''I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus'' is the fourth
comedy album made by
the Firesign Theatre for
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, released in August 1971 on
standard stereo vinyl LP, and
Quadraphonic LP and
8-track tape. It was nominated for a
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1972 by the
World Science Fiction Society.
The title comes from a line spoken by one of the two main characters, and contains a pun on the term ''
computer bus
In computer architecture, a bus (shortened form of the Latin '' omnibus'', and historically also called data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This ex ...
'' since the story parodies then-developing computer technology. It also parodies
Walt Disney parks.
Plot
This album, like its predecessor ''
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers
''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'' is the Firesign Theatre's third comedy album, released by Columbia Records in July 1970. In 1983, ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide'' called it "the greatest comedy album ever made". It was nomi ...
'', is one complete
narrative that covers both sides of one
LP. The first LP side is 20 minutes 51 seconds, and the second side is 18 minutes 7 seconds.
Side one starts with an audio segue from the end of ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'': the music box tune played by the ice cream truck chased by George Tirebiter is heard approaching, played this time by a bus announcing a free Future Fair, which it touts as "a fair for all, and no fare to anybody". A trio of computer-generated
holograms pop up outside the bus: the Whispering Squash (
Phil Austin), the Lonesome Beet (
David Ossman), and Artie Choke (
Peter Bergman), singing "We're back from the shadows again" to the tune of
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
's "
Back in the Saddle Again". They encourage the onlookers to attend the fair, which the Beet describes as "technical stimulation" and "government-inflicted simulation". Then they disappear "back to the shadows again". A young man named Clem (
Philip Proctor) boards and takes a seat next to Barney (Austin), an older man who identifies himself as a
bozo
Bozo or bozo may refer to:
People
*Bozo people, a fishing people of the central Niger delta in Mali
**Bozo language, languages of the Bozo people
* Frédéric Bozo, history Professor at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle
*Bozo Miller ...
(person with a large nose which honks when squeezed); he says, "I think we're ''all'' bozos on this bus." After a stewardess tells the passengers to prepare for "a period of simulated exhilaration", broadcaster Floyd Dan (Bergman) tells them they are riding the rim of the
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...
, the floor of which is five thousand feet below. The "bus" is apparently some sort of hybrid vehicle that can travel on the ground, yet turn into a jet plane which takes off for a "flight to the future".
As Clem and Barney disembark at the fair, a
public address announcer
An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event.
Television and other media
Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...
directs all bozos to report for
cloning, so Barney leaves Clem. The Lonesome Beet pops up and recommends Clem visit the Wall of Science. He boards a
moving walkway taking him to the exhibit, which opens with a parody of religious
creation myth
A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop ...
and segues into a brief overview of history from ancient times to the emergence of mankind, then to the modern scientific era. Two scientific discoveries are reenacted: Fudd's First Law of Opposition ("If you push something hard enough, it will fall over"), and Teslicle's Deviant ("What comes in, must go out"). Then recordings of selected audience members' reactions to the future are played.
Next, the Honorable Chester Cadaver (Ossman) addresses the audience, and relates a meeting with Senator Clive Brown (Bergman), who demonstrates a "model government" consisting of a model train-sized automated maze of
bureaucracies which terminates with an
animatronic President as the
output bus, whom Brown says everyone asks questions. When Cadaver asks Clem to state his name, he stammers slightly and says "Ah, Clem", and the central computer permanently identifies him throughout the park as "Ah Clem". As side 1 closes, Clem is directed onto another moving walkway which takes him in to see "the President".
Side two opens with the exhibit of "the President" (Austin), who sounds like
Richard Nixon. Each visitor is asked to speak their name, which is then played back to appear as if the president is addressing them by name. A
black welfare recipient named Jim (Bergman) relates his family's harsh urban living conditions and asks the President where he can get a job. The President responds with a vague, positive-sounding reply only remotely related to the question and completely unrelated to Jim's concerns, and Jim is given the "bum's rush". When it is Clem's turn, he puts the President into maintenance mode by saying, "This is Worker speaking. Hello." The computer responds with the length of time that it has been running. Clem then gets access to Doctor Memory (the master control), and attempts to confuse the system with a riddle: "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?" This causes the President to shut itself down. As Clem leaves, an
Hispanic visitor is heard to say "He broke the President!".
