ToughPigs

To celebrate the national holiday of people acting like asses, we at ToughPigs.com pulled a fast one on all of you readers. In case you missed it, this website was replaced for 24 hours with a Topo Gigio fansite.

To our knowledge, no such fansites exist. But in our research on Topo, we found that he's actually pretty awesome. Do yourself a favor and watch a few clips of him on YouTube. Some are in Italian, but that shouldn't matter. He speaks the international language of adorableness.

Five articles adorned ToughPigs.com, written by myself, Ryan Roe, and Michal Richardson. Special thanks to Scott for handling the technobabble (and double special thanks to Scott for handling the technobabble of this website for the past year and a half! Scott's a superhero!).

Click here to see what life was like for a Muppet fansite on April 1, 2008.
Click here to talk Topo on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet, ToughPigs

Ah, the Jim Henson Company. In these past few, non-Muppet-owning years of their existence, they've given us a number of projects, but there really haven't been any that I've... what's the word I'm looking for?... ah, yes. "Liked."

Sure, I tried my best to muster up some enthusiasm for Puppet Up, but in the end I was unable to convince myself that it was entertaining. (Nor was TBS.com, despite its desperate video clip descriptions: "When a funny orangutan and some funny aliens do a funny thing, the funny stuff that happens is FUNNY! Really! PLEASE WATCH THIS!")

The Skrumps held some promise, but we haven't heard a peep from them in a year. And the 15 minutes I spent watching that Tinseltown pilot... well, I wish I had used that time to floss, or clip my nails, or glue my socks to the wall.

But now there's a new Henson Company production I actually, actually like... and the crazy thing is? There are no puppets. "No puppets?!" you might ask, as your eyes bug out and your jaw drops. It's true. The Sam Plenty Cavalcade of Action Show Plus Singing has no puppets, no cartoon characters -- just humans acting like fools. (This is not the first non-puppet Henson production... in 1999, JHC produced a UPN family sitcom called Family Rules that absolutely nobody in the universe has ever heard of, including you, me, or Brian Henson. But that's neither here nor there.)

What IS either here or there is Sam Plenty's Cavalcade of Action. The whole thing is actually pretty difficult to describe... I guess I'd call it a "serialized singing cowboy sci-fi low-budget adventure parody with songs." Huh. Well, I guess that wasn't difficult, just long-winded.

I first encountered it on the Henson.com podcast, where the host moderated a roundtable interview with the "cast" and "crew" of the exciting new movie Sam Plenty in Underdoom. It had a very Christopher-Guest-movie vibe to it... the "actors" like Dolores del Norte and Rex Argo discuss their careers and working on the project, and while that elicited more grins than guffaws, they've obviously put a lot of thought into it and they're really committed to the characters.

Hearing the audio-only podcast, I assumed it was a puppet thing -- I could even imagine what the puppets would look like, including director Sanso Pantopuntaquenia. But when I went to SamPlenty.com, I was surprised to find that, while there are a number of Henson puppeteers involved (Drew Massey, Alan Trautman, Victor Yerrid), there's not a puppet to be seen.

The videos available on the website are episodes of the movie serial that was discussed on the podcast, so you're actually seeing fictional movie characters played by fictional actors. Is that confusing enough for you? Unfortunately, you don't get to see Sanso Pontapuntaquenia, but you do get to see episodes of Underdoom (starting with... Part 3?), and they're pretty dang entertaining.

It's completely silly, but the actors play it straight -- there are never any snarky winks at the camera or conscious acknowledgments that this is anything other than a serious adventure film. It appears to me they had a pretty low budget for this project, but they use it to their advantage: highlights in the two episodes posted so far include an army of invisible men, and one sequence seems to have been filmed in the employee parking lot at Henson. Perhaps my favorite thing on the site so far is the "Sing-Along," whose lyrics suggest that the songwriting budget was as limited as the production budget.

I don't think I would pay to see this stuff, and it wouldn't translate well to a format longer than than the webisode, but what they're doing now works pretty well for the medium.

