Particle Man

From This Might Be A Wiki
YouTube
Music video for "Particle Man"
Screenshot from the Tiny Toons music video
Screenshot

song name Particle Man
artist They Might Be Giants
releases Flood, Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants, A User's Guide To They Might Be Giants: Melody, Fidelity, Quantity, Rhino Hi-Five: They Might Be Giants, Flood + Apollo 18
year 1990
first played November 15, 1989 (1194 known performances)
run time 1:59
sung by John Linnell


Trivia/Info

  • Easily one of TMBG's most popular songs, this song was used in a musical episode of the cartoon Tiny Toon Adventures titled "Tiny Toon Music Television." The character Plucky Duck was a professional wrestler version of Particle Man who was clobbered by Triangle Man, Universe Man, and so forth.
  • John and John discussing interpretations of the song in a 1994 radio interview:
John Linnell: I feel complete sympathy with the people in our audience who are like visibly, completely overinterpreting some song like... I can't even think of a good example.

John Flansburgh: "Particle Man" seems like a song that is a total...

John Linnell: It's pretty on the surface, you know? And people really, they really want to know what the secret message behind "Particle Man" is, you know, and there just isn't one. It's what it is.
  • According to Linnell, "Triangle Man was based on a friend's observation that Robert Mitchum looked like an evil triangle when he took his shirt off in Night of the Hunter. Nothing else not explicitly stated need be inferred." (Rolling Stone 2009)
  • Linnell on "Triangle Man" in a 1990 interview:
"Triangle Man" is the same character, in a way, as the guy who sings "Kiss Me, Son Of God." He's an abusive bully, a potential fascist dictator who, for some reason is represented by a triangle.

Song Themes

Heads, People (Imaginary), Questions, Science, Shapes, Size, Songs With Handclaps, Super-Human Qualities, Time, Water

Videos

  • Watch it on Youtube.png

Current Rating

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Particle Man is currently ranked #426 out of 1022. (200 wikians have given it an average rating of 8.41)