Podcast Transcript – Hubba-Wha?! Episode #22

Click here for original audio.

Transcription by Katilyn Miller.

Hubba-Wha?! Episode 307 – Dr. Teeth’s Mellow and Profitable Episode

[Clip from The Muppet Movie plays]

[instrument noise]

DR. TEETH: Whoa, ho, ho. Our gentle morning melodies have attracted wandering admirers. 

KERMIT THE FROG: Hey, who are you guys?

DR. TEETH: We am, is, are and be, they whom as are known as the Electric Mayhem.

JANICE: Fer sure.

[Band laughs]

[Clip ends]

[Hubba-Wha?! theme music plays]

[Music ends]

BECCA PETUNIA: Welcome to (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?!: (in normal voice) a Muppet quiz show brought to you by Toughpigs.com. It’s your favorite quiz show that’s not like the others. Here, Muppet fans, Muppet professionals, and everyone in between competes for fabulous prizes. And to see who’s this week’s Toughest Pig. I’m your host, Becca Petunia of Toughpigs.com.

And today, we’re talking about the best of the best, the Electric Mayhem. That’s right, the Mayhem: Muppets so talented they can star in an entire show where Kermit never even shows up. I’ve always loved the Mayhem and certainly having a ton of new material this year made it easier than ever to write an episode all about them.

And maybe someone at Disney will hear this podcast and decide to renew Muppets Mayhem for season two. And while they’re listening, here’s my suggestion: add Zondra and Ubu as villains to season two. I can explain. I won’t explain right now. But I can explain. It’s a brilliant idea and it’ll  make the show even better.

Anyway, today’s mellow and profitable episode features questions written by me, with help from Muppet Wiki plus some sources I’ll mention later. And speaking of, let’s agree to play fair today. Please don’t look at Muppet Wiki or any other resource during this game. I’m trusting you to be honest. Like Janice, I will start sneezing if anyone lies about their Muppet knowledge.

Anyway, before we can jam with the band. Let’s learn about today’s guest musicians. That’s why we’re going to play our first game (in echo sounding voice) To Tell a Face. (in normal voice) Contestants, buzz in to answer some questions about yourself. Whoever buzzes in first will get introduced first.

Ready? Go.

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: All right, so our first contestant. Dave, what is your name?

DAVE HULTEEN JR: My name is Dave Hulteen Jr.

BECCA: Very nice, Dave Hulteen Jr. And this season I’ve started doing this because it’s the right thing to do and it’s about time that I started doing this. What pronouns should we use for you during this recording?

DAVE: He/him, please.

BECCA: Okay. All right, so Dave, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your history with the Muppets and some of the work you’ve done with the Muppets as well. Because you’ve been fortunate enough to do some stuff with them, correct?

DAVE: Yeah. So, like pretty much everybody else, I started as a young kid and I watched the Muppets. I watched Sesame Street with my dad. The Muppet Show with my dad. And of course, Fraggle Rock. It was just me and him and I was a fan.

Years later, when the Internet suddenly appeared, I was like, ooh I should see what they have on the Muppets. And I was surprised to find there were a lot of other fans, which at first was devastating. And then very quickly became exciting. And it made the world a smaller place for me as well as friends. And as a result, all I could do when I was a kid was draw. That’s the only thing I was allowed to do when I got in trouble.

So the thing that I drew the most were the Muppets and as I got online more and more, that world continued to shrink. I was on the outer edge and then slowly managed to work my way in. And the first, I guess Muppet gig job I got was doing artwork for the performers and some production crew for the 2015 Muppets show.

And that was really, really cool. I got to go to the studio and then not long after that Craig Shemin hired me to work on his book Sam and Friends:The Story of Jim Henson’s First Television Show available on BearManor Media. You should go check it out.

BECCA: Ooh. Love the plug.

DAVE: Yeah. Well, Craig will be happy about that too. [laughs] 

[Becca laughs]

DAVE: And basically, whenever Joe says, “Hey, I need you to draw something for a podcast,” I say, “I’ll do my best.”

BECCA: Well, I love all the stuff that you’ve done. Love your work on that Sam and Friends book and all the bonus material that you have. I have the friend of Sam sticker on my computer and all that.

DAVE: Oh cool.

BECCA: But you know.

DAVE: I don’t even think I have that anymore, actually. I think I gave them all away.

BECCA: Guess you’re not friends with Sam.

DAVE: No, not anymore. [laughs]

BECCA: And thanks, Dave. And Dave, who is your favorite member of the Electric Mayhem?

DAVE: My favorite member as a member is Dr. Teeth. But my favorite member to draw will always be Animal.

BECCA: Animal is so much fun to draw. Just there’s so much energy in any picture of Animal.

DAVE: And he’s easy. It’s just basically a feather duster with eyes and teeth.

