MY NOGGIN: The Way Outs!

Random stuff that pops in my head. You're welcome.

Someday, long after I’ve shuffled off this mortal coil, science will be able to tell us why certain songs or jingles pop into our head. The phenomena popularly known as ear worms.

Sometimes you can retrace your tracks and figure it out. Why did I wake up with We Got the Beat in my head? Oh, right, two days ago I saw a headline that it was Belinda Carlisle’s birthday. But ,sometimes it’s so damn random as to seemingly defy logic. Such was this — a song from a fake group on The Flintstones.

Some fun facts I looked up on the show. It originally ran from 1960 to 1966 and was the first ever animated series on prime-time TV — quite a feat given that there were basically only three networks at the time.

Like many people in Gen X, I watched the show in reruns after school. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Way Outs were obviously meant to capitalize on Beatlemania. I also didn’t get the obvious homage to the Orson Wells radio show of The War of the Worlds. Nice.

As a side note, I distinctly remember thinking the show had “jumped the shark” (before that phrase) when they added The Great Gazoo, the floating alien asshole. A critic from an early age! What I didn’t know until just now is that Gazoo was voiced by the brilliant Harvey Korman of The Carol Burnett Show fame. Not your fault, Harvey. It was the writing.