Four Of Two: Supposedly, a Song for Kids that Gives Me Existential Dread.
Four Of Two by They Might Be Giants: A Broken NYC Clock, Watching My Kids Grow Up, and slipping nature of time.
Four Of Two is such an odd way to refer to a time of day. It’s very old-timey. No, it’s not mathematically referring to the number eight. The song title is trying to convey that it is almost two o’clock; four minutes until two o’clock, actually.
Honestly, I heard this song for the first time and I kind of assumed that this was an East Coast turn of phrase since I had never heard it before and have lived my entire life in the Pacific Northwest (Tacoma, WA represent, etc.) Knowing that both John Linnell and John Flansburgh were lifelong East Coasters, this must have been something that only exists over there like Water Ice or Mallomars.
