* CoveredUp:
** "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" was originally a Four Lads song, but most people these days only know the TMBG version.
** "Dog on Fire", the instrumental theme song for ''Series/TheDailyShow'' was originally written and performed by Bob Mould. However, once Jon Stewart became the host a few years into the show's existence, Mould's version was replaced by one performed by They Might Be Giants, which has remained ever since.
** "New York City" is a cover of a song by the all-female twee band Cub, whom the Johns were friends with. The original appears on Cub's 1994 album ''Come Out, Come Out'', which had only been released two years prior to TMBG's cover of the song, which helped the fact that more people remembered the cover rather than the original.
** "Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)" is a cover of a 1959 song by Tom Glazer. The song was woefully obscure when TMBG covered it and actually features a handful of now-inaccurate facts (notably that the sun is actually made of ''plasma'', not gas). TMBG recorded "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-KyciKHw-g Why Does The Sun Really Shine?]]" a factually accurate new version of the song for their 2009 childrens' album ''Here Comes Science''.
** "What Is a Shooting Star?", written by Lou Singer and Hy Zaret (who also wrote the aformentioned "Why Does the Sun Shine").
* EpicRiff: "The Lady and the Tiger", in full effect.
* EpilepticTrees: The band seemingly invites these.
* EarWorm: Many of these in their songs. Such as "Istanbul Not Constantinople".
* FaceOfTheBand: John Linnell and John Flansburgh (the original two members) are the ones that all fans of the band think of, although they have other members backing them up, many of them named Dan.
** Two Dans and a Marty, to be exact.
** Linell is more likely to be considered to be the face than Flansburg.
* MemeticMutation: ARE They Giants?
* NightmareFuel: Hide Away Folk Family, especially the coda, which culminates in something not unlike WesternAnimation/{{Courage|TheCowardlyDog}} suffering from catatonic shock.
** Oh, you know that song "The Statue Got Me High"? The one with the statue that just makes people burst into flames and die? The song mentions it's being displayed publicly.
*** To add to that, try not to scare yourself with John Linnell's intense stare. Who says statues can't move. And sing.
** "Cloissone". The narrator of the song's obviously up to some [[ParanoiaFuel unsettling activity.]] "You've got a friend in law enforcement, don't go calling law enforcement..."
** The Dial-A-Song version of "Four Of Two", which ends with the narrator [[DrivenToSuicide strangling himself to death]]. In context, it's BlackComedy, but it's still a bit creepy, more so if you're used to the LighterAndSofter ending of the ''No!'' version.
* ParanoiaFuel:
** "Hide Away Folk Family", "Where Your Eyes Don't Go", "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair", "It's Not My Birthday", "Hall Of Heads", "A Self Called Nowhere", "The Bells Are Ringing", "Rat Patrol", "Older", "Ant", "Bastard Wants To Hit Me", "I'm Impressed"...
** In case you're wondering, that's a song off of each (non-children's) studio album (and at least one compilation). Yeah, it's one of the band's favorite tropes. And at least half of those have serious LyricalDissonance. "Someone Keeps Moving My Chair" is downright ''upbeat''.
* SequelDisplacement: By far, even to this day, the most well-known album the band has put out is its third, ''Flood''. This is the album that has "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", "Particle Man", and "Birdhouse In Your Soul". Since it's the most common {{gateway|Series}} into fandom of the band, there's even a {{Fan Community Nickname|s}} for those that bought ''Flood'' as their first TMBG album: Floodies.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: In their early days, [[FanNickname the Johns]] worked by themselves and used double-tracking and drum machines to complete the tracks, and they'd play to recordings live. When they finally decided they needed a backup band, fans were pissed. They got over it eventually, though, and now it's hard for most of them to imagine what it would have been like if that had never happened. Their first band album, John Henry, has a controversial status among fans.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Even with some rather esoteric lyrics, it's pretty obvious that many of their songs touch on more mature themes. Yet their songs have appeared in multiple kid-friendly places (such as ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' and the first ''[[Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Power Rangers]]'' movie) even before they specifically made children's albums.
* TheWoobie: In "Nonagon" poor Heptagon isn't even mentioned, let alone does much.
** The comments that lampshade this have been voted down too.