How many times have you watched the “Bohemian Rhapsody” video on YouTube? Five? Ten? Fifty? With its mercurial rise to the top of the viral video charts, it’s a pretty sure thing that most people are watching the Muppet version of the Queen rock epic more than once. The coolest thing about it is that it’s a new Muppet production that’s both good and popular, which is a combination Muppet fans aren’t used to these days. The response has been amazing… and yet, I feel like I’m supposed to be more excited about it than I actually am.

The video itself is head-spinningly entertaining. There are so many Muppets in it! And they all get their little moment in the spotlight, from the major Muppet stars like Fozzie and Animal, to guys we don’t see nearly often enough, like Johnny Fiama and Beauregard. Not to mention the Muppet bananas. It looks great (Watch it in HD!), it sounds superb, and they even manage to censor the original song’s lyrics (apparently Muppets don’t put guns against heads or get stoned/spit in their eyes) in clever, character-appropriate ways. Then there’s the tag at the end with Kermit and Scooter, which is a perfect punchline to the whole thing.

It is a very, very good Muppet thing. And it is popular – sweet baby Ray’s, is it popular. Since November 23, it’s been watched nearly 10 million times. Ten million! It’s even been stolen and re-posted by various sneaky YouTube users, and most of those have views in the thousands. It’s been blogged, Facebooked, and tweeted more times than you can shake an arm-rod at, and it’s been featured on various TV shows. I bet more people have seen this video in two weeks than have seen Muppets From Space since it was released in 1999.

I’m not even sure why it’s so popular. The Muppets have been posting videos on YouTube since summer 2008, and they’ve all been wonderful, but even the Webby-award-winning “Ode to Joy” took over a year to reach its current tally of 7 million views. So what it is it about “Bohemian Rhapsody?” Is it the fact that there are so many beloved characters in it? Maybe it’s because “Rhapsody” is a hit rock song rather than a centuries-old Beethoven tune. Maybe it’s because the selection of such a grown-up song reminds people that the Muppets are (as they say) not just for kids. Orrrrr, maybe it’s just because it’s so dang good.

But here’s the thing. A lot of folks – both casual fans and hardcore geeks – have declared this to be the first sign of the Muppets’ “comeback,” but I just can’t join that parade yet. For one thing, the video is only four minutes and 47 seconds long. People are enjoying the Muppets while they’re wasting time at work, sure. But would they sit still for an hour-long TV special? Or a two-hour movie? Or (We can always hope!) a new TV series?

Also, clicking on a YouTube link is free. The current promotional push is presumably paving the way for an eventual new movie, but movie tickets cost more than free. And anyway, by the time a film is ready for release “Bohemian Rhapsody” will probably be two years old, and who knows if anyone will still care by then?

Yecch, okay. That’s enough Mr. Cynical-Pants. I will be delighted if my fears prove unfounded. This video is amazing, and I will continue to re-watch it and re-re-re-re-watch it. We already know there are more videos on the way – “Carol of the Bells,” "American Woman", "Stand By Me," and “Dust in the Wind,” which I’m especially intrigued about – and any of those could turn out to be just as huge.

If they can keep up this momentum, keep making these excellent videos, keep doing public appearances (and keep believing, keep pretending), then they can make sure audiences don’t forget two simple facts: 1) The Muppets are still around, and 2) They are awesome. And then we can all scaramouche, scaramouche and do the fandango.


Click here to wax rhapsodic on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: internet, The Muppet Show

The next Muppet internet sensation just hit the web! Check out all your favorite Muppets (yeah, all of them) in their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody!


I know what you're thinking, that song sounds familiar. That's because Johnny and Sal sang it in 2005 at the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. I mean, that obscure video was way more popular than Wayne's World, right? Here it is again for posterity.


Click here to do the fandango on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet

Ryan and Joe (that's me!) are the super special guests on the latest episode of The MuppetCast! We had a hearty chat with Steve Swanson about all the news and goings-on in the world of Muppets.

Click here to give a listen to the podcast. I hope you don't get tired of our voices, because we sure don't.

