Farewell Peter Bergman of Firesign Theater
""){ ?> By R.U. Sirius
I was saddened to hear about the death of Peter Bergman, one of the geniuses of the comedy group Firesign Theater. When I was around 17, Firesign Theater came out with their seminal album, Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers and for about 2 years, none of my friends could engage in a conversation without interjecting a quote from that work.  Rolling Stone analyzed the album as nothing less than a deconstruction of the final emergence of America as the last great empire in the wake of WW2…. all while being profoundly silly. In 1983, they also called it “the greatest comedy record of all time.”
And then, in 1971, there was perhaps the most accurate (at least in spirit) bit of futurism — I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus  which gave us — among so many other proto-VR tropes — a simulated president hacked by a person who asks it a nonsense question… “”Why does the poor rich Barney (honk) delay laser’s edge in the fair?” And the singularity fell over.
Richard Metzger says goodbye to his friend
I Think We’re All Bozos On This BusÂ
By Jay, March 10, 2012 @ 6:51 pm
They were a formative influence on me. R.I.P. Peter.
By Tyrone Slothrop, March 10, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
Alas, one of my heroes is gone.
Does anybody remember this, from a commercial that played on KMET?
“I’m not a doctor although I do look liked one, and I’m being payed to ask you this important question. Do you suffer from iron poor car? What you need to get the most out of the gas in your system is Negawsklov Teop Kcaj. Remember, backwards that’s Jack Poet Volkswagen, and sideways it’s (SQUAWK) not a good idea.”