I feel like talking about “wocka wocka” today.
“Wocka wocka,” of course, is Fozzie Bear’s catch phrase. Catch phrases are fun, aren’t they? It’s a happy experience to watch our favorite characters on TV, but it adds an extra little thrill when they have a catch phrase. It’s like, “Oh, there’s that funny guy. Ha, he’s being funny. That’s great. OH, MAN, HE SAID THOSE WORDS HE ALWAYS SAYS! I LOVE IT!”
It’s a shallow thrill, sure. But it’s a thrill. It’s exciting when Steve Urkel (from Family Matters) says “Did I do thaaat?” When the Festrunk brothers (from classic Saturday Night Live) say “We are two wild and crazy guys!” When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) say “Cowabunga!” And of course, when Molly (from Fibber McGee and Molly)says “T’ain’t funny, McGee,” which we all quote every day.
You know who else has a catchphrase? Fozzie Bear. One could argue he has two catchphrases – he says “Hiya, hiya, hiya!” a lot when he takes the stage. But the one that people think of more often when they think of The Muppet Show’s comedian bear is “Wocka wocka.” It’s most frequently used as a sort of verbal punctuation mark on one of his characteristically terrible jokes.
It’s a really good catchphrase. It’s brief, it’s to the point. It’s easy for the audience to pick up on, and fun to repeat. There’s a pretty good chance you just said “wocka wocka” out loud while reading this.
It’s so associated with the character that it often shows up on merchandise. I’ve seen “WOCKA WOCKA!” on Fozzie t-shirts, and I own a coaster with a picture of Fozzie that says “Wocka wocka lunchtime!” It doesn’t make sense, but it incorporates his catch phrase! The 1988 Jim Henson Play-Along Video Hey, You’re As Funny As Fozzie Bear includes a song in which Fozzie’s pals P.J. and Kai-Lee encourage us to make use of the term in our quest to become Fozzie’s comedy equal. And I just learned from Muppet Wiki that there was a song on the original Muppet Babies called “Wocka Wocka Wocka.” That’s three wockas!
“Wocka wocka” seems like such a big part of Fozzie’s character that it’s easy to assume he’s always said it, that he arrived in the theater for the first season of The Muppet Show uttering those magic words. But believe it or not, that’s not the case.
A few years ago, we at Tough Pigs hosted a live Muppet fan hangout event where we watched some Fozzie-centric clips from various Muppet productions. Before we started, we asked our fellow fans present to predict how many “wockas” we would hear throughout the clips. Most guesses numbered somewhere between twenty and fifty. Imagine our surprise, then, when we got through an entire montage of clips from the early seasons of The Muppet Show with zero “wockas.” It wasn’t until we got to the last few seasons that any “wockas” emerged.
Here’s the shocking truth: Fozzie didn’t say “wocka wocka” until The Muppet Movie. When he bounds onto the stage at the El Sleezo, he’s spouting off “wockas” left and right. It sure seems like he’s using a well-worn catch phrase. But no, that was the first time. Frank Oz himself was asked about it in an AMA on Reddit a while back, and he said:
“I remember exactly when Fozzie said “[wocka wocka]” first. In The Muppet Movie script, Fozzie was doing a comedy act on stage where Kermit first saw him, but there was no comedy act written, so I just made one up — and what you see on screen is what I showed Jim in an empty sound stage about a week before. And he loved it, so I kept it. And it really is a steal from old fashioned burlesque comedians.“
I’ve yet to see any research on old burlesque comedians who may have used a similar phrase, but I’ll certainly take Frank’s word for it. Although… you notice how I put “wocka wocka” in brackets in that quote? I got that idea from Muppet Wiki, who quoted it the same way on their excellent and informative page for “Wocka wocka.” They did that because in his initial Reddit response, Frank spelled it wrong! He spelled it “whaka whaka,” only to catch himself later and issue a correction.
That brings me to another thing about “wocka wocka.” Because it’s a nonsense word, it gets spelled a lot of different ways on the internet. I often see “wakka wakka” or “waka waka.” But no, the official spelling – from various books and merchandise items and style guides and Frank Ozes – is in fact “wocka wocka.” Recently, the online confusion on this point inspired me to create and post this meme thingy on the Tough Pigs social media accounts:
A handful of people pointed out that “wakka wakka” is the sound Pac-Man makes as he chomps those power pellets. Can anyone from a Pac-Man fan website confirm that this is the official spelling?
Sometimes I hear people in real life say “wocka wocka” spontaneously, usually after they’ve made a joke. I should be overjoyed by this, but because I’m constantly waging a battle with the snobbiest Muppet fan part of myself, I sometimes find myself thinking, Was that joke really bad enough, yet funny enough, to earn a “wocka wocka?” Did that joke really live up to the standards of the bear? But who cares, right? For Pete’s sake, I should be happy they’re referencing the Muppets! So I usually smile and tip my porkpie hat to them.
Fortunately, my Muppet snobbiness for “wocka wocka” does not apply to children. My preschool-age nephew has been watching the new Muppet Babies, and the first time I heard him say “wocka wocka,” it did my heart good. I hope his generation transitions from loving Muppet Babies to loving the classic Muppets. I hope they appreciate Fozzie Bear, and I hope they continue to hold dear his catch phrase.
And I hope they spell it right.
Thanks as always to Muppet Wiki for images and research help! Click here to wocka and roll all night on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@TougPigs.com
