It Came From The Thing: Telex
My father used to tell me this story about these two eccentrics he knew from college. Apparently, their goal in life was to be the best in the world at something. Lacking any sort of extraordinary talent, they pursued different activities in search of one that they could truly excel in. To make a long story short, these guys one day realized that they were particularly good at Tiddlywinks. For those who aren’t super-cool and don’t know what Tiddlywinks is, it’s basically a board game in which you take a little plastic disc and press down on another little plastic disc with the goal of flipping it into the cup. But there’s all this strategy involved. Like flipping your ‘wink’ onto other players’ winks thereby depriving them of a turn. I guess these guys were so good that they could knock any particular wink out of a stack of winks without knocking the stack over…Mad skillz. Anyway, they eventually traveled to Bejing or something for the Tiddlywinks world championship and apparently won with ease.
These guys remind me of Telex in the way that they half-jokingly pursued something that they were actually really good at. I love Telex for the sense of humor that persists through pretty much all of their songs. From their Plastic Bertrand cover, to their Eurovision song, to Moskow Disco, to recent remixes by the likes of Lindstrom, Telex never fails at making me simultaneously move and laugh.
On Temporary Chicken the humor isn’t very subtle. In fact the song is quite ridiculous. What most people don’t realize, however, is that Temporary Chicken is actaully a social commentary about a man so desperate for work that he takes a job in which he has to dress like a chicken.
Telex is a great band with a history as funny as it is fascinating. I suggest search around the internet for some fun anecdotes. I promise you’ll be amused.
Telex - Temporary Chicken (Remix) || Atlantic
Telex - Temporary Chicken (Dub Version) || Atlantic
***Holy crap!…The guys from my story are actually mentioned on the Tiddlywinks Wikipedia page! I always figured it was just, like, a fable or something. By the way, that wiki page is a really funny read.