The MuppetCast updates weekly, so keep an eye on the website for future episodes! If my math is right, that's like a thousand episodes a year!

Click here to sing along with a podcast on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: fanaticism, internet, MuppetCast, ToughPigs

Do you remember the days when you had to sit in front of your TV all day just to catch a glimpse of that commercial everyone is talking about? Or when you actually had to wait for the new season of your favorite show to debut before seeing what they had in store for you? Me neither.

This new-fangled age of immediacy on the internet has completely spoiled me. Now as soon as something Muppety shows up, we can share the wealth! And in the past week, a lot of Sesame Street and Muppet videos have been begging to be shared. Let's take a peek:

The latest videos to hit the net are the Muppet Monsters on Disney.com, celebrating the Pagan candy holiday, Halloween. Give a click and see Big Mean Carl, Yorick (the skull, not the purple dude), Mo Frackle, and some other spooky-yet-obscure characters tell some not-so-scary jokes.
There was a surprise cameo or two on last week's episode of Dancing with the Stars, featuring Animal, Gonzo, and Aaron Carter. That last guy isn't a Muppet, but he does dance to one of their favorite jams.

The Muppets have been popping up all over the Disney websites lately, promoting Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" campaign. Three commercials have already hit the net, the first of which (featuring James Denton) can be seen below. The other two aren't on YouTube yet, but you can watch Miss Piggy lock eyes with Taye Diggs here and butt heads with Teri Hatcher here.

From the same campaign, Kermit and Piggy donned their hardhats (to protect their puppeteers' hands, I guess) to officially announce "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day." According to the video uploader, this took place on September 29, which hopefully means that Steve Whitmire is back performing Kermit. Charity shmarity, I'm just glad Steve is back!

Next month, Sesame Street starts its 40th season, making it only ten years away from joining AARP. To get us started on the party early, they released some videos to keep us amused. First, take a look at the updated opening sequence. The hipper version of the theme song is still in play, but now we get to see Cookie Monster eating chalk (what, are they turning him into Chalk Monster now??).

Following in the footsteps of her First Lady brethren (sistren?), Michelle Obama is slated to appear on Sesame Street to talk about the all-important issue of gardening. How much longer must we endure Obama's liberal agenda???

In order to give Leslie Carrara's arms a rest, Abby Cadabby will be appearing as a much more static (and creepy-eyed) version of herself in the CGI segment, "Abby's Flying Fairy School". I wonder what she did to get kicked out of Storybook Community School...

It didn't take long for Apple to sneak some product placement into Sesame Street. When do you think we'll see the "I'm a Mac/I'm the letters P and C" parody?

Lastly, the video that's been hitting all the blogs in the right places, we've got Sesame Street's Mad Men parody. It's exactly like Mad Men, except less sexism and cigarettes, and more Joey Mazzarino. The sketch is also notable for the triumphant return of Frank Oz, who performs a better Don Draper than John Hamm himself.

Click here to write an ad for the Happy Honey Bear account on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet, Muppets on TV, Sesame Street

It's amazing that Steve Swanson has been recording the MuppetCast podcast every week for over two years. Nice work, Steve! And double-nice-work for having the good sense to invite ToughPigs' own Joe and Ryan onto your show again. Well played, old chum.

Click here to listen to the latest installment of the MuppetCast, where you can hear me and Ryan chat with Steve about the ToughPigs Outing, expensive dolls, comic books, and America's Got Talent. And as a special bonus, Steve also chats with Street Gang author Michael Davis, who has a bit of good news to share about the book's reissue. Though if you're just interested in listening to mine and Ryan's voices, then feel free to skip to the 33-minute mark. Don't worry, I won't let it go to my head.

And of course, Steve is still recording a podcast every single week, so keep an eye on his site for upcoming episodes.

Click here to talk out loud on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: fanaticism, internet, MuppetCast, ToughPigs

My Week is for weeklong article series, just as it was before.

Fun Stuff is for lists, horoscopes, Halloween parades, and all the other nutty pieces that otherwise defy categorization.