Anytime the Henson Company does something new with puppets in it, I always feel a sad little twinge of "Gee, remember when these were Muppets?" I'm not suggesting that Henson should abandon puppets, but you know what? Sam Plenty is better than any of that recent puppet stuff. So if that's a direction that works, maybe that's the direction they should keep exploring.

But maybe with fewer songs about horse poop.

Click here to discuss Sam Plenty on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: internet, jim henson company, sam plenty

Have you ever wondered what Ryan and Joe's voices sound like? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you're in luck! ToughPigs' own Senior Contributors were interviewed by Steve Swanson last week, and now we're featured on his latest podcast!

Tune in and you'll hear what Joe really thinks of Mr. Magorium, Ryan's obscure Muppet impressions, and who Pepe the King Prawn is romantically linked to.

If you're an impatient fellow, the ToughPigs interview starts about 34 minutes into the podcast (UPDATE: the MP3 version starts at 34 minutes, but it starts at 47 minutes when you play it directly through the MuppetCast website.. no idea why that is), but I recommend listening to the whole dang thing. Steve puts a lot of effort into the show every week, and the quality speaks for itself.

Click here to listen to the podcast, and go to MuppetCast.com every week for podcasty goodness.

Labels: fanaticism, internet

Every day I receive Google news alerts for the word "Muppet," informing me of when and where that delightful word has come up on the web. It seems like at least once a week a result comes up that's somebody posting a video clip of "Mahna Mahna" in their blog or on their website. I've been getting these alerts for over a year now, and "Mahna Mahna" still shows up on a regular basis. It seems like it’s been passed around the internet more than any other clip that doesn’t involve breath mints and cola or rock stars on exercise machines. Often it's accompanied by enthusiastic comments like "I love this one!" or "this is my favorite muppets song!!!!!!!11"

Why is this the single most beloved and best remembered musical number from the show? There were hundreds of musical moments over the 120 episodes of the series, and yet the representative one is a bit from the very first episode that stars none of the regular characters. Why? Is it because the arrangement of the song is infectiously catchy? Is it because the design of the puppets is pleasing to the eye? Is it the brilliant performance by Jim Henson as Mahna Mahna?

I believe it goes deeper than all of these. Clearly, when we watch "Mahna Mahna," we're seeing a reflection of ourselves that causes a spark of recognition to flare up inside us, and it’s this spark that draws us – internet users from all walks of life – to revisit this clip over and over again.

Perhaps there are those who, on some level, see themselves as the Snowths, the pink cow/pig creatures who sing the "doo-dooo doo doo-doo" part. These people crave order and reason; to them, the Snowths represent the Apollonian ideal of self-control. The Snowths have clearly spent copious amounts of time carefully rehearsing for this performance, and they are determined to get it right. You can see it in their reaction to Mahna Mahna: They are completely unamused when he starts ad-libbing, threatening to derail the whole number with his random shenanigans. Those who view the clip and respond positively to the Snowths have the same desire for things to go precisely as planned; additionally, they may have horns.

On the other hand, there are those in the audience who (consciously or not) identify with Mahna Mahna. Mahna Mahna is the shaggy humanoid character who sings the “mahna mahna” parts of the song, and he is a true free spirit. He has an insatiable urge to express his individualism, and he’s going to do it even if it the results are too chaotic for the Snowths to handle. He’s the nonconformist, the iconoclast, the scruffy, unwashed hippie, representing the Dionysian philosophy of following one’s natural instincts. It’s highly likely that he never even looked at the sheet music before showing up for the show that day, instead relying on improvised scatting to make his way through the song. He believes rehearsal would only serve to destroy the energy in his spontaneous performance, a belief echoed in the hearts and minds of those who view the clip in silent admiration of him.

