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OK, we have finally been forced to admit that there are too many obscure references in TBAOGAS for normal, non-superhumans to get. With this in mind, we have created these liner notes which will provide information about the more inpenetrable jokes in each installment. This will include how they refer to actual events in the lives of the real G&S (they did exist, you know). The notes will be updated as new strips are added. Background - Gilbert and Sullivan wrote fourteen operas together. They are: One - Makes no sense. If you don't understand it, don't worry. Two - Darwin's observations of finches in the Galapogas Islands helped him to formulate the theory of evolution. His idea that humans descended from apes rather than being hand-made by God made him unpopular with the Church. Three - Antoine Bequerel was a physicist who worked with radiation. The SI unit of radiation is named after him. Roentgen was also a physicist, who invented the X-ray tube (amongst other things). Gilbert and Sullivan had a famous quarrel about a new carpet for the Savoy theatre, which threatened to end their partnership. Six - Louis Pasteur was a French microbiologist, inventor of pasteurization, and father of modern microbiology. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an English engineer, builder of the Great Western Railway, the largest steam ship of Victorian times, and the Bristol docks. He was very short in stature, but had a very tall hat. Seven - The seventh strip has been permanently deleted, due to a major error. The strip showed Sullivan kicking his elderly harpy of a mother, whereas in fact it was Gillbert who had an obnoxious mother whom he hated. Sullivan adored his old mum and was devastated when she finally died. For the sake of continuity in future strips when we meet the rest of Gilbert and Sullivan's families, this one just had to go. Eight - the TV show about the lesbians is "Tipping the Velvet". Nine - Mary Shelley was the author of Frankenstein and wife of foppish poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Elton John is a popular singer. The Cheeky Girls are not. This strip sees the first appearance of Gilbert's wife. Gilbert's pet name for her was "Kitten", shortened to Kitty (or sometimes 'Missus'). Her real name was Lucy. Ten - Thomas Edison invented lots of things, including the lightbulb. He had over one thousand patents in his name. Eleven - Victor Hugo was banished to the Channel Islands because of his political beliefs, although he did write very long, depressing books. Twelve - "The Time Machine" - a book by HG Wells (also author of 'War of the Worlds'). JS Bach was very religious and had numerous children. Flanders and Swann were a musical comedy duo in the 1950s and 60s. One of their songs was about a gnu. Fourteen - Richard D'Oyly Carte always wore a big fur coat. Fifteen - Jean Sibelius was a Finnish nationalist composer. Finns were oppressed by Swedes (the people, not the vegetables) during various stages in history. George Stephenson was an engineer, who designed a locomotive called 'The Rocket'. Sixteen - This strip just contains as many Wagner references as possible (The Ring cycle of operas, which feature the Valkyries, as well as The Flying Dutchman, another opera). Wagner's patron was Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, who built big castles in Germany and liked swans. Seventeen - Sullivan's brother, Frederic, played the role of the Judge in the operetta "Trial by Jury". He died at the age of 39, whereupon Arthur adopted Herbert (although in our universe, as you can see, he's quite hale and hearty). As for the rest, you really need to have seen DiGi Charat. Eighteen - One of Gilbert's famous elixirs. Nineteen - Smallpox didn't really make you small - it killed you. Twenty-One - Edison invented the phonograph, amongst other things. Twenty-Three - Another potion, as seen in the operetta "The Sorcerer". Twenty-Four - References to the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "Iolanthe". Iolanthe, a fairy, was banished to the bottom of a stream for marrying a mortal. Iolanthe's son, Stephon, was a fairy from the waist up, but mortal from the waist down. The Fairy Queen is the typical Gilbertian old woman in Iolanthe, although in the strip she's a cross between Mr T and the maid from Tom and Jerry. 'Tripping Hither, Tripping Thither' is a line from a song the fairies sing. 'The punishment fits the crime' is a song from "The Mikado". Twenty-Five - Gilbert had a love of animals, children and nice things in general. He kept many furry creatures at his home in later life. Twenty-Six - Gilbert had three younger sisters: Maud, Florence and another sister called Jane, who makes a brief appearance in a later strip. Gilbert's family tended to refer to him by his middle name, Schwenck, which he quite understandably hated. Gilbert never received a knighthood from Queen Victoria, and was always rather jealous of Sullivan's. Twenty-Seven - Another day, another potion. Both Gilbert and Sullivan enjoyed the company of young ladies, but in different ways. Many G&S biographers, especially Hesketh Pearson, refer to Sullivan's supposed feminine qualities. Twenty-Eight - H.G. Wells's time machine again. Sullivan repeatedly asked Gilbert for a libretto rich in human emotion and probability, as opposed to the earlier Topsy-Turvy libretti. "The Mikado" was the result, although "The Yeoman of the Guard" was Gilbert's most emotional and serious libretto. Twenty-Nine - Gilbert and Kitty never had children. Given Sullivan's numerous encounters with ladies of a certain occupation, he almost certainly had some illegitimate children, although it's never been proven. Thirty - On the first night of his operettas, Gilbert left the Savoy theatre and walked the streets of central London rather than watching the performance. "The Defence of Poetry" was one of P.B. Shelley's most famous pieces of writing. Thirty-One - 'A Wand'ring Minstrel I' is a song from "The Mikado". Thirty-Two - John Wellington Wells is the title character of the operetta "The Sorcerer". G&S later wrote "The Yeoman of the Guard", set in the Tower of London. Thirty-Three - Edgar Allan Poe wrote numerous poems about beautiful young dead women, one of whom was called Lenore. There are many quotes from his poetry in the dialogue of this strip. Thirty-Three 'b' - Emily Dickinson shut herself away from the world at a young age and wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She wasn't really a man. Thirty-Three 'c' - Many protagonists in Poe's short stories assured the reader they were perfectly sane, but were in fact mad and murdered people. Because "The Carpet Quarrel" sealed the end of G&S's partnership in real life, we decided that Gilbert should go berserk whenever Sullivan mentions buying carpet. See strip three for another reference.
