Beatles References in "Meet the Beat-Alls"

Compiled by Alan Back (ajback@yahoo.com)

The references in each category are listed in order of their first appearance. Facts about the Beatles (including exact lyrics when necessary) are listed in italics and parentheses.

Album Covers/Titles

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Meet the Beatles

The episode title is a play on this one.

With the Beatles

After the four villains beat the girls for the first time, the scene fades to black around them. Their faces are seen half in shadow and rendered in black and white.

Abbey Road

The Beat Alls walk single file along a crosswalk.

Please Please Me

The camera points up at the quartet as they look down over a balcony railing.

A Hard Day’s Night

The WANTED poster shows four rows of pictures of the Beat Alls, one member per row.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The policeman who addresses the media introduces himself as Sergeant Pepper.

Wedding Album (John Lennon and Yoko Ono) (Contributed by John Book)

Moko’s white outfit is similar to that worn by Ono, and Mojo changes into matching clothes to parallel Lennon’s choice of wardrobe.

Songs

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“A Hard Day’s Night” (Contributed by James Hartway)

The guitar chord heard at the start of the documentary is the same one that opens this song.

“The Long and Winding Road”

Stuart Best: Individually, it had been a long and winding road.

“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” (oblique reference)

The first bank hit is the National Trust Bank.

(Exact line: “A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust.”)

“Money (That’s What I Want)”

Mojo: Now give me money! That’s what I want!

“I Should Have Known Better”

“Him”: Ah, I should have known better.

“Run for Your Life” (paraphrase)

Mojo: Better run for your lives if you can, little girls!

(Exact line: “You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl.”)

“I Am the Walrus”

“Him”: Goo goo GOT YOU! (paraphrase—exact line: “Goo goo g’joob.”)

Fuzzy: See how they fly? I’m cryin’!

“Hello Goodbye”

Princess: You say stop, but I say go, go, GO!

“Him”: Hello! GOODBYE!

“You Can’t Do That”

Fuzzy: I’m gonna let you down and leave you flat!

Professor: Ohhh, you can’t do that!

“Ticket to Ride”

Stuart Best: And the Beat Alls had a ticket to ride.

“Help!” (paraphrase)

Sergeant Pepper: Help! We need somebody! Help! Not just anybody!

(Exact line: “Help! I need somebody!/Help! Not just anybody!”)

“Tomorrow Never Knows”

Stuart Best: But as they say, tomorrow never knows.

“A Day in the Life”

In the WANTED poster scene of the documentary, the background music goes through an out-of-tune crescendo and sudden release, as in the transition to the song’s middle section.

Stuart Best: …and this has been A Day in the Life.

Professor: I read the news today—oh, boy.

The episode ends with a resounding final chord, similar to the end of the song.

“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” (oblique reference)

Blossom: “Beat Alls crash Mr. Kite’s benefit.”

“Girl” (paraphrase) (Contributed by James Hartway)

Professor: Ah, girls.

(Exact line: “Ah, girl”—the hook in the song’s chorus.)

“Yesterday” (paraphrase)

Professor: Yesterday all our troubles seemed so far away. Now it seems they’re here to stay.

(Exact line: “Yesterday/All my troubles seemed so far away/Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.”)

“Eight Days a Week”

Professor: Sitting here eight days a week…

“I’m Only Sleeping” (paraphrases)

Professor: …everybody seems to think you’re lazy. I don’t mind; I think they’re crazy.

(Exact line: “Everybody seems to think I’m lazy/I don’t mind; I think they’re crazy.”)

Professor: You used to be running everywhere at such a speed. Now you think there’s no need.

(Exact line: “Running everywhere at such a speed/Till they find there’s no need.”)

“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (paraphrase)

Professor: What will Townsville do when they look for the girls with the sun in their eyes and they’re gone?

(Exact line: “Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes and she’s gone.”)

“Get Back”

Professor: Mojo Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner, but he knew it couldn’t last.