BECCA: Yeah, I’m just waving my arm frantically because that’s how I would draw Animal. 

DAVE: That’s how Animal would draw Animal too probably.

BECCA: True. So Dave, you’ve earned yourself 20 points for all of those correct answers.

DAVE: This will be the only 20 points I get, I’m afraid. No. [laughs]

BECCA: I don’t think so. Let’s move on to our second contestant. Our second contestant, what is your name?

JOE HENNES: My name is Joe Hennes. My pronouns are he/him. And I like to eat drums.

BECCA: Look at you scooping my question with knowing that I’m going to ask you about pronouns. Look at that. How did you know?

JOE: I thought I would be more efficient and then, you know, now we’re talking about it and that undoes all the efficiency.

BECCA: Yeah, now it’s not efficient anymore. But anyway, Joe, everybody knows your history with the Muppets. You are one of the co-owners of the website Toughpigs.com, which you should check out if you haven’t, those of you listening.

JOE: I thought you were talking to me. I’ll check it out. Yeah, I’ll give it a go. 

BECCA: Joe, have you seen it?

JOE: I have. Not in years. Yeah, I kind of gave up on it a long time ago. No, that’s not true.

BECCA: Let me tell you. It’s kind of gone downhill since new people took over in like 2007 or so.

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: I don’t care for their leadership.

JOE: I mean, the truth is, actually, I think I agree with you. [laughs]

BECCA: [laughs] No, no. You guys do wonderful work.

JOE: Well thank you.

BECCA: And I’ve been here for nine of those years so, you know. But you do great work with that. You’ve been on so many Muppet podcasts, so I don’t have to ask you your history with the Muppets. So instead, I’m going to ask you, hey, can you get behind it?

JOE: Sure can. But, oh god, I wish I had a really funny answer at hand, instead of just quoting a Muppet thing. But can I get behind it? Yeah, because I don’t know if you know this about me. I’m a really big fan of conga lines.

BECCA: Oh!

JOE: Yeah. I love a good conga line and the whole purpose of a conga line is to get behind it. 

BECCA: You must have loved The Muppets Go Hollywood.

JOE: I did. Oh my god. That was maybe…Is that the only time the Muppets have done a real conga line because that’s a good conga line.

BECCA: No. They must have during one of like the Hawaiian sketches that they did on The Muppet Show. Like Hawaiian war chant.

JOE: Hmm, we’re going to have to do some investigation.

BECCA: Yeah.

JOE: We’ll have to get the Muppet Wiki guys to start an article on conga lines. Shane, can you get working on that right away, please? Thank you very much.

BECCA: And Joe, who is your favorite member of the Electric Mayhem?

JOE: You know, I think that no one’s ever going to beat Floyd in my book. Floyd is the coolest guy you’ll ever meet. I like both of the main performers of Floyd very much. Jerry Nelson, obviously was the king and I think Matt Vogel does an incredible job with Floyd now. He retained the coolness.

But I gotta say, watching Muppets Mayhem I have a newfound appreciation for Zoot that– not that I never… I never like not appreciated Zoot but like now, every time Zoot opens his mouth, man, is he funny? I do love me some Zoot.

DAVE: You should do a podcast about it, Joe.

JOE: Yeah, that’s a good idea.

BECCA: Oh, how could I forget to mention the podcast you did on Muppets Mayhem.

JOE: I did.

BECCA: Yeah. You want to tell us a little bit about Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass?

JOE: Yeah. I did a podcast called Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass and basically I wanted to do a watch-along podcast for the new show. I worked with the folks at Muppets Studio at Disney to help, you know, approve assets and to get interviews.

We ended up getting every single person that we asked for for interviews, which is amazing. That includes the entire main cast. And we had two of the producers, Jeff Yorkes and Bill Barretta, who volunteered to be in every episode to give us all of like the Easter eggs and details and stuff which was incredible. That was not something I asked for. They just said if you want it we’re here. And I was like, “What, am I gonna say no to the Bill Barretta. Of course. Come and play with us.

It was super fun. It was a great experience for me. But also just such a great resource to have out in the world to be able to really dig deep into these episodes because if we don’t do it, who will? And the cover art was provided by our very own Dave Hulteen Jr. who’s right here with us.

BECCA: Oh, you know, I was just about to ask you. I was just about to ask you, like who was the, who was the talentless hack who did that cover art? But I guess now, I guess now I know.

DAVE: I was gonna say you’re not, you’re not wrong, because once Joe said, oh, we have permission to use The Muppets Mayhem logo and Disney branding, I was like, well, I’m pretty much done. [laughs]

BECCA: No, you did such a great job.

JOE: Yeah.

BECCA: I’m joking. I love. 

JOE: Well, that’s the thing. I went to Dave first because, number one Dave’s my guy. Love you, Dave. But I thought whatever we do, Dave is going to illustrate something that’s really incredible. And then once we said, okay, we’ve got the logo, we’ve got permission to use the logo. And as Dave says, most of the work is done, he didn’t just stop there. You easily could have just thrown the words Backstage Pass over that logo and been done with it and I would have been fine.

DAVE: I kind of did. [laughs]

JOE: But you actually printed out… you printed out like a real badge. Like a backstage pass that you would wear on a lanyard around your neck and you took it on a photo shoot and like you created all this amazing imagery that went so far above and beyond what we would have asked you to do. And, you know, proving that you’re not just an amazing illustrator but you’re a terrific graphic designer. And you’ve got such an amazing eye for detail and for what makes a project like this really special and unique and Muppety. And you know that’s why you’re my guy.

DAVE: Aww. Thank you. You have 20 minutes to keep going and gushing about it. Thank you. 

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: Well, hey, I’m gonna cut you off, but you won’t be able to spend 20 more minutes on this. But speaking of 20, I will give you 20 points for those correct answers.

JOE: Ah! Cha-ching.

DAVE: Hooray.

BECCA: Now, thank you, both. And let’s modulate into our next game, which I’m calling (in echo sounding voice) Moog’s Mayhead Challenge. (in normal voice)

[Clip from Muppets Mayhem plays]

MOOG: You brought that magic as always. 

DR.

TEETH: Well, if it isn’t our most loyal number one Mayhead, my man Moog.

BAND: Moog!

MOOG: You know what, you guys added those extra six amps. I thought it would be overkill but you sounded better than ever. It was so good. Am I yelling? I’m yelling, aren’t I?

FLOYD: Yes, you are. And you are most welcome.

ANIMAL: Welcome.

BECCA: If you want to be a true Mayhead like Moog, you’ve got to know all about the six members of the Electric Mayhem. So, this game is about Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, Animal and Lips. I’ll ask you a question about one of the members of the Electric Mayhem. You’ll buzz in and answer it. It’s pretty simple. We will do two questions for each member of the band. So 12 questions total.

Each of these questions will be worth two points. Buzz in when you know the answer but please wait until I finish reading the question so Mayheads all over the Internet can play along. Ready?

DAVE: Ready.

BECCA: All right. So first we’re going to do two questions about Zoot. So, our Zoot question number one. On Muppets Mayhem It’s revealed that this is Zoot’s last name.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Zootowski.

BECCA: It is Zootowski.

DAVE: Nice.

JOE: Thank you.

DAVE: Great.

BECCA: And our second Zoot question. Dave Goelz devised Zoot’s shoe, Jimmy, as a tribute to this performer.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: I’m going out on a limb here. Is it Jimi Hendrix?

JOE: It is not Jimi Hendrix. Good guess.

BECCA: Joe, do you know the secret truth of Jimmy Shoe?

JOE: The secret truth, which he declined to reveal on our podcast.

BECCA: Which is so weird because Bill Baretta revealed it on another podcast, right?

JOE: Yeah.

BECCA: On his podcast.

JOE: Apparently he wasn’t supposed to. That’s what we learned that day. But the answer to your question is Jim Henson.

BECCA: It is Jim Henson. Should I rewrite that question? Should we not be talking about it? It’s like on Muppet Wiki because Bill Barretta said it.

JOE: It’s public information. That’s up to Dave if you really wants to go into detail himself. But too late. Bill spilled the beans.

BECCA: Yeah, exactly.

JOE: About Jimmy Shoe.

BECCA: This is on Muppet Wiki. I looked it up. [laughs]

JOE: Yup. 

DAVE: And I listened to Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass and I remember him passing on that. So it was like oh maybe it’s Jimi Hendrix.

BECCA: Yep. He didn’t want to talk about it on the episode but Bill Barretta talked about it on the Barretta Bros podcast and Muppet Wiki cited that on their Jimmy Shoe page. All right, it is Jim Henson. Okay our next two questions are going to be about Floyd.

BECCA: Okay, so Floyd question one. Floyd only performed music on one episode of Muppets Tonight where he accompanied Garth Brooks. What instrument did he play in that episode?

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

BECCA: I genuinely do not know the answer but I figure it couldn’t hurt to just say he played the marimba.

JOE: He did not play the marimba. Good guess. Dave, for two points, guess an instrument.

DAVE: Let’s say the kazoo.

[Dave and Joe laugh]

BECCA: Wasn’t the kazoo. He played the violin. He played the violin in the Fiddler on the Roof-style sketch that they did. That was one of Floyd’s two appearances on Muppets Tonight. Jerry Nelson was alive and was working on Muppets Tonight. And yet that was one of Floyd’s two appearances on the entire show.

DAVE: Huh.

BECCA: It was weird. Second Floyd question. Floyd is the only member of the Electