Roswell that Ends Well reference

[on:]

In Roswell that Ends Well, Professor Farnsworth says "Oh Lord! We'll have to endure the horrible music of the Big Bopper, and then the terrible tragedy of his death." But in the long line of rock and roll stars who died young, the Big Bopper is relatively obscure ... does anyone know why he might have been mentioned? (His music isn't that horrible, by the way.)

[Reply #1 on:]

Uhh...

Because it was funny?

I don't think there's any further signifigance.
Of course... I never heard of "The Big Bopper," either.

 

[Reply #2 on:]

He was the other one killed in the 1959 air crash along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens - but I think that proves my point, it's a fairly obscure reference for most Futurama fans ...

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by marco76uk:
He was the other one killed in the 1959 air crash along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens - but I think that proves my point, it's a fairly obscure reference for most Futurama fans ...

You could talk for hours and I wouldn't know who you meant, you raise a good point however, maybe it was personally connected to one of the writers, editors, producers etc. - these thing sometimes are 

[Reply #4 on:]

Might also be because the there weren't very many casualties in rock & roll until the 60's and after.

[Reply #5 on:]

Ever hear about "The day the music died?" 

"American Pie" (the song, not the movie series) is about that plane crash...three of the most popular artists of the early years of rock&roll died in one accident (if Elvis had been there, it would have been a clean sweep).

It was way before my day, but the echoes were felt in rock for years...just imagine waking up tomorrow morning to find that 75% of today's top musicians had died the night before, and you'll get an inkling. 

[Reply #6 on:]

That song was mentioned in 'The Why of Fry'. Do you know why that is? I personally think it's making fun of the song's length.

Oh yes, and all glory to Shiny and stuff...

Click here  for an interpretation of that song. That should clear up this thread. Not that I'd want to, you see, I love thread. But, people deserve to know things like these songs. And learn. This is history, people! 

[Reply #7 on:]

 

Originally posted by Shiny:
...just imagine waking up tomorrow morning to find that 75% of today's top musicians had died the night before, and you'll get an inkling.

No, because if 75% of today's top musicians died it wouldn't be a tragedy.

[Reply #8 on:]

 

Okay, 75% of your personal favorite current musicians....

[Reply #9 on:]

"American Pie" was considered pretty schlocky by those who had to endure the force feeding of it on radio at the time. Noooo, not again! It's why I didn't mention it in the first place.

[Reply #10 on:]

No way!  American Pie is a classic.  Sure, I can understand overexposure wearing people out, but it's still a good song.  You can't call it "schlock" (cheap, low quality) just because it got overdone.  Hey, come on, it's thoughtful, complex, intensely personal in emotion yet universal in scope, and it most assuredly wasn't written to exploit or cash in on anything.  You can't blame the song itself just because of radio stations' bad rotation practices (you can get sick of the song itself, but you can't really blame it... ).

Also, it made possible one of Weird Al Yankovic's finest filks (one that isn't about food!) and how (unless you're Fry) can that be a bad thing?   

[Reply #11 on:]

Schlock was the polite term as was force fed. If you think radio playlists were a matter of quality then you better avoid Vegas.

[Reply #12 on:]

I'm sure radio playlists were entirely about how many listeners (translation: advertising dollars) they could get from any song.  What else have they ever been about?

I'm just saying that the stations' decision to overplay it doesn't make it BAD.  The quality of the song is entirely unrelated to how the playlists  treated it.  Good song, bad song, if people are interested in it, they'll play it to death.

(And just because people liked it doesn't make it bad, either.  Not everything that's popular is *ahem* "schlock."  The whims of the public can embrace anything...even quality music, every once in a while.     )

[Reply #13 on:]

 

Originally posted by Shiny:
your personal favorite current musicians

I don't have any of those.

I'd rather listen to a radio station that played "American Pie" all day long than listen to one that plays any music from the past ten years or so.  Fortunately, no one's forcing me to have to listen to the radio at all.