“Him”: Let’s get back to where we once belonged.

(Paraphrase—exact line: “Get back to where you once belonged.”)

“With a Little Help From My Friends”

Professor: He’s just getting by with a little help from his friends.

(Paraphrase—exact line: “I get by with a little help from my friends.”)

Professor: Yes. I’m certain that it happens all the time.

“Do You Want to Know a Secret?”

Professor: Listen. Do you want to know a secret?

“Magical Mystery Tour” (paraphrase)

Narrator: Sounds like the Professor has some magical mystery tricks up his sleeve!

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” (paraphrase)

Mojo: I want to hold your cash!

“Got to Get You Into My Life”

Mojo: I’ve got to get you into my life!

“Revolution 9” (oblique reference)

Mojo: It’s called “Annoyance Crime Number Nine.”

“Imagine” (John Lennon)

Mojo: Imagine all the people…

The Lennon/Ono album Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins (Contributed by Matt Huffman)

The screaming duet between Mojo and Moko is a play on the discordant noises that make up most of this record.

“Let It Be”

Mayor: They just won’t let it be!

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”

Princess: Sorry, but it’s time to go!

“Cry Baby Cry” (paraphrase)

Fuzzy: Cry, babies, cry!

“Nowhere Man”

Blossom: They’re going nowhere, man!

“Penny Lane”

As Mojo and Moko walk along a street, the letters “NNY L NE” are visible on a sign at the far end behind them.

“Here, There and Everywhere”

Mojo: Here! There! Everywhere!

“I’ve Got a Feeling”

Mojo: I’ve got a feeling, a feeling deep inside, a feeling I can’t hide.

“I’ll Get You” (Contributed by James Hartway)

Girls: Oh, yeah!

The inflection they use on this line is the same as that in the “Oh, yeah” hook of the song.

“Across the Universe”

Mojo: …our evil shall spread across the universe!

“Hey Jude”

Blossom: Hey, Jude!

“Michelle”

Moko’s real name is Michelle (French pronunciation, as in the song).

Judy: Someday monkey won’t play piano song, play piano song.

(A syllable-by-syllable rhyme of the French lyrics: “Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble, tres bien ensemble”—“These are words that go together well.”)

“The End”

Blossom: …the love you take is equal to…

(Full line: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”)

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Narrator: I don’t really want to stop the show, but I thought you might like to know…

Throughout the episode, many Beatlesque snippets can be heard in the background music. Two of the clearest nods are to “Strawberry Fields Forever” (when the Professor consoles the girls) and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (when Mojo and Moko first meet in the bank).

People

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George Harrison

Stuart Best: And Fuzzy, the shy one, provides the rock.

(Harrison was often referred to as “the shy Beatle” by fans and the press.)

Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best

(These were two early members of the Beatles; reporter Stuart Best’s name is a cross between them.)

Yoko Ono

(Moko Jono—the parallel is obvious. John Lennon fell in love with Ono; some people blame her for the group’s breakup.)

The Beatles themselves

(The villains beat up a band whose members look like them, and when Mojo and Moko are screaming in the street, four men covering their ears also bear resemblance to the Fab Four.)

John Lennon (Contributed by Raymond Ogilvie)

Professor: Well, first you have to realize the Beat Alls are just a rock band.

(In the years following the Beatles’ breakup, Lennon was quoted as saying, “We were just a rock band. A band that made it very big, that’s all.”)

Events

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The naming of the Beatles

“Him”: Oh, we will be known as…the Silver Beat Alls!

(An early name used by the band was “The Silver Beatles.”)

Concert for England’s royal family

Mojo: Will the people in the cheap seats please leave! And the rest of you, hand over your jewelry!

(During a 1963 show at which British royalty were present, John Lennon joked, “You people in the cheap seats, clap. The rest of you just rattle your jewelry.”)