Your Two Cents is basically the section that used to be called Soapbox, where you'll find all the stuff involving TP readers' contributions to the site.

Labels: internet, ToughPigs

Yep, the headline is true.

Beaker's original YouTube video "Ode to Joy" has won a Webby Award -- the "People's Voice" award, to be exact -- for best music video. We Muppet fans braved inclement weather, mudslides, and swarms of locusts to make it to our computers so we could vote for Beaker, and now all our hours and hours of hard work has paid off! Check out the list of Webby winners for proof that I'm not lying.

As of this writing, Beaker's video has received over 5 million views on YouTube. Five million! That sure is a lot of people watching Beaker butcher Beethoven.

And speaking of the voice of the people, here's what some of the world's most respected and influential critics are saying about "Ode to Joy":

"soooooooooo cute! "
-nerdtainment

"I love that orange haired guy!"
-octoberfest521

"lmfaorofl omg i think i blew my lung out omg
Beakers awesome meep meep"
-grimm656

"so beautiful it brought a tear to my eye"
-rockerchick428

"*head asplode*"
-deadwaldo

"pure utter genious"
-stalkerperson

"This is made of 73H 4W350M3! Jim Henson productions wins a free internet!"
-DecKrash

"x] this iz gangsta"
-MrSaNcHeZZZ

"OMFG BEAKER IS AMAZING!!! hes mine and kasey's bestieeeee :D"
-eyecatherine302

"it was sooo funni wen the violin caught fire and that guy got electrocuted!!!
welldone!! sooooo cute :D :D "
-vbstar1221

"rofl"
-Subscribing Sam

"rofl"
-xandra0bobandra

"OMG ROFLOL"
-alextyrey

"Nice harmonics and dackup singers!"
-poptheman1

"tits"
-striake209

"he looks omish"
-dopesniffereater

"these r the guys from studio DC almost live"
-gamemaster0999

"ther al jonesen for some crack get them a dime bag"
-salviowens098

"so funny... loved it
and check out mi videos
real funny 1 of mi bro
after his hair cutt....
you have to see it!!!!!"
-ballvolley20

"holy hell im so horney now!!"
-evelynad

"omg jajajjaja XD"
-lujurioscabaret

"im very confused."
-fineswine09

"lame"
-xMikuruChanx

"this... are... disgusting"
-IVOLEDED


With high praise like that coming from all over the globe, is it any wonder Beaker won this coveted, prestigious prize?

Now, just to help Beaker get a few more million views, here, yet again, is the video in question:



Click here to love that orange haired guy on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: internet, news

That Beaker guy really deserves to win a little something once in a while. And only you (yes you, the funny lookin' guy) can help him win the elusive Webby Award! Today (Thursday) is the last day to vote! Beaker is even going to give you a present for voting: A brand new reedit of his "Ode to Joy" video:

Do your civic duty and vote by clicking here. And for those of you with short memories, you can view the original nominated video here.

Click here to talk about Beaker's Webby'ed feet on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: awards, internet, music

Here's some reasonably exciting news: The original Muppet YouTube video "Ode to Joy" has been nominated for a Webby Award! The Webbys, naturally, are awards given for stuff made for the web, and Beaker has been nominated in the Best Music Video category. In case you need to be reminded how award-worthy the video is, take a look:





You can show your support for Beaker and classical music by going to the Webby People's Voice voting site and placing your vote. You do have to register before you can vote, but don't let that stop you. I'm 85% sure they won't use your information to steal your identity.

You may remember that back in 2007, the web series Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony won a Webby Award. Except you probably don't remember, because most Muppet fans completely lost interest in that silliness when the producers replaced Steve Whitmire and Dave Goelz as the title characters. But the point is, Muppets won before, and Muppets can win again! And this time, the thing that got nominated is actually good!

So vote for "Ode to Joy!" If for no other reason than so we can hear Beaker give an acceptance speech.

Click here to lay odds on Beaker's Webby chances on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: awards, internet, music, news

A lot of web-surfers who stumble upon this website do so via a search on Google or some other search engine. With the magic of Google Analytics, we can keep track of how our visitors find us, including the search terms that led them to the site.


