Monikers

From This Might Be A Wiki

Over the course of their long and glorious existence, They Might Be Giants and its members have been referred to by some of the following names, sometimes mistakenly:

1 They Might Be Giants
2 John Flansburgh
3 John Linnell
4 Marty Beller
5 Dan Miller
6 Danny Weinkauf

[edit] They Might Be Giants

The Giants
John and John
The Johns
They
Them, or other various pronouns, but always capitalized
TMBG
The Twin Quasars of Rock - Critic Intro
Aging Statesmen of Rock - The Giants Interview Each Other
The Dorian Grays of Rock - WNYC Spinning On Air (segment 2)
Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love - Introduction (Live NYC), Puppets Gonna Fuck You Up
The Big Steamy Thing (an anagram of "They Might Be Giants")
Also (from the old website):
- My big teeth gnash it
- High tab, meet stingy
- Thy gig beneath mist
- Big hat, teensy might
- I might beget shanty
- Be at the mighty sign
- High time ants get by
- Seth, I'm in thy bat egg
There May Be Giants (For maximum effect, this should be said in a heavy Brooklyn accent, and used in the sentence "Who's There May Be Giants?")
They Might Be Dead - 1992 Extra Crispy World Tour Shirt
The Mighty Giants - my kids called them this for a while -SR
Big John and Little John
They Must Be Giants - from Severe Tire Damage; also said by Flans at the 2005-07-15 Cleveland show (also, -There- Must Be Giants, a Gloria quote)
We Are Giants Damn It! - as suggested by Syd Straw
El Grupo de Rock and Roll
Count Drinkalot
The guys who wrote Particle Man
Those dudes who wrote Older
Makers of Music - sub-title on Bed, Bed, Bed (Book)
We're Certainly Dwarves - I think this one comes from Terry Pratchett's book "Soul Music" (TP is huge fan of Them)
"Weird Al" Yankovic - the listed artist of some Ana Ng and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) MP3s.
Sapphire Bullets - TMBG's mysterious opening act.
Deeply Felt Puppet Theater - while not actually TMBG, this is listed as the artist on some of their free MP3s
Gunnar and Matthew - from an answering machine message referring to two members of the only a cappella TMBG tribute band, The Bobs.
The force that refuses to be reckoned with! - Fossilise Apostle
Bacharach And David -- See Interpretations:Youth Culture Killed My Dog
Playthings of the Rich, a quip from Linnell in Gigantic.
The Shitty Beatles - another Gigantic quip from Linnell, in response to Lennon/McCartney comparisons.
- This name is also a reference to the movie Waynes World: it's one of the bands playing at the nightclub where Wayne first meets Cassandra (Tia Carrerre)
The Supergiants - from the Experimental Film video commentary; also Those Supreme Giants Guys.
The Pride of Brookyln - as Conan O'Brien once called them.
The Mighty B. Giants
The Giant boys
They May Possibly Be Giants - I can't remember where I heard this - Droffats
WAFMNWANFG (We Apologize For the Misunderstanding, but No We Are Not in Fact Giants)
The World's Tallest Midgets - from a British talk show whose name can't be remembered momentarily.
Be Nice To Giants - Lemita (My brother did a project connecting his life to Experimental Film for school, and his friend thought this was the band's name.)
They might be rain - They Might Be Giants
They might be heat - They Might Be Giants
They might be frying up a stalk of wheat - They Might Be Giants
They might be brain - They Might Be Giants
They might be washed - They Might Be Giants
They might be Dr. Spock's back-up band - They Might Be Giants
They might be bald - They Might Be Giants
They might be snow - They Might Be Giants
They might be something else in the snow - They Might Be Giants
They might be fake - They Might Be Giants
They might be lies - They Might Be Giants
They might be big, big, fake, fake lies - They Might Be Giants
They might be chewing on a pair of feet - They Might Be Giants (Demo)
They might be yelling out albatross - They Might Be Giants (Demo)
They might be something else down below - They Might Be Giants (Demo)
Ain't They Giants - Podcast 27A
Might Be Giant - Podcast 27A
They Very Well May Be Big People