Clem meets up with Barney back on the Funway. They encounter sideshows such as astronaut Mark Time (Ossman) recruiting a crew for a trip to the Haunted Space Station, and Hideo Nutt's Bolt-a-drome, where fairgoers are invited to participate in boxing matches with electrical appliances such as water heaters and toasters. Public announcers repeatedly page "Mr. Ah Clem" to come to the "hospitality shelter", and Artie Choke pops up again, programmed to take lost children back to their parents. He says he will send Deputy Dan to take Clem to the hospitality shelter. Clem then uses Artie to create a clone of himself which enters the system for another confrontation with Dr. Memory. He repeats his porridge bird riddle, which the computer struggles with several attempts to parse, finally mangling it into "Why does the poor rich Barney delay laser's edge in the fair?" Clem succeeds in confusing the computer into contradicting itself, causing a total crash which ends the fair with a display of
fireworks.
The entire experience is then revealed to be a vision seen in the
crystal ball of a
Gypsy doctor (Proctor) telling Barney his fortune. After Barney leaves, the Gypsy plots with his partner (Bergman) to make a quick escape after their last client, a sailor.
Portrayal of theme parks and computer technology
The fair rides and exhibits are similar to those at
Disneyland and the
1964 New York World's Fair
The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...
.
Clem is one of the first "
computer hackers" mentioned in
pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* Pop (Gas al ...
, and his dialogue with the fair's computer includes messages found in the
DEC PDP-10, a popular minicomputer at the time. (Some of the lines are error messages from
MACLISP.) An identification followed by the word "hello" initiated an interactive session on contemporary Univac, General Electric, and university timesharing systems. Many of the things the computer said were based on
ELIZA, a computer program which simulated a
Rogerian psychotherapist.
For example, the phrase Clem used to put The President into maintenance mode, "this is Worker speaking," is based on the fact that the user could type "worker" at Eliza's command prompt, and Eliza would then display the command prompt for the
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants (, , , , , , , ). These misarticulations often result in unclear speech.
Types
* A frontal lisp occurs when the tongue is placed anterior to the target. Interdental lisping ...
software environment in which Eliza ran. And if the user neglected to end a statement or question to Eliza with a punctuation mark, Eliza's parser would fail, displaying the message "Unhappy: MkNam" to indicate that a function called "MkNam" was failing. The President said the same thing, pronouncing it "unhappy macnam."
Award nominations
The album was nominated by the
World Science Fiction Society in 1972 for the
Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Film
This album inspired
Ivan Stang's 1973 film
Let's Visit the World of the Future'.
[According to the film's end credits, which direct viewers desiring more information to purchase a copy of this album.]
Cultural influence
Apple's
Siri used to respond to "This is worker speaking. Hello." with "Hello, Ah-Clem. What function can I perform for you?
LOL."
Issues and reissues
This album was originally released simultaneously on LP, Cassette, SQ Quad LP, and Quad 8-Track.
*LP - Columbia C-30737
*Cassette - Columbia CA-30737
*Quad LP - Columbia CQ-30737
*Quad 8 Track - Columbia CAQ - 30737
It has been re-released on CD at least three times:
*1989 - Mobile Fidelity MFCD-785
*2001 - CBS/Epic
*2001 - Laugh.com LGH1073
See also
*
Futurama (New York World's Fair)
References
*Firesign Theatre. ''I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus''. Columbia Records, 1971.
*Firesign Theatre. ''I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus''. Mobile Fidelity, 1989.
Firesign Media: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus
*"FIREZINE: Linques!." ''Firesign Theatre FAQ''. 20 Jan. 2006
.
*Marsh, Dave, and Greil Marcus. "The Firesign Theatre." ''
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide''. Ed. Dave Marsh and John Swenson. New York: Random House, 1983. 175-176.
*Smith, Ronald L. ''The Goldmine Comedy Record Price Guide''. Iola: Krause, 1996.
{{Authority control
1971 albums
The Firesign Theatre albums
Columbia Records albums
CBS Records albums
Epic Records albums
Science fiction comedy
1970s comedy albums