Many of these searches are phrased in the form of a question, which makes sense, because as Sesame Street has taught us, asking questions is a good way of finding things out. In an effort to be as helpful as possible, I've decided to answer some of the recent search engine questions that have led people here.

Now let's see what folks want to know...


Q: Which year did the Two-headed Monster first appear on Sesame Street?
A: 1978. See how helpful I am?


Q: Season of the muppet show mahna manha which disc episode
A: Season one, disc one, the Juliet Prowse episode. Now that's some useful information. You're welcome!


Q: What else did the cast of A Fish Called Wanda star in?
A: 1997's Fierce Creatures. See there? I answered that one and it wasn't even about Muppets!

Q: Whatever happened to the first Gordon from Sesame Street?
A: His name was Matt Robinson, and he went on to write for The Cosby Show. Boy, I'm full of helpfulness today.


Q: Does anyone have a wallpaper of the Muppets character Beaker?
A: Um... probably. Yeah, probably somebody does.

Q: When will The Muppet Show 4th season be available?
A: Not soon enough, I tell ya!

Q: What are the names of the cast from Sesame Street?
A: Well, let's see... there's Bob. He's played by a guy named Bob. There are some other people too.

Q: What is Miss Piggy's surname in the TV show the Muppets?
A: "Mummenschanz."

Q: Who is the hottest female Muppet?
A: Miss Mousey, definitely. Everyone wants to make out with her.

Q: Did Jim Henson ever go to jail?
A: Sure he did! Don't you remember that time he stole Air Force One and used it to rob banks in 14 major world cities, illegally copying videotapes all the while? It was in all the papers.

Q: Who sings on the commercial with the really tall guy looking for a car over the internet?
A: Michael Jackson.

Q: Who was Jerry's relative on Tom and Jerry that sang and played guitar?
A: Michael Jackson.

Q: Who would you like to see as a celebrity guest star on Sesame Street?
A: Anyone but Michael Jackson.

Q: How tall is Howie Mandel?
A: Five feet, seven inches in high heels. And he always wears high heels.

Q: Why weren't Captain and Tennille on The Muppet Show?
A: As a matter of fact, the Captain and Tennille were on The Muppet Show, but it was using their aliases "Shields" and "Yarnell."

Q: Is political science an art or science?
A: Yes.

Q: Which show did Miley Cyrus first star in?
A: Miley Cyrus first rose to fame playing the role of Darrin Stephens on the hit CBS comedy Bewitched.

Q: How do pigs benefit man?
A: By going to space!

Q: Is a ball named googly giggler?
A: Oh, it most certainly is.

Q: Won't somebody think of the children?
A: Yep.

Q: What Muppet are you?
A: I'm actually not a Muppet. I'm a human being. Thanks for asking, though.

Q: i want to work with muppets
A: Me too!

Q: What animal are Fraggles?
A: Gobo and Wembley are schnauzers, Boober and Red are cockatoos, and Mokey is a snuffleupagus.

Q: Did Dylan Sprout and Miley Cyrus ever go together?
A: Actually, it's a funny story. Dylan Sprouse did ask out Miley Cyrus, and they dated for quite some time, but it wasn't until the fifth month of their relationship that she realized she wasn't dating Cole.

Q: forever friends. who is kermit.s fictional friend
A: The Great Gatsby.

Q: Why do all muppets seem to be left-handed?
A: The answer is simple: They seem to be left-handed because they ARE left-handed.

Q: who seen bert ernie serie stopmotion
A: Me!

Q: Is Dylan or Cole Sprouts older and by how many more minutes or seconds?
A: Cole is older by two inches. Both Sprouse brothers celebrate their 45th birthday next July.

Q: What is the difference between a gobo and a cookie?
A: Gobo and Cookie Monster are both Muppets. There is no difference.

Q: What does Abby Cadabby offer to viewers?
A: A giant vat of pudding. Are you interested?

