • Linwood Boomer - Television actor and producer. Created the show Malcolm In The Middle, and personally selected the band to contribute the music.
  • Stephen Colbert - American comedian and TV host. Some sort of affiliation can be implied by the following: one of the very first episodes of The Colbert Report had a quick TMBG reference, his affiliation with Jon Stewart's show (Jon Stewart is friends with the band), his mysterious appearance in the People Are Wrong! program, and the fact that they all reside in New York.
  • David Cross - American actor and comedian
  • Glenn Eichler - American comedy writer, who was the creator and co-executive producer of the TV show Daria.
  • Paul Feig - American actor and filmmaker who quoted "Number Three" in his book, Kick Me.
  • Craig Ferguson - Scottish comedian, host of The Late Late Show. Besides TMBG appearing on his show a couple times, on an episode when interviewing Doris Kearns Goodwin, he specifically referred to the song "James K. Polk" as the reason he knew so much about Polk. He also did a cold open lipsync to TMBG's version of Istanbul.
  • Jake Fogelnest - American writer and comedian, who hosted Squirt TV on MTV. "Minimum Wage" was the theme song, and he was often wearing TMBG shirts on the show.
  • Janeane Garofalo - American actor and comedian
  • Dave Gorman - British documentary comedian. "A fantastic and incredibly prolific band. Good tunes and silly songs that aren't really silly" (from the links page on his site[27]). Favorite albums are Flood and Lincoln.
  • Rupert Grint - British actor, known as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films. Called "I Am Not Your Broom" a "cool track".
  • Matt Groening - Creator of long-running American animated series The Simpsons and Futurama, included They Might Be Giants on his My Favorite People: Part 1, featured in Simpsons Comics #14
  • Melissa Joan Hart - American actor. "I actually got the job for Clarissa Explains It All because of They Might Be Giants. The producer asked me about music, and I told them I liked TMBG (instead of popular bands like New Kids on the Block). He loved it, I got the job and then they worked TMBG into the show by putting the poster in the room."[28]
  • Alex Hirsch - American writer, animator, voice actor and creator of the hit Disney animated series "Gravity Falls".[29]
  • James Janisse[30] - Film producer and editor; inserted TMBG references into The Kill Count series starting in 2017[31]
  • Ken Jennings - American writer, known for his 74-game winning streak on the quiz show Jeopardy!, and later serving as the primary host of the show[32]
  • Phill Jupitus - British comedian
  • Samm Levine - American actor and comedian[33]
  • Michael McKean - American actor who appears in Gigantic reciting "The End Of The Tour" and in the extras performing "I Palindrome I". On the DVD commentary, AJ Schnack mentions that McKean needed no prompting or rehearsal to recite the lyrics to these, and that he arrived prepared to recite "The End Of The Tour" in addition to the two songs he was asked to review. (The third song was "Spiraling Shape".) When asked in an interview what he has on his iPod, he responded "I probably have more They Might Be Giants than anything. I have everything they have ever done — including their podcasts."[34]
  • Seth Meyers - American comedian and TV host. He stated that he is a huge fan of the band when discussing "Who Are The Electors?" on his show.
  • Chris Morris - British comedian. Played many TMBG songs whilst working as a DJ on Radio 1 and GLR in the early nineties, including "Kiss Me, Son Of God" and "We Want A Rock". Did a pastiche of the band (to the tune of "Dead") for a GLR jingle. A snippet from "Minimum Wage" can also be heard in a sketch from the 1991 Radio 4 series, On The Hour, which Morris presented.
  • Mike Myers - Canadian actor and comedian. Attended the October 2, 2004 Irving Plaza show. From Dan Miller's show comments: "Mr. Mike Myers came backstage to say hello and got into the battle of the Scottish accents with Mr. Speiser."
  • Nick Offerman - American actor and comedian, known for his role on Parks and Recreation. He professed his love for TMBG on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show #115[35] and in his 2015 book Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers.[36] He starred in the official video for "The Greatest".
  • Natalie Portman - American actor. She attended the May 6, 2007 show at Princeton, NJ.
  • Keanu Reeves - Canadian-American actor
  • Andy Richter - American actor and comedian, known for his role as a sidekick for Conan O'Brien. He appeared in Gigantic reciting lyrics to "I Should Be Allowed To Think", and narrated TMBG's Venue Songs set at their House of Blues show in March 2005.
  • Jonathan Ross - British television personality. Witnessed at a London concert singing along to deep album cuts.
  • Harry Shearer - American actor and comedian. He was spotted backstage at a TMBG show by AJ Schnack and recited the song "They Might Be Giants" in Gigantic. He has included TMBG songs with some regularity in his long-running Le Show.
  • George Stephanopoulos - American journalist and friend of the band[37]
  • Jon Stewart - Friend of the band, TMBG covered "Dog On Fire" as the theme tune to his Comedy Central series The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. His interview with the Johns appears in Gigantic
  • Scott Thompson, Bruce McCulloch[38], Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Dave Foley - Canadian comedians, known for their work in Kids in the Hall. In addition to their declared fandom, "Spiraling Shape" appears on the Kids in the Hall soundtrack and briefly in the film itself.
  • Paul F. Tompkins - American comedian, actor, and writer[39][40]
  • Lee Unkrich - American film director of two of the Toy Story films, among others; listed as member of Instant Fan Club on the Nanobots sleeve.
  • Sarah Vowell - American actor and author, This American Life contributor, and voice of Violet in Pixar's The Incredibles. She wrote an essay about the band for the liner notes of Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants.
  • Wil Wheaton - American actor and blog author
  • Edgar Wright - British director, screenwriter and producer[41]