And yet, in the Muppet Show musical number “Mahna Mahna,” neither of the two differing viewpoints is presented as superior to the other. Can you imagine what it would be like if the song consisted of the Snowths alone on the stage, singing “Doo-dooo doo doo-doo” without any kind of counterpoint? Unbelievably boring is what it would be like, despite their any attempts at arm-swinging choreography. But if it were a solo by Mahna Mahna, it wouldn’t be any better. It would just be some fellow repeatedly stating his name and mumbling nonsense syllables, and without the presence of the Snowths as “straight men” it simply would not be funny.

The message, then, is that both lifestyle choices are valid. Some people may be Mahna Mahnas and other people may be Snowths, but that doesn’t mean they can’t produce a heck of a catchy song when they get together. It’s quite obvious to me that this is the true reason for the enduring popularity of this Muppet Show segment, and any other simplistic interpretation (e.g. “It’s funny!”) is unquestionably wrong.

So keep circulating that clip, citizens of the internet! Blog it all over the world! Continue spreading the archetypal message of tolerance and cooperation! And perhaps one day we will finally divine the answer to the only question still remaining: Are those supposed to be sunglasses or his eyeballs?

Click here to discuss the Mahna Mahna phenomenon on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: essay, internet, mahna mahna, the muppet show

Do you like cop shows? Do you like apes? Do you like puppets? Well, of course you like puppets, you're reading a Muppet fan site. But if you like those other things too, you may be interested to know of the existence of SUDS, the upcoming web series from Henson Alternative. SUDS, by the way, stands for Simian Undercover Detective Squad, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the premise.

The series will be premiering on Film.com in 2008, and they've put up a teaser trailer to whet our appetite for talking primates. If you also count "wacky sound effects" as something you like, you're gonna love this:




Personally, I've found Henson Alternative's offerings thus far to be pretty flawed, but this one shows promise... after all, if Bear on Patrol worked, why not apes incognito?

Click here to talk about SUDS on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: henson alternative, internet, other muppet/henson shows

Writer’s note: Instead of providing my customary Muppet Wiki links to characters and skits, I encourage you to go to the new Sesame Workshop video site and search for the key words yourself. Trust me, you’ll thank me tomorrow.

The future is now!

Well, the definition of future states that it’s not really now. It’s like, a week from next Thursday, but you get the idea.

Sesame Workshop has decided to give us an early Christmas present and provide us with hundreds of classic Sesame Street clips on their new video website. My first reaction to this news was “Hubba wha? HOOHAH! Shabadooyeah!” Ok, so it may not be the most coherent thing I’ve ever said, but it definitely expresses my sentiment of the moment accurately.

The second thing I did was to try and think of what clips to search for. Unfortunately, this is where I drew a blank. That’s like trying to choose just one of any 31 flavors of ice cream. Rome was not YouTube’d in a day, you know. Thankfully, the site is equipped with a handy toolbar at the top for indecisive chaps like me. I watched the Incredible Shrinking Cookie Monster, I saw Ernie write an Ode to Bert, and I watched Grover embarrass himself. Repeatedly.

A quick tally of some of the more popular characters resulted in 134 Grover videos, 105 Cookie Monster videos, 97 with Ernie and Bert (144 with at least Ernie, 109 with at least Bert), 66 Elmo videos, 56 with The Count (56 glorious videos! Ah ah ah!), 47 for Telly, 40 Prairie Dawn videos, 38 with Kermit, 37 for Zoe, 33 Big Bird videos, and 14 Guy Smiley videos.

That, in case you weren’t counting, is a whole lotta videos.

I also did some tallying of characters who I expected to find, yet didn’t come up with many results. Gordon came up with 10 videos, but all of them were Trash Gordon. Not that I’m complaining, but I would have liked to see more Sesame humans in these videos. The Two-Headed Monster has 6 videos, which makes 3 for each head. Snuffy appears in 5 videos, although “Snuffleupagus” doesn’t warrant any results. “Lefty” doesn’t have any results, but a search for “Salesman” shows 5 of his appearances. Forgetful Jones clocked in with 4 videos, I think. I don’t recall. See what I did there? John-John only has two videos, though one of them is where he counts a penny with Grover, so I can’t fault them for that. And there aren’t any results for more obscure characters like S.A.M. the Robot, Don Music, Roosevelt Franklin, or Captain Vegetable.

