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The Firesign Theatre's Nostalgia for the Future

Mark Leviton, BAM, 2 December 1983

LOS ANGELES — Joey Yolk, wearing his T-shirt from the 1997 Rolling Stones Farewell Tour, has just struck out on foot for the big city, leaving his parents and sister Sonny to eke out their meager existence on the family "farm." Papa Yolk, as usual, picks up his ancient metal detector and miraculously finds what he's been looking for for years — a valuable bottlecap that in the depressed 2003 economy could buy almost anything. But the Yolk family decides to "spend" the cap by dropping it in the slot of their cobweb-encrusted pay-television, which immediately brightens the room like a warm hearth. Rocky Rococo, or "Crazy Rocky" as he's known in the trade, comes on the tube and begins offering the Yolks the chance to buy (with interactive credit) a new home. The fact that the house comes complete with landmines and barbed wire (both to keep intruders out and the Yolks in) isn't revealed until the family is transported to their new place the instant they push their "order now" button. But not to worry, because detective Nick Danger is on the case!

Total word count of piece: 1508

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