The Firesign Theatre's I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus

I decided to listen to the forty minute long comedy recording by The Firesign Theatre, the final part in the narrative's tetralogy. I cannot lie, I honestly had no clue what the hell I just listened to after finishing it. I found myself pausing the recording periodically in order to try and process what was going on in the narrative (and to stop laughing so that I could hear the voices). Despite taking moments to actually reflect on the dialogue, I was still incredibly lost yet entertained at the same time. I think one of the big issues here is that the recording is just too dated for me. There are references that I cannot grasp due to my lack of knowledge about 70s culture/current events and because of my contemporary mindset.

I honestly had to look up the work online and read YouTube/Amazon comments in order to get a grasp about what the heck was happening in this recording that sounded like straight up gibberish at times. I have come to the conclusion that if I was a hippie in the 70's who smoked a lot of weed or dropped a lot of acid that this recording would have been the bees knees to me and I would be thoroughly nostalgic listening to it today. However, I am none of those things, so I am still left feeling confused. The parts I found most enjoyable were the ones that made the least amount of sense just because the absurdity of the dialogue was incredibly perplexing and outrageous. At these points of absurdity the recording sounded almost like a vocal abstraction that jumbled together different sounds and words to create a seemingly incoherent mess.

The moment that stands out to me the most as I reflect on the recording took place when they were leaving the future. Strange sounds begin to play and an assortment of distorted and drawn out words are spewed out - appearing to have no connection to each other (alligator, avocado, underwear, and pear are just a few examples). Within the jumbled mess of words were random statements such as: "By the year 2020 underwear will no longer be worn". The entire sequence didn't make a lick of sense but the abstraction and word pairing made it absolutely hilarious to listen to.

I think it would be beneficial to actually listen to the first three parts of the tetralogy for some context because I feel as if being thrown into the final part is adding to my confusion. One of the most frustrating parts of the entire ordeal is actually wondering what the answer (if there even is one) is to the question: "Why does the porridge bird lay his egg in the air?". I don't know what a porridge bird is or how it could lay eggs in mid flight but I want to know more and to find out the mystery behind the question.

The only somewhat logical and concrete connection I can make to this story is the idea that all generations of humans throughout history are essentially the same (ie. all bozos on the same bus) in terms of their nature. I've surmised that the recording is taking a trip/look into the future and reflects on how essentially nothing is different in the future - were still all the same bozos we were in the past. The concept that history repeats itself is a great example of the idea that all generations of humans are the same. Although technology and culture may advance, we still have the same shitty people committing the same shitty actions their parents and grandparents did. In a contemporary context, America is still full of the same kinds of bozos we had 100 years ago that perpetuate racism, homophobia, and other systems of oppression. We may think in time that these issues will change for the better but they never really go away; The past is always going to be present in our future.