Songfacts®:

• Like the Chicago song "25 Or 6 To 4," this song refers to a time of day: 1:56. The song was inspired by a clock at 935 Broadway in New York City that was stuck on that time.
• This song first appeared on They Might Be Giants' answering machine as part of their Dial-A-Song service, where anyone could call 718-387-6962 and hear a song the duo recorded. In its original version, the singer strangles himself at the end of the song, but when they released the song, it was on their 2002 children's album No!, and in this version, the singer just keeps waiting under the clock. Talking about turning a very dark song into something suitable for kids, John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants told us: "There's not a big difference between the way we approach the kids stuff and the adult stuff. Which is probably why those things appeal to people. We don't really second guess this stuff too much. I mean, basically, we take out the LSD imagery and the death imagery for the kids' stuff, but that could change."