Documentary on the Beatles’ rise to fame

(A Day in the Life is a take-off on a film about the Beatles’ first visit to the United States in the mid-1960s. Both feature throngs of screaming young girls in the streets.)

The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (Contributed by Kathy Dolan)

(Stuart Best is patterned after Eric Idle’s reporter character in this spoof of the entire Beatles phenomenon.)

The band’s American television debut

(In the United States, this episode premiered on February 9, 2001—37 years to the day after the Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.)

Band nickname: “The Fab Four”

The Beat Alls are also known as the “Bad Four.”

The 1960s “British Invasion” in pop music

The Beat Alls’ ascension is referred to as the “Brutish Invasion.”

The Beatles (Contributed by Joseph Tully)

(The Beatles lookalikes in the crashed concert closely match the character designs in this cartoon series, which ran on ABC from 1965 to 1969.)

The “Paul is dead” rumor (oblique reference) (Contributed by Stephen Cobert)

(During Sergeant Pepper’s press conference, a morgue wagon is seen parked outside the police station, a sideways nod to this event. In 1969, a Detroit disc jockey concluded that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car accident in late 1966 or early 1967. He arrived at this decision based on what he thought were subtle clues hidden by the band in their subsequent album covers and songs. To keep their popularity going, Gibb claimed, the British government had hired stand-ins to impersonate McCartney’s voice and appearance and warned his bandmates not to reveal the truth. All four Beatles have repeatedly denied taking any part in the hoax, and as of this writing, McCartney is still very much alive.) 

The meeting of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (Contributed by James Hartway)

(Mojo and Moko meet in a fashion that matches this event almost exactly. In 1966, Ono was exhibiting several works at the Indica Gallery in London. One of them consisted of a tall stepladder that led up to a magnifying glass hanging from a frame on the ceiling. A person who climbed the ladder could use the glass to read a single word within the frame: “Yes.” It was at this exhibit that Lennon first met Ono.)

The relationship between Lennon and Ono

(Mojo and Moko parallel this very closely. As stated earlier, Ono is often blamed for causing the Beatles to split up. She was (and still is) a very weird person.)

The Lennon/Ono “bed-in” demonstrations (Contributed by Stephen Cobert)

(The intersection stunt is a take-off on these events. In 1969, Lennon and Ono spent a week apiece in Amsterdam and Montreal, during which times they never left their hotel bed. Their goal, they stated, was to advance the cause of world peace.)

Yellow Submarine (Contributed by Stephen Cobert and Bree Barlow)

(Sergeant Pepper is patterned after the appearance of Old Fred in this animated film, and the caricatures of the Beatles during the screaming duet resemble the way they appeared here. Another caricature of Old Fred can be seen in the bank, hanging on the wall behind Mojo. Furthermore, Fuzzy’s attack from the rooftop involves one rock after another being produced seemingly from nowhere, after the fashion of the evil Apple Bonkers and their apples.)

The “War Is Over” event (Contributed by James Hartway)

(The “Beat Alls Are Over” signs are a play on this. In late 1969, Lennon and Ono put up white billboards in 11 cities around the world. Each one bore, in huge black letters, the message “WAR IS OVER!” Below it, in smaller type, was the line “(If You Want It).” The idea was that if everyone wished for peace, it would come to pass.)

The Beatles’ final public appearance

(The Beat Alls’ rooftop havoc is a take-off on a show the band did on top of a building in London, not long before they broke up.)

The band’s final recorded words

“Him”: I’d just like to say thank you on behalf of the group and hope we passed the audition.

(At the end of the rooftop show, John Lennon said, “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we passed the audition.” These words can be heard at the end of Let It Be, the Beatles’ last studio release.)

The death of George Harrison (Contributed by Stephen Cobert)

(A rerun of the episode aired on November 30, 2001—the day after Harrison died. Since it was not paired with “Moral Decay” as it usually is, this was most likely a special last-minute programming change.)