- Originally they performed on stage with full head masks made to resemble eyeballs. After one mask was stolen while on tour, it was replaced with a mask resembling a human skull. The "line up" has remained as such.
- So secretive towards their actual identities, that they consented to a magazine interview, only on the condition that it be done via conference call telephone connection.
- Claim to have gotten their name after sending an audition tape to Warner Brothers records without any name. It was mailed back to them, addressed to "The Residents".
- The eyeballs have been retired. There have been three sets over the years: the originals, the new ones made in the 1990s and the performance ones used for the Wormwood tour, and all the tours after. One of the performance eyes was auctioned off on Ebay.
- Matt Groening is a big fan. In 1979 he wrote "The True Story of The Residents".
- Have appeared as characters in various comic books and graphic novels by Matt Howarth.
- The group is known to perform eccentric treatments of traditional material. On the b-side of their 12" record "Diskomo" (a disco medley of songs from their album "Eskimo") was a project (with long-time collaborator Philip Charles Lithman, aka Snakefinger) entitled "Goosebump"; four tracks based on Mother Goose rhymes with all the music originating from toy musical instruments, and then processed through electronic mixing effects.
- Founded Ralph Records, 1972-87.
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