Pink Floyd trivia

Contents

1 Pink Floyd references on TV shows 1.1 The Simpsons 1.2 South Park 1.3 That '70s Show 1.4 Futurama 2 Other references 2.1 The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy 2.2 Friday Night Lights 3 Synchronicities 3.1 The Wizard of Oz 3.2 2001: A Space Odyssey 4 Cycles 5 Miscellaneous

Pink Floyd references on TV shows

The Simpsons

The Simpsons has made many references to Pink Floyd.

• Dark Side of the Moon - Consistently a poster in Homer's room in his flashbacks; in "Homer Goes to College," there is a poster of the album in the dean's office at Springfield University.
• Wish You Were Here - in "Old Man and the Lisa," Mr. Burns tells a Hippie recycler, 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'.
• Animals - In the "Hullabalooza" episode. Homer sets off a cannon and the Pink Floyd pig is fired out. Peter Frampton states that he "...got it at Pink Floyd's yard sale".
• The Wall - Episode where Homer discovers his middle name and becomes a hippie. After making juice with drugged vegetables, Ned Flanders drinks some and sees a strange parade which includes the hammers. Also In "Missionary: Impossible", Marge quotes the start of "Comfortably Numb" (saying, "Is there anybody in there?") when contacting Homer on a short wave radio.

It was also rumoured that Pink Floyd were set to appear as guests on the show due to a drawing of them, autographed by Matt Groening being distributed online. As of yet, they have not.

South Park

In the South Park episode "4th Grade", Eric Cartman taunts "haha, charade you are, teacha" to his new fourth grade teacher, a reference to the first part of the song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Animals. He also tells this to Stan's sister, Shelly, in another episode after snapping a picture of her with her 22 year old boyfriend while she was supposed to babysit him.

That '70s Show

In That '70s Show, Hyde is often seen wearing a Dark Side of the Moon T-Shirt. The show is approaching the release date of The Wall near the end of 1979.

Futurama

In the Futurama episode "The Series Has Landed", when Fry and Leela are running from the mad moon farmer, they notice that the dark side of the moon is coming. Fry says, "Look! the dark side of the moon!" and a music clip that sounds like "Breathe" from Dark Side of the Moon plays.

Also, in the episode entitled "30% Iron Chef" we see Bender and two hobos leap off the space tracks (which are rainbow colored) just before reaching a light reflecting prism. This is an homage to the album cover for Pink Floyd's 1973 album "Dark Side Of The Moon".

Other references

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

In the original radio series, as Arthur Dent, Trillian, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android step out onto the lost planet of Magrathea, atmospheric music from Wish You Were Here (Shine on you Crazy Diamond part I of IX) plays. Arthur asks "Did you know that robot can hum like Pink Floyd?" and Marvin switches to rock and roll on request.

Friday Night Lights

In the football movie Friday Night Lights starring Billy Bob Thorton, one of the characters is wearing a shirt with the Dark Side of the Moon album cover on it.

Synchronicities

The Wizard of Oz

Dark Side of the Moon has also been the source of a persistent urban legend that it was conceived as a kind of synchronized soundtrack for the film The Wizard of Oz. [1] (http://www.ingsoc.com/waters/info/oz.html) (David Gilmour has since gone on record to deny the group had anything to do with "Dark Side"'s synchronization with "Oz".)

2001: A Space Odyssey

Another interesting synchronization occurs between the song "Echoes" and the last scene of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, titled "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite." Although the relationships are less literal than those of the "The Wizard of Oz" sych, they flow together extremely well in a way that suggests that Pink Floyd intended the synchronization. The rumor is that Stanley Kubrick originally asked Pink Floyd to compose the movie's soundtrack, but was turned down. Pink floyd, later regretting their decision, wrote the song for the movie anyway (2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, and Meddle was released in 1971). When the two are played at the same time, there are periods where they are so similar that it is not discernable whether the sounds are from the song or the movie. The synch is started by aligning the first note of Echoes (the high pitched "ping") with the appearance of the title "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite."

Cycles

Pink Floyd is known for including in their albums, or bookends. Some cycles include:

• The heartbeat in Dark Side of The Moon
• Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Wish You Were Here)
• Pigs on the Wing (Animals)
• "...we came in?" "Isn't this where..." on The Wall

Miscellaneous

• Pink Floyd are well known for their lengthy compositions, considered some of their finest works.
  1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-9)" - 25:40 (Wish You Were Here, split into two parts)
  2. "Atom Heart Mother Suite" - 23:39 (Title track to album)
  3. "Echoes" - 23:29 (Meddle)
  4. "Dogs" - 17:08 (Animals)
  5. "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" - 13:00 (Atom Heart Mother)
  6. "A Saucerful of Secrets" - 11:52 (A Saucerful of Secrets) (12:48 on Ummagumma), but reduced to about 9 minutes when performed in Live At Pompeii
  7. "Pigs" - 11:28 (Animals)
  8. "Sheep" - 10:20 (Animals)
• The giant inflatable pig that was to be used on the Animals album cover (floating over the Battersea Power Station) supposedly slipped its moorings and floated off, being spotted by airline pilots at 40,000 feet.
• The original inflatable pig used in the Animals and Wall tours were designated intellectual property of Roger Waters so could not be used in the reformed (Gilmour, Mason and Wright) Floyd tours. They got around this by changing the gender of the pig, adding testicles.
• Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, a list of 150 songs circulated on the internet purportedly sent out by radio conglomerate Clear Channel Communications that were recommended to be pulled from airplay (it was later determined that the original list was the work of a few program directors working independently, and that the list changed and grew as it was circulated). Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" and "Mother" were on the list.
• On the song "Wish You Were Here", in the 26th second, a small cough can be heard, followed by an even quieter sniff at the 31st second. There is an unproven rumour that this cough is representing David Gilmour's quitting smoking during the recording of the album, however, the cough could just as easily be just to add to the 'person listening to WYWH coming onto the radio' effect.
• Meddle, released in 1971 and considered Pink Floyd's turning-point album, received mixed reviews upon its release. Michael Watts of Melody Maker passed off the album as "So much sound and fury signifying nothing". Drummer Nick Mason responded to Watts' review by sending him a gift box containing a boxing glove mounted on a spring.
• The last few seconds of the last track on Disc 2 of The Wall form a circular connection by continuing into the first few seconds heard on track one of Disc 1. Disc 2 ends with "Isn't this where..." Disc 1 starts with "...we came in?".

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