Word to the wise: TFA overlooks this, but Firesign Theatre's humor didn't end in the seventies. Probably my FT favorite album is Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death , which came out in 1998 and is their darkly optimistic take on the millennium. It's just as profound and multilayered as their earlier work, and to someone not of the hippie generation it's waaay more relevant. Another standout is Eat or Be Eaten , whic…
I had mixed feelings about GMIOGMD when it was released. I didn't like how self-referential it was, the reintroduction of Ralph Spoilsport being a great example. The album eventually grew on me, but it lacks the timeless charm of their 70s efforts.
There is some self-reference, but I suppose I always saw that as fan service. Later in their careers FT did a lot of live shows, where die-hard audiences would call-and-response the famous lines, so to me the presence of self-referential gags always felt like a big part of the FT experience.
But to each his own - quid malmborg in plano as they say.