I’m sick and tired of hearing him 60 times a day.

November 7, 2023 10:07 AM

If you got in a taxi in New York City between 1997 and 2003, you were greeted with the recorded voice of a celebrity reminding you to buckle up. David ‘Ironic Sans’ Friedman tells the story of NYC’s talking taxi program [23:35].

tl;dw Friedman posted an expanded text version to his Substack.

He also uploaded the actual recordings to Internet Archive.

Ironic Sans has many previouslies.

posted by ChurchHatesTucker (3 comments total)

This program coincided when I was living in NYC and after a while, they became mostly back ground noise with the exception of a few standouts: Mr. Movie Phone (the first time I heard that one getting in a cab I actually beamed with joy and it put a spring in my step for the rest of the day, having come to rely on Movie Phone quite a bit back then.Mr. Movie Phone: always looking out for you, making sure you're safe and entertained) and Rod Gilbert (which was a NY Rangers pro hockey deep cut that would only resonate with a handful of people outside of the NYC Metropolitan area)
posted by KingEdRa at 12:45 PM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

My favorite such recording:

At some point in the late 90s, Yo Yo Ma accidentally left his cello in the trunk of a taxi, and didn't realize it until he was already in the building where he'd been dropped off. Fortunately - he had the receipt from his ride and immediately called the TLC, gave them the receipt info, and about an hour later, someone had located the cab and he drove back to Yo Yo Ma's apartment and returned the cello.

This actually made local news. And shortly thereafter - Yo Yo Ma recorded a set of these taxi voices. Now - the second one, for when people getting out of the car, was a reminder to check that they had everything. Yo Yo Ma started the second such recording by saying "So now that you're at your destination - DON'T DO WHAT I DID."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:09 PM on November 7, 2023 [5 favorites]

That Yo Yo Ma story was pretty widespread at the time. Sadly, he appears to be one of the voices on the corrupted CD.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 2:24 PM on November 7, 2023