Speaking of a few of those that haven’t yet been immortalized in video form on this site yet, I wonder if Sesame Workshop is deliberately avoiding characters that have been discontinued because of imitatable behavior or negative images. I would say it depends on whether or not their intention for this site is to show nostalgic videos for adults or to have a new outlet for educating the preschoolers of the digital age. If it’s the former, then they should definitely include these missing clips, if only for historical purposes. If it’s the latter, then maybe they’ll avoid posting the now infamous Not-Appropriate-For-Kids disclaimer everyone’s been in such a huff over.

One other thing I’d like to see is more search options. What if someone wants to see celebrity appearances? Or Muppet and Kid Moments? Or how about TV and film parodies? They’re hard to find unless you know exactly what you’re looking for or if you stumble across it. For example, I just stumbled across the Pearl Jam parody, “Don’t Waste The Water” by Fur Jam. It has no known characters and doesn’t have any unique search terms, which makes it nigh impossible to find.

Another thing that amazes me is the quality of the videos. They’re crystal clear, almost DVD quality. And if you’re on a slower connection, the quality goes down slightly so you can still view the video without any hiccups. I don’t know how they do that, but I’m not one to look Buster the Horse in the mouth. (This is where I do a search for Buster, and see two videos with him! Thank you, Internets!)

Of course, any gripes I may have will (hopefully) be fixed soon. The website is still in beta, so anything is possible. I’m also holding out hope for thousands of Street scenes, Hey Cow I See You Now, and the original 1975 clip of Fur.

I’m still amazed that something like this exists. Sesame Workshop is doing a great job at catering toward their older fanbase, which is great because that’s me. Um, and you. But mostly me. I can’t wait to see what this site will look like after it’s out of beta testing. Though even if it’s the same as it is now, it’s exactly what I would have asked Santa to bring me this Christmas.

In case you missed the link at the top of the page, you can view the videos at http://video.sesameworkshop.org.

Click here to watch this article in Living Color on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet, Sesame Street, sesame workshop

Come, friends, travel back in time with me. The year is 2007. The month: April. Grindhouse was new in movie theaters. Wal-Mart retook the #1 position on the 2007 Fortune 500 list with $351.1 billion in revenue for 2006. Little Richard was just about one month younger.

And we here at ToughPigs.com rallied the troops to bring in the vote for Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony for the 2007 Webby Awards. Obviously, our tactics bore sweet fruit because SaW:FtB brought home the Webby!

Believe you me, we did not see this coming. I mean, it’s an honor to just be nominated. I’d like to thank my mom and Elvis. And the producers, and my assistant Marie, who was always there when I needed a cup of coffee. I can’t forget to thank Todd Bridges for his motivational speeches, and Sweetums for giving me piggy-back rides whenever I asked. Ok, they’re playing the get-off-the-stage music now, so I’ll wrap things up. Get our troops out of Iraq! Thank you very much!

Click here to discuss whether you voted Muppocrat or Republifraggle on the Tough Pigs forum.

Labels: awards, internet, statler and waldorf

It’s tough nowadays to turn your television on and find a Muppet. It’s even tougher to find these elusive creatures at your local movie theater. One may ask one’s self, “One, where can I find the Muppets in this time of economic crisis?” Well, you’ve probably got that Frog Prince Laserdisk collecting dust on your shelf. But I don't think that wasn’t what you were asking.

As the world’s television-watchers are congregating at YouTube, the former YMCA patrons are pow-wowing at MySpace, and the future leaders of tomorrow spend their days at the ToughPigs forum, it seems that anything worth seeing is showing up on the internet. And if there’s anyone who can feel at home amidst the chaos that is the Information Superhighway, it’s Kermit the Frog.