Thirty-Five - The operetta "Ruddigore" was subtitled "The Witch's Curse" and involved a baronet who was cursed by a witch to commit a crime every day, or die horribly. Helen Lenoir was the manager of the Savoy Theatre, and later Richard D'Oyly Carte's second wife. The Coal Hole is a real pub near the Savoy Theatre. Thirty-Six - "The Sorcerer" again. Sullivan lost lots of money gambling. Thirty-Seven - Escoffier was a famous French chef, who worked in the restaurant of the Savoy Hotel (next to the theatre) for a while. Gilbert's love of sweet things extended to food as well as children and animals. 'Rollicking Buns' is a reference to a song in "The Sorcerer". Thirty-Eight - Do you remember Wells being turned into an ape in episode 28? "The Island of H.G. Wells" is an oblique reference to "The Island of Doctor Moreau", a book by Wells which involved humans being crossed with animals to create beast-men. The last half of the strip is a reference to a song from Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "Princess Ida", about a shaved ape. You really need to read the lyrics. Thirty-Nine - Offenbach was a French composer of operettas, including "Orpheus in the Underworld", which contained the famous skirt-flipping 'Can-Can'. Forty - Fairly self-explanatory, I think - except that Jack the Ripper wasn't a Lobster. Forty-one - Gilbert really did own a pet lemur (along with several other animals). It was called Paul. Seriously. Forty-two - The Gilbert and Sullivan opera Patience was a parody of the aesthetic movement, typified by Oscar Wilde. In Patience, a poet is followed around by twenty lovesick maidens - of course, this would not please Mr. Wilde... Forty-three - Oh, where to start? Okay - Leonora Braham was a soprano in the D'Oyly Carte opera company. The Institute Pasteur is a laboratory in Paris. A bacteriophage is a virus that infects bacteria, and uses a spike to inject its DNA into the host bacterium. Several sorts of bacteriophage have icosahedral heads and six legs, like Sullivan. This is the second time that Sullivan has been infectious. Forty-four - Poe kept writing about dead women. He was quite mad. (He never actually killed anyone, though.) Forty-five - Edison really did invent the mimeograph, a primitive copying device. Forty-six - Sullivan never married - he was too busy composing. Gilbert was very fond of words that sound similar and the confusion that arose from them. Trial by Jury revolves around a breach of promise of marriage. The Lord Chancellor is parodied in Iolanthe. The Paradox trio is a pivotal song in The Pirates of Penzance. Forty-seven - Bram Stoker wrote Dracula after visiting Whitby, a fishing port in North Yorkshire. In the book, Dracula arrives in England when his boat is beached in Whitby harbour. Whitby is full of teenage goths and splendid rock shops, and has a ruined abbey above the town at the top of 199 steps. Rock breakfasts are funny. Forty-eight - Sullivan's brother really did have eight children, one of whom was called George. It is not documented whether he was colossal or not. There was a Frederic junior amongst them, although we cheated a bit because he wasn't actually the youngest of the eight. Fifty-five - Flanders and Swann (seen before in number twelve) are back. Another famous song was The Gasman Cometh - more details here. |
Thirty-Four - Many references to "The Mikado", including the three little maids from school. This operetta was actually banned from being performed for a while in the early twentieth century, as it was deemed offensive to the Japanese. "Kiisama" roughly translates as "You wretches". "Henshin" is a word for a transformation. 'Kawaii' is Japanese for 'cute'. Hello Kitty is one of Japan's most recognized and well-loved icons.
