The Famous Polka: Everyone Has a Phone Inside Their Rib Cage
Explore the surreal heartbreak of They Might Be Giants’ ‘The Famous Polka’—a wild, almost one-minute odyssey of rib cage phones, unrequited love, and polka chaos.
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A Surreal Encounter
A beautiful woman stands in line at water ski rental store. The customer behind her asks for an autograph. She is a celebrity.
Finally, the famous person tells the store clerk her water ski size. A man a few places back lights up. That’s the same size he wears. The same size as this stunning celebrity with the golden blond hair. He has brown hair. Both start with a ‘B’.
It must be fate.
He day dreams about their possible future. She probably owns three cars for every year he has lived in this city.
*rrrrring*
The man hears a phone ring. It seems to be coming from inside the famous woman.
*rrrrring*
She turns toward him, her water skis in arm. The call is coming from a phone inside her rib cage.
She glances at the man with a polite smile.
He is in love.
Before she can walk by, the man plunges his hand deep into the famous woman’s chest, between her ribs, and grabs a telephone receiver. Pulling it out, he places the plasma and sinew covered telephone to his ears.
“Hello?” he says faintly with the slightest sound of hope behind his breathy voice.
“Oh. Wrong number,” he says with a frown, walking away, head sinking lowly.
The phone receiver, attached with a curly phone cord, dangles from the woman’s chest. She stands looking angry and defiant as a crowd gathers to gawk.
The call was not for him.
"The Famous Polka" is the 15th track on Miscellaneous T, They Might Be Giants’ compilation of B-sides. With its frenetic pace, distorted polka melodies, and surreal lyrics, it’s as bizarre as it is captivating. If taken literally, its lyrics tell a horrifying take. Clocking in at just over a minute, it’s a perfect encapsulation of TMBG’s penchant for turning the mundane into the absurd.
Love & Rib Cages
I remember turning on this song in my bedroom alone and absolutely shredding the air guitar and air accordion. The chaotic joy of the music mirrored my teenage crushes: intense, dramatic, and often one-sided. I saw myself in the man longing for a connection with someone out of reach, only to realize—too late—it was never meant for me.
In high school, I often felt like the protagonist in this song. My crushes were unspoken fantasies, fueled by small, imagined connections: a shared laugh in class, a mutual love of the same band. But in the end, the metaphorical phone calls—the moments of connection—were never for me.
What I Like About This Banger
The song is packed with face-melting accordion riffs (yes, those exist!) and guitar rhythms, that create this chaotic feeling world where the song becomes much more than just polka. The line “but when the phone inside her rib cage rings, it’s not for me” is hauntingly poetic. Reminding me of longing, rejection, and the absurdity of unrequited crushes. That line reached deep into my core. I wanted someone who understood me the way I understood what this lyric meant.
Musically, "The Famous Polka" feels like a manic race to an unknown finish line. A totally rocking reflection of how love can sometimes feel like a hilarious, nightmarish polka dance.
As I write this, on a day that happens to be my wife’s birthday (I’m not ignoring her, she’s at work), I’m happy to reflect back on those days of crushing HARD and walking away alone. Those days are long behind me and instead I can imagine myself reaching back through time to let Childhood Chase know to hang on. He’ll call the right rib cage soon enough.
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