[3] Band member John Flansburgh described it as "just a song about characters in the most obvious sense" and claims that the lyrics are not intended to allude to real people,[7] though Linnell later said that "Triangle Man was based on a friend's observation that Robert Mitchum looked like an evil triangle when he took his shirt off in Night of the Hunter.
"[8] Both "Particle Man" and another They Might Be Giants song, "Istanbul", were made into music videos featured on the Warner Bros. animated series, Tiny Toon Adventures and The Plucky Duck Show.
In addition to the Tiny Toons Adventures music video above, "Particle Man" has been performed by schoolchildren on multiple occasions.
A cover entitled "Schoolchildren Singing 'Particle Man'", recorded by a music teacher at an elementary school, appeared on the band's Dial-A-Song phone line, as well as their 1997 compilation Then: The Earlier Years.
A partial verse, which discussed Multiple Man's ability to create duplicates of himself, was presented as a radio broadcast in issue #73.
One of his recurring Discworld characters, Foul Ole Ron, frequently mutters "millennium hand and shrimp".