Comedy troupe Firesign Theater formed in Los Angeles in the mid 1960s, and developed their irreverent, surreal brand of humor on a live radio show. Their first album, 1986’s WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICIAN OR SOMEONE LIKE HIM, was informed by their background in radio, with sound effects and aural montage enhancing their sketch routines. The quartet specialized in parodies of news broadcasts and genre programs, including recurring send-ups of science fiction and hardboiled crime, on albums such as DON’T CRUSH THAT DWARF, HAND ME THE PLIERS. Although Firesign Theater is usually associated with the 1960s (they had a loyal following among the counterculture), they have continued to record and perform off and on into the 2000s.