Q: Does the regular TMX Elmo have secret sequences?
A: Yeah, and they're REALLY cool. Oh boy, are they cool. Awesome, really.

Q: How can I get a pass to see the Sprouse brothers on "Live, the Suite Life on Deck"?
A: You can't. The truth is, you will never meet the Sprouse brothers. You will never touch or talk to the Sprouse brothers. The Sprouse brothers will never even know you exist. So you might as well stop dreaming now.



And there you have it. I feel like I've done some real good here. You can all thank me later.



Click here to thank me on the Tough Pigs forum!

ToughPigsRyan@yahoo.com

Labels: internet, ToughPigs

A few months ago, we wrote about the new Muppet videos that popped up on YouTube. (Those articles are here and here.) Now they're popping again: Fozzie and Rizzo have started their own YouTube accounts, joining Beaker, the Swedish Chef, Sam, Gonzo, and Statler & Waldorf.

Fozzie's video is "Rolling with the Skateboarding Dog"...

...and Rizzo's is a video response to Fozzie's, called "Skateboarding Dog gets served."



So these are pretty exciting, especially given the prominence of Rowlf, even if Bill Barretta's Rowlf still sounds a lot like Bobo. Here's what I find interesting about these new clips (other than the fact that we've yet to see Kermit and Piggy): Those other videos they posted -- Stars and Stripes Forever, Habanera, etc. -- were all presented as performances by the Muppets, whereas these look like the characters were bored on a Saturday afternoon, so they picked up their camcorder and went to the beach to see if anything happened.

As Peter mentioned in his review, there was something about the Studio DC specials, with the Muppets squeezed uncomfortably into a show starring fresh-faced preteens, that made the Muppets seem old. I was a little worried there for a while... Does Kermit's unfamiliarity with text message shorthand mean he's over the hill, out of touch, and completely irrelevant to anyone too young to vote, drink, or buy cigars?

But now we see that the Muppets not only have YouTube accounts, they also go out and shoot random, pointless, shaky, handheld video to post online. Suddenly they're more contemporary than ever!

Welcome to the internet age, Muppets. Just don't pay too much attention to the Comments.

Click here to discuss this article, and how funny it is to see Rizzo's legs, on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: internet, news, The Muppet Show

Special thanks to everyone out there in internetland for your great response to the article posted earlier this week about my experience on the Muppet set. But apparently, hard as we tried, we weren't able to keep the story to one medium. Sure, print may be dead, but radio is the wave of the future!

Check out the latest edition of the MuppetCast to hear my loverly voice rant about, well, pretty much everything I wrote about in this article. Hey, you never know, I may have accidentally mentioned something about that line of Muppet-themed Q-tips they've got planned. Whoops!

Click here to listen to the MuppetCast!

And click here to discuss my accent on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: fanaticism, internet, MuppetCast, ToughPigs

Once again, Ryan and I (I'm Joe, nice to meetcha) have been interviewed on The MuppetCast, a weekly podcast hosted by Steve Swanson.

This week we all discussed the new Fraggle Rock DVDs and what we think about the release of the full-series set and the non-release of season 4.

Click here to listen to the podcast, and click here to go back in time and listen to our first interview with Steve, way back in February. And of course, go to MuppetCast.com every week for more podcasty goodness.

Click here to discuss this article on the ToughPigs forum (audio version not available in some areas)!

Labels: fanaticism, internet, MuppetCast, ToughPigs

By the year 2004, variety shows on television were already in a comatose state when they were finally put out of their misery with The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour. With no viable outlet left for celebrities to sing and dance and make up funny skits, there hasn't been much hope for The Muppets to find their space on television.

But wait.

Who's that stopping the Locomotion with his bare hands? Racing faster than a speeding Buick? Leaping over tall buildings like they were homeless people sleeping in the street? It's.. the Internet!

Yes, the good old time-wasting internet, cleverly disguised as mild-mannered education and technology! With the powers it inherited from its home planet YouTube, it has brought songs and puppets and entertainment straight to the thing you're staring at right now.