[edit] John Flansburgh

Rolf Conant - Conant is his middle name and Rolf is simply "a good German name." He has used this pseudonym for Unsupervised, Miscellaneous T, Apollo 18, Severe Tire Damage and Hello The Band. It was also used in the rare fanzine "Art In Context", which he produced with Bill Krauss. Rolf is also listed in Here Come The ABCs for logo.
Cecil Portesque, The King Of Dead Air (The They Might Be Giants Podcast)
Flans
Flanso
Flansy
Professor Flans (see L M N O)
A motherfucker guitarist
Agent 00-soul
Big John
Brown John
Colonel Parker (per Ira Glass in Gigantic)
Computer!
Doctor Octopus (see Announcement A)
Dr. F
Eleanor Roosevelt
Flansborough
Flansburgher
Immensely huggable
Jack
Jim (NASA called them Jim and Jim in the ISY press release)
John "56k Modem" Flansburgh - From Podcast 5A newsletter
John "Abzug" Flansburgh
John "Boom Boom" Flansburgh
John "Contrecoup" Flansburgh
John "Crashes Bashes" Flansburgh
John "Guitar Wizard" Flansburgh
John "light, no sugar" Flansburgh
John "Magog" Flansburgh
John "MC Landfill" Flansburgh
John G. Flansburgh
Jump Little Chicken (see Raleigh)
Lieutenant Glue (From Paste Culture Club Podcast)
M.C. Search (From 120 Minutes)
Matthew (from a Dial a Song message)
Mr Kissyou - See PODAS
Mr. Flans
Professor P.F. (see AM FM Announcement)
Syndrome (from September 2004 live show at The Egg, Albany)
"That glasses guy/The glasses guy" (Strong Sad) (In the Homestar Runner DVD commentary for Experimental Film)
"That one with the glasses" (Strong Bad)
"The big, fat guy who looks like Danny Aykroyd, only fatter" (from an insulting message left on Dial-A-Song)
The angry John with all the curse words (As he described himself at one live show.)
The bespectacled one
The big, fat guy
The Flotation Device (see Radio Sweepers)
The mean one
The nice John (what Flansburgh called himself while talking to a fan after one 1998 show)
The one out selling the stuff
The Roar of the Kraken
The sweet one
Tyler (See Sapphire Bullets)
The Queen of England
Abraham Lincoln

[edit] John Linnell

Anne Hathaway (see (She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future Commentary)
Blonde John
BoomCar (from September 2004 live show at The Egg in Albany)
Craggles
Dave (During live performances of Robot Parade in 2000.)
David Remnikopf (see (She Was A) Hotel Detective In The Future Commentary)
DJ Squiggles (During 2008 shows for kids and adults.)
Emily Dickinson (see Gigantic)
Garrison Keillor (from the WXPN show)
Gunnar (From a Dial A Song message)
Hi Pimp! (From Gigantic commentary)
Jared (See Sapphire Bullets)
Jim (see ISY press release)
J-Lo Linnell
John, the one without the glasses (reference in the Clarissa Explains it All pilot episode)
John "black, sugar" Linnell
John "Doodles" Linnell
John "End of Days" Linnell
John "Impressed" Linnell
John "LaGuardia" Linnell
John "Mashes Gnashes" Linnell
John "MC Doodles" Linnell
John "Patches" Linnell
John "Prometheus" Linnell
John "Step Back in Wonder" Linnell
John E. Linnell
John Kendall (From 120 Minutes)
John Sid
Johnny Hart
Linny
Little John
Mr. Claw
Mr. Fleece (See I've Got A Fang)
Mr. Lips (Performs on Rolling O, Letter Shapes and Hovering Sombrero '05)
Mr. Squiggles
Mr. Wiggles (I've heard Flansy refer to him as this at a few shows)
Professor Griff (From Paste Culture Club Podcast)
Roland Synth
Terence Trent Linnell (From Record Guide '88 performance)
The accordion-playing half of They Might Be Giants
The creepy one
The Future of Sound
The Keith Richards of the bass clarinet
The little, scrawny guy (See Fat Danny Akroyd)
The next president of the United States (Flans, frequently at live shows)
The one in the back room putting the stuff together
The Professor
The quiet one
The shy one
The Tangled Web (see Radio Sweepers)
The Prince of Darkness (Shows/2007-07-20)
The Hippy Man
George Washington