History Trivia / TheyMightBeGiants

** The band itself, for John Linnell. In the years prior, he was part of a Rhode Island-based group called The Mundanes, a Music/NewWave group in the Music/{{Blondie}}/Motels/Waitresses mold. They built a local following before trying and failing to get a major record deal. They broke up in 1983.

** John Flansburgh also was in a couple bands in his college years, The Blackouts and The Turtlenecks, though they were much more informal than The Mundanes. Both bands specialized in tongue-in-cheek [[CoverVersion Cover Versions]] of oldies hits.

* MissingEpisode: One of the first music videos that the band made was a video for the song "Rabid Child" that was never released to the public.

* BreakupBreakout: The band itself, for John Linnell. In the years prior, he was part of a Rhode Island-based Music/NewWave group called The Mundanes, which tried and failed to get a major record deal before breaking up in 1983.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The band felt like they were ignored and underpromoted by Creator/ElektraRecords in the mid 1990s. This started when A&R rep Sue Drew left the label in 1993; Drew had signed the band to the label and represented them and other quirky alt-rock bands on the roster like Music/{{Ween}} and Music/{{Phish}}. As a result of her departure, there was no one left at the label who really understood what They Might Be Giants were about or how to market them. The growing rift between band and label came to a head during their 1995 tour of Japan, when Elektra asked the band to play an impromptu gig at a coffee house on one of their days off, but they declined in order to take some much needed downtime. When they got off their train, they were met by an Elektra representative who was there to take them to the coffee shop: The label had went ahead and booked the show anyway without their permission. The Johns refused to play, and they decided to end their affiliation with Elektra after ''Factory Showroom'' finished out their contract the next year.

** Music/ElvisCostello was apparently supposed to produce ''Apollo 18'' at an early stage. The Johns disapproved due to thinking they'd earned the chance to produce it themselves and to the tension that would occur from working with a hero of theirs.

* BreakupBreakout: The band itself, for John Linnell. In the years prior, he was part of a Rhode Island-based new bave group called The Mundanes, which tried and failed to get a major record deal before breaking up in 1983.

* BreakupBreakout: The band itself, for John Linnell. In the years prior, he was part of a New Wave group called The Mundanes, which tried and failed to get a major record deal before breaking up in 1983.
* ColbertBump: Their song "Birdhouse in Your Soul" saw a spike in searches after internet comedian Little Kuriboh used it for the intro in his Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0 abridged.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[TropesAreTools An attempt to]] politely {{avert|edTrope}} it. As they were coming up on the end of filming the documentary ''Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns'' one of the last scenes was a show for their new album, "Mink Car", which was at 11:30pm on September 10th, 2001 in New York City. On the DVDCommentary they say they had a rough time figuring out what to do - [=9/11=] wasn't important to the story, so to mention it would be "cashing in" on it, but to not mention it when it affected the lives of those present[[note]]one attendee actually stayed near the World Trade Center and was evacuated from their hotel room the next morning. They were uninjured, but they lost all their belongings from the room[[/note]] would also be rude. A compromise was made to simply have a TitleCard listing the date, letting astute viewers make the connection, but leaving [=9/11=] intentionally OutOfFocus.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The band felt like they were ignored and underpromoted by Creator/ElektraRecords in the mid 1990s. This started when A&R rep Sue Drew left the label in 1993; Drew had signed the band to the label and represented them and other quirky alt-rock bands on the roster like Music/{{Ween}} and Music/{{Phish}}. As a result of her departure, there was no one left at the label who really understood what They Might Be Giants were about or how to market them. The growing rift between band and label came to a head during their 1995 tour of Japan, when Elektra asked the band to play an impromptu gig at a coffee house on one of their days off, but they declined in order to take some much needed downtime. When they got off their train, they were met by an Elektra representative who was there to take them to the coffee shop: Elektra had booked the show anyway without their permission. The Johns refused to play, and they decided to ended their affiliation with Elektra after ''Factory Showroom'' finished out their contract the next year.

* BlackSheepHit: Thoroughly {{averted|Trope}}. The band's biggest mainstream hits ("Birdhouse in your Soul" and "Istanbul" (from ''Music/{{Flood}}''), "Boss of Me") remain fan favorites.

* ColbertBump: Their song "Birdhouse In Your Soul" saw a spike in searches after internet comedian Little Kuriboh used it for the intro in his Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0 abridged.

** The band has done two different songs with the name "She Was A Hotel Detective" that have nothing to do with each other except the title and being TMBG songs. The version on the first album is "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" and the version on the ''Back To Skull'' EP is "She Was A Hotel Detective" (note the lack of parentheses). They also did a third song with a callback title, "She Was A Hotel Detective In The Future."