Kermit has been selected as Ford’s spokesfrog for their new Ford Escape Hybrid car. He’s since been seen in a commercial, as well as several faux-commercials on American Idol. But I guess none of that was good enough for the American people. No, it’s not enough to want to save the environment; we need more Frog to get us to buy a Hybrid. So Ford’s plan was to slap Kermit onto their webpage, thus securing car sales from hipsters, old people, and robots. Oh, and probably my dad.

I for one was quite impressed with the Kermit content on the Ford website. The first image we’re treated to is Kermit dressed in his newsman getup, which is already enough to get me to squeal like a 1950s housewife who just saw a cartoon mouse run across the kitchen floor. Kermit then tells us that he is “on location in the internet,” which made me wonder how they crammed a puppet into my laptop. After breaking it apart to see how the internet works, I went back to the website to hear Kermit’s sales pitch.

But first, a history lesson. This isn’t the first time Kermit has appeared in the internet. Back in historic 1999, the MuppeToons were a short series of computer-animated Muppet skits on the now defunct MuppetWorld.com. Each of the cartoons poked fun at the fact that the Muppets were actually in the internet. One in particular featured Kermit singing “The Kermambo,” which he had to perform live every time someone clicked on the link due to a server error. You can’t make this stuff up! Well, you can, but that would be copyright infringement.

The Muppets were also stuck in your computer once before in the Muppets Inside CD-ROM game, but that’s a computer, not the internet. So it’s hardly relevant. I don’t even know why I brought it up.

What was I talking about? Dang, I hate when that happens. You go off on one little tangent and… oh yeah! The Ford website. Right. So Kermit gives his little spiel about the car and waits for you to click around. Just like the real Kermit, you can tickle him (with your mouse, which is most definitely not how you tickle the real Kermit). Unfortunately, he learns quick and develops an immunity to tickling. I also suggest doing nothing for a while. I know, I say that a lot, but in this case you’ll hear Kermit plead with you to click something. He’s got a few different comments, so be sure to listen to them all.

Then, there are four icons on the bottom of the page. Each of these has another Kermit with another thrilling tale of debauchery and deception and… a car. On one, he is wearing an adorable lab coat. In all four, it’s the full-bodied Kermit puppet, which helps me to forget that there’s some dude named Steve standing underneath him. And like the first page, these Kermits can be tickled and they will make a few comments when you don’t click around for a while.

I very much enjoyed Kermit’s jokes. They were all in character (read: no more “It really is easy being green” jokes) and reasonably witty. He jokes about his lack of eyelids and he tries to eat a virtual mosquito. My only problem was that they reused some of the jokes on different pages. There are different punch lines for a couple, but some of them are word-for-word. Still, I’m happy to have at least 4 or 5 Kermit lines per page. That’s more new Kermit content than we’ve gotten in a long time.

All in all, I’m happy with seeing all the Kermit love (note: not Kermit Love) on the Ford website. Some of my fellow Muppet fans may see this as the Muppets selling out, but remember, Jim Henson got his start doing commercials for Wilkins back in the 1950s. And even still, if Disney refuses to put more Muppets on TVs and on movie screens, the internet is happy to pick up the leftovers. And that’s really what the internet is all about, isn’t it?

Clickety-click here to discuss this article on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet

My fellow Americans,

Ask not what a Muppet production can do for you, ask what you can vice versa and all that switcheroo nonsense.

Statler and Waldorf's From the Balcony from Movies.com has been nominated for a Webby Award. But the only way it can be recognized as the best thing the internet has ever spewed forth is by voting. It's the American way! Or, y'know, create a bunch of fake e-mail addresses and vote a hundred times. They won't catch you, don't worry.

Cheating: it's the real American way.

Just click here, register, go to the Online Film & Video area, and look under Comedy: Long Form or Series.

Click here to discuss whether you voted Muppocrat or Republifraggle on the Tough Pigs forum.

Labels: awards, internet, statler and waldorf