The Swedish Chef, Gonzo, Beaker, and Statler and Waldorf have all started their own YouTube accounts, along with a brand-flipping new video from each (or 4 videos from the old farts). Take a gander at what our furry friends hath brought:
















(See our previous article about this video by clicking here)

The question remains: Now that they've covered unintelligible Public Domain songs and generic negative video reviews, what could they possibly do next? I've come up with a few suggestions, just in case Kermit and friends have stooped low enough to troll the blogs for ideas.

-"Ask a Penguin", in which a penguin answers e-mails from viewers. Unfortunately, every episode is read in the "Waak waak waak" of penguin talk, and the advice is always to eat more fish.

-"Leave Annie Sue Alone", where a teary-eyed, mascara'ed Scooter begs viewers to stop harassing the former starlet (and current dentist's assistant).

-"lonelyvalleygirl15", a video blog by Janice in which she reminisces about her time as a child actress on Muppet Babies. Rumors abound that all of her accounts are fictionalized, as nobody can find proof of a "Baby Janice".

-"Will It Blend (My Assistant)?", in which Dr. Bunsen Honeydew places his associate Beaker in a giant blender with different objects, such as a Gorilla Detector or Robot Rabbit, to see which will become horribly disfigured first.

-"Every Other Day", where Bobo the Bear takes his own picture every day for a year. Unfortunately, since Bobo doesn't move much, the project is completely ineffective.

-"Kermie Girl", starring an overly excited Miss Piggy as she proclaims her love for her favorite frog through song. There is still no word as to how badly this will affect Kermit's campaign for the Presidency.

Normally, this article would be considered parody. But nowadays with the all-around wackiness of YouTube, these videos could actually happen. So if you see a picture of a penguin dressed as a ninja, let me know so I can demand my 10%.

Click here to share your ideas for Muppet videos on the ToughPigs forum!

Labels: internet, lists

Did you have a good Independence Day weekend? I sure did. Any 4th of July in which you set off fireworks without losing any major extremities is a successful 4th of July, I say.

But that wasn't the most exciting thing about this year's Fourth. No, the most exciting thing was the appearance of a new Muppet video! It's called "Stars & Stripes FOREVER!" and it showed up on YouTube, posted by a user called "patrioticeagle", who is apparently our favorite bald blue bird, Sam. Here, check it out:

Of course, the Muppet video wasn't the only new entertainment option last weekend. The Will Smith blockbuster Hancock was also released, and did pretty good business. Clearly, both productions are designed to target the exact same audience and to serve the same purpose, but which is better? Let's compare the two.

Lead actors
Muppet video: Sam the Eagle, Bobo, Beaker, Animal, the Swedish Chef
Hancock: Will Smith, Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron
Winner: Hancock by a nose, but only because Beaker hasn't been nominated for any Oscars (He just has the one Golden Globe).

Supporting characters
Hancock: A little kid, some criminals
Muppet video: Chickens and a penguin
Winner: Muppets, by far. Hollywood has yet to fully exploit the potential of singing chickens.

How many times can you watch it in 92 minutes?
Hancock: Once
Muppet video: 46 times
Winner: Muppets

Can you watch it with your elderly aunt?
Hancock: Definitely not. There's violence, drinking (of alcohol!!!), and more profanity than you can shake a sailor's mouth at.
Muppet video: Absolutely. And your elderly aunt probably loves the Muppets. After all, they worked with Milton Berle!

Explosions
Muppet video: One
Hancock: More than one
Winner: Hancock. They're a bit more impressive, though I certainly don't mean to diminish the fine work of Crazy Harry in the Muppet video, and I'd like to request that he please not blow me up.

Patriotism
Hancock: None to speak of
Muppet video: Overstuffed with it, from the song choice to Sam's reading of the Constitution to the montage of traditional American images playing in the background. It's so patriotic it makes me want to buy war bonds.
Winner: Muppet video

Conclusion: The Muppets win! Sorry, Will.

Click here to discuss the Stars & Stripes video on the Tough Pigs forum!

Labels: internet

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

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, MuppetCast, ToughPigs

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: internet, 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

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

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