Internet, podcasting, and radio[edit]

  • The Brothers Chaps - American writers and voice actors, known as the creators of Homestar Runner. They are fans of TMBG, and TMBG are fans of them. They worked with TMBG on some material for their website.
  • John and Hank Green - American brothers, authors, and internet personalities known as the "Vlogbrothers" on YouTube. Hank talks extensively about his love for TMBG in a 2018 Vlogbrothers video[42]. Among other things in the video, he says that his older brother John introduced the band to him by playing Flood. Hank has also covered many TMBG songs.
  • Nic Harcourt - British expat working in America as a radio host, best known for his time at KCRW in Santa Monica, CA.[43]
  • Samantha Irby - American comedian, author, and blogger. In her 2020 work Wow, No Thank You.: Essays, she explained her process for creating mixtapes: "First of all, I would have to figure out what mood I was trying to create: How cool did I want the recipient to think I was? Is this a person who would understand my deep and abiding love for They Might Be Giants?"[44]
  • Iain Lee - British comedian and radio host. Has had TMBG on his radio show and has on occasion sang along with all of "Birdhouse In Your Soul" on air. He's said on his Facebook page that he loves TMBG.
  • Mr. Connectify (Alec) - YouTube creator of Technology Connections[45] channel; wore the Pink Album full-wrap t-shirt for an episode in 2020[46]
  • Rob Malda - American Internet content author, known for "CmdrTaco" of Slashdot fame, one of the world's most visited news sites.
  • Merlin Mann - American writer, blogger, and podcaster, who has occasionally talked about how great TMBG is on the Rodrick on the Line podcast with John Roderick.
  • Justin and Griffin McElroy - American actors and writers, known for their podcasts My Brother My Brother and Me[47] and The Adventure Zone[48]. Griffin said on the podcast Wonderful that TMBG is "one of my favorite bands of all time." His brother Justin, who has a tattoo of this logo [49], introduced the band to him.[50] Griffin has used The_Pencil_Rain and similar monikers in gaming.
  • Jimmy Wales - American–British Internet entrepreneur and founder of Wikipedia[51]

Other fields[edit]

  • Madeleine Albright - American politician and diplomat, who has served as US Secretary of State[52]
  • Stanley G. Love - American astronaut; brought a TMBG CD with him to space[53] (the TMBG reference comes at around 24:45 in the interview)

See also[edit]

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