Despite some of the seemingly frivolous turns of phrase in this song and throughout Speaking in Tongues, the wariness of the frightening world that we have come to expect Talking Heads to report on has not been forgotten. “Making Flippy Floppy”, like the later “The Facts of Life” from Naked, paints human interaction, stripped of all its nuance, as being basically programmed from birth.

The song suggests, to use an oxymoron, that we are naturally mechanical.