Particle Man
"
Particle Man" is a song by the band
They Might Be Giants. It can be found on their
1990 release,
Flood. It is about four different "men": Particle Man, a micro-sized man whose personality has been labeled "not important" by the band (
What's he like? It's not important); Triangle Man, a person who hates Particle Man, fights with him, and wins (
Triangle man hates particle man. They have a fight, triangle wins, Triangle Man!); Universe Man, a gentle man the size of the
universe with a watch to go with it (
He's got a watch with a minute hand, a millennium hand, and an eon hand); and Person Man, a normal guy who lives in a garbage can (
Person man, Person man. Hit on the head with a frying pan. Lives his life in a garbage can, Person man.), who is also hated by Triangle Man (
Triangle man hates Person man. They have a fight, Triangle wins, Triangle Man!).
The song's lyrics have been subjected to much interpretation, like many They Might Be Giants songs. There is some speculation that "Particle Man" is an allegory for the book
Flatland by
Edwin A. Abbott which has a similar storyline.
John Flansburgh of TMBG has said, however, that "Particle Man" is "just a song about characters in the most obvious sense."
This song and "
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" were made into
music videos featured on the
Warner Brothers animated series Tiny Toon Adventures. In this one, the "men" were featured as
masked
wrestlers.
The song was also an inspiration of sorts to
Terry Pratchett: One of the recurring Discworld characters,
Foul Ole Ron, frequently mutters "millennium hand and shrimp"; this was a result of Pratchett feeding various texts to a text-generation computer program, and this phrase was a result of merging this song's lyrics (which mention "millennium hand") with a Chinese takeaway menu.
Also, this song has been described as a "mathematical love story" explaining the relations between geometrical figures and time, etc.
*
Particle Man at
This Might Be A Wiki*
Fan-made music video for Particle Man*
Interview with John Flansburgh discussing Particle Man, from
Pop Culture Corn.
