Comments

  1. Firemancarl says

    Bloody great! Lets all sing from the They Might Be Giants hymnal shall we? (singing)

    Istanbul was Constantinople
    Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
    Been a long time gone, Constantinople
    Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night

    Every gal in Constantinople
    Lives in Istanbul, not Constantinople
    So if you’ve a date in Constantinople
    She’ll be waiting in Istanbul

    Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
    Why they changed it I can’t say
    People just liked it better that way

    So take me back to Constantinople
    No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
    Been a long time gone, Constantinople
    Why did Constantinople get the works?
    That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

    Istanbul (Istanbul)
    Istanbul (Istanbul)

    Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
    Why they changed it I can’t say
    People just liked it better that way

    Istanbul was Constantinople
    Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople
    Been a long time gone, Constantinople
    Why did Constantinople get the works?
    That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

    So take me back to Constantinople
    No, you can’t go back to Constantinople
    Been a long time gone, Constantinople
    Why did Constantinople get the works?
    That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

  2. GeoffE says

    Firemancarl-don’t you go thinking that’s an original they might be giants song. When I was a kiddy (a while ago) my Mom used to play the album from which it was first on the charts-by a woman of some sort-Oh I know, George Clooney’s aunt!

  3. wildcardjack says

    The first rule of social engineering and gaining access is to act like you belong here.

  4. says

    @ Justin H. and PZ

    SHIT! I have homework to do! Why did you give me a hysterical YouTube show to watch??? AAARG!

  5. HP says

    Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
    Words by Jimmy Kennedy
    Music by Nat Simon
    Copyright 1953

    I have the first edition sheet music sitting on my piano.

    GeoffE: I have the same reaction to people who credit this song to TMBG that you do. However, the original recording was by The Four Lads, who reached #10 on the Billboard Charts in 1953. Perhaps you’re thinking of Mambo Italiano, which Rosey charted with the same year.

  6. FrumiousBandersnark says

    Perhaps if they’d tried building a giant wooden badger for the Turkish consulate instead?

  7. Chris Bell says

    If you watch to the end you can click on another link for them spoofing Fox News, also pretty funny.

  8. Paris says

    How timely. I’ve got to teach archaic Greece to 150 indifferent freshman on Tuesday. May have to revise that lecture…

  9. Marion Delgado says

    BTW more Turks are skeptical of evolution than Americans, the Turkish government and local governments have taken various steps to curb creationism, and Intelligent Design is taking off in Turkey as a “scientific” alternative (all of this from memory, but I think moderately correct). So did they really learn their lesson?

  10. bernarda says

    Turks as such did not exist at the time of the Trojan war. It was the Hittite empire I think that was around at the time.

  11. Oliver says

    Yup, the Chaser rocks. And the new series is starting this week!! Wednesday 9pm on SBS!!
    Here’s another one of my favourites

  12. Graculus says

    bernarda: Turks as such did not exist at the time of the Trojan war. It was the Hittite empire I think that was around at the time.

    IIRC, they would be too far east, and later.

    Marion Delgado: Intelligent Design is taking off in Turkey

    Most of the Turkish anti-evolution material is American in origin (as is much of the Holocaust denial in that part of the world).

  13. Janine says

    Seeing that there has been friction between Greece and Turkey for a long time, it could be not so much the Turks learning from the Trojan War but, instead, them not trusting anything “Greek”.

    Loved the hoplites.

  14. David Marjanović says

    IIRC, they would be too far east, and later.

    Farther east yes, but not later. The Hittite empire was annihilated* at the time of the Trojan War.

    * “and Hatti was as if it had never been”, wrote the Egyptians.

  15. David Marjanović says

    IIRC, they would be too far east, and later.

    Farther east yes, but not later. The Hittite empire was annihilated* at the time of the Trojan War.

    * “and Hatti was as if it had never been”, wrote the Egyptians.

  16. Lucius says

    The Turks were not around at the time of the trojan war. They descend from east china and as far as I know the Chinese were not around at that time