[Reply #14 on:]

Playlists were often more about who paid to be played. People like what they are told they should like, especially young people yerning to belong.

American Pie as a tribute to Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, etc. is like a Led Zepplin tribute on American Idol. 

But then you probably weren't around when Elvis was in the Army.

[Reply #15 on:]

I don't watch American Idol...but if someone on it wrote a song as good as AP, I'd consider that the whole crass, flashy program had justified its existence.  There aren't too many songs that good. 

I wasn't around in 59, no...but Don McClean was, and  and it hit him in a personal way; and that he saw that one event reflected throughout the next ten years of American rock & roll.  He wrote a song about it because it seemed important to him, and a few years later it became a surprise hit, and there's never really been another song like it (yeah, yeah, applaud all you want).

I frankly don't see what's wrong with it; and I don't see how you can barf at it and not at "Stairway to Heaven," which was JUST as pretentiously pseudo-folky, JUST as overpromoted and overplayed...and is nevertheless STILL just a good freakin' song.


And if the Big Bopper were still around, I'm sure he'd agree.   

[Reply #16 on:]

Hmm were even around in '72?

Oh yeah I'd have to agree with the Stairway comment (I'm more of a Misty Mountain Hop guy), but FYI:
 http://www.satanosphere.com/story/2004/4/27/33932/4240

Here you can find out such things as whose voice is "The first recorded example of dog-whistle as emotional release, predating Mariah Carey by more than a decade."

Anywho back to Futurama.

[Reply #17 on:]

Highly amusing site.  And yeah, I was around in '72, and was even attending school.  I know most of the songs on that list intimately, but I can't totally agree with someone who can't figure out that "Muskrat Love" is a novelty song. 

All I can say is, while the metaphors didn't work for him, they worked for me (not in '72, granted, but later, when I got really interested in "the classics" of rock and knew what he was refering to); and that I never thought DM was trying to be "important" in writing it, but simply describing the images and associations that he got from the events over the years.  <shrug>  My brain does similar weird things.

But I agree, it should NEVER be done karaoke style.  McClean's performance is what MAKES it.  It's far too personal a song to be "covered" well, anyway. 

(Weird Al's talent at mimicry, and the shorter length, is what makes his parody work, IMHO)


And I agree that the reason The Big Bopper was chosen for the Professor's joke was that he had the funniest name.   

[Reply #18 on:]

NO ONE IS TO BE TAKEN KARAOKE STYLE>!

[Reply #19 on:]

Fer shizzle.  Or whatever Fry would say, had he not been frozen sixish years ago.

Why does the Prof. reference the Big Bopper?  Why not ask why he asks Leela why she doesn't cook enough roasts, as he stands there in his zoot suit.  And he knows who Betty Grable is.  (They cut out Fry's "Who's Betty Grabble?" )  I guess semi-senility comes in handy once in a long while.

Also, he's a Professor.  Maybe he did some research while Zoidberg was picking up pieces of Bender.  Professors do research -- oh, yes, yes, I'm fairly sure they do, oh yes, hmmm.

[Reply #20 on:]

Does it really matter that much?

[Reply #21 on:]

Hrmmm?  Oh, yes, yes, it does.  Especially when one's space-hole is clenching shut fast.  Yes, even our degenerate friend Fry would agree with that.  What with causation and all.

[Reply #22 on:]

Ahh, yes. I mean, there was probably near to 63.82% chance that the space-hole would collapse before they entered it. And of course, they would have to adjust the relative velocity between them and the hole just before they entered, which would take extra time. Plus from the looks of it's creation, the hole is quite probably an enlarged quantum and thus subject to Heisenberg's uncertainy principle, which clearly states that if they know precisely what speed it's moving at, they can't possibly find out it's location.

This would explain why he orders 'Soylent Green'. He didn't have time to find out if it actually existed. And won't until 1973.

[Reply #23 on:]

:0)