* BlackSheepHit: Thoroughly [[AvertedTrope averted]]. The band's biggest mainstream hits ("Birdhouse in your Soul" and "Istanbul" (from ''Music/{{Flood}}''), "Boss of Me") remain fan favorites.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[TropesAreTools An attempt to]] politely [[AvertedTrope avert]] it. As they were coming up on the end of filming the documentary ''Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns'' one of the last scenes was a show for their new album, "Mink Car", which was at 11:30pm on September 10th, 2001 in New York City. On the DVDCommentary they say they had a rough time figuring out what to do - [=9/11=] wasn't important to the story so to mention it would be "cashing in" on it, but to not mention it when it affected the lives of those present[[note]]one attendee actually stayed near the World Trade Center and was evacuated from their hotel room the next morning. They were uninjured, but they lost all their belongings from the room[[/note]] would also be rude. A compromise was made to simply have a TitleCard listing the date, letting astute viewers make the connection, but leaving [=9/11=] intentionally OutOfFocus.

** Four songs, titled "Dawn Divine", "Stalker In Reverse", "Prepare", and "Lucky You", were recorded for ''Nanobots'', but scrapped before the album's release. Only one ("Prepare") has been released as of now, as a Dial-A-Song exclusive in 2015. Little about the other songs is known, except that Dawn Divine was to feature Mike Doughty.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: [[TropesAreTools An attempt to]] politely [[AvertedTrope avert]] it. As they were coming up on the end of filming the documentary ''Gigantic: A Take of Two Johns'' one of the last scenes was a show for their new album, "Mink Car", which was at 11:30pm on September 10th, 2001 in New York City. On the DVDCommentary they say they had a rough time figuring out what to do - [=9/11=] wasn't important to the story so to mention it would be "cashing in" on it, but to not mention it when it affected the lives of those present[[note]]one attendee actually stayed near the World Trade Center and was evacuated from their hotel room the next morning. They were uninjured, but they lost all their belongings from the room[[/note]] would also be rude. A compromise was made to simply have a TitleCard listing the date, letting astute viewers make the connection, but leaving [=9/11=] intentionally OutOfFocus.

** They Might Be Giants originally wrote an entire movie's worth of songs for the film version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''. Only the Other Father's Song made the final cut. The director blamed ExecutiveMeddling (although one planned song was never even written because the Johns decided [[ThrowItIn the joke song the writers came up with for the scratch track was good enough]]), and he's expressed a desire to work again with the band to do a movie based on their music. They released the song "Careful What You Pack" over a year prior to the movie's release. What originally sounded like a metaphorical song about cautiously moving on in life turned out to be a direct summary of the movie/book's underlying themes.

* TheWikiRule: [[http://tmbw.net/wiki/Main_Page This Might Be A Wiki]]. It's been approvingly (though a bit backhandedly) [[AscendedMeme cited]] by both Flansburgh and Linnell, who referred to it in an interview as "the site that tracks all our crap".

* NamesTheSame: The band has done two different songs with the name "She Was A Hotel Detective" that have nothing to do with each other except the title and being TMBG songs. The version on the first album is "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" and the version on the ''Back To Skull'' EP is "She Was A Hotel Detective" (note the lack of parentheses). They also did a third song with a callback title, "She Was A Hotel Detective In The Future."

** Four songs, titled "Dawn Divine", "Stalker In Reverse", "Prepare", and "Lucky You", were recorded for ''Nanobots'', but scrapped before the album's release. Only one was released, as a Dial-A-Song exclusive in 2015. Little about the other songs is known, except that Dawn Divine was to feature Mike Doughty.

* Missing Episode: One of the first music videos that the band made was a video for the song "Rabid Child" that was never released to the public.

** The music video for "Rabid Child," which was never shown publicly (outside of a brief clip) and the Johns won't even discuss. No one is exactly sure why, as it seemingly consists of little more than Flans lip-synching the song while standing in his apartment.

** Four songs, titled "Dawn Divine", "Stalker In Reverse", "Prepare", and "Lucky You", were recorded for ''Nanobots'', but scrapped before the album's release. Little about these songs is known, except that Dawn Divine was to feature Mike Doughty. Of course, knowing TMBG, there's still a good chance they'll be released someday...
*** "Prepare" has been released through Dial-A-Song. As of October 2015, none of the others have been seen.

*** "Prepare" has been released through Dial-A-Song. As of October 2015, none of the others have been seen.

!! The Film
* HeyItsThatGuy: Aside from the obvious Mr. Scrooge playing Justin, Grandpa from Series/TheMunsters makes an appearance in the film.

** Their four children's albums, ''No!'', ''Here Come The [=ABCs=]'', ''Here Come The [=123s=]'', & ''Here Comes Science'' with a fifth on the way for 2015. There's an EP that goes with the book ''Bed Bed Bed'', the title track later reworked for ''No!''.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Aside from the obvious Mr. Scrooge playing Justin, Grandpa from Series/TheMunsters makes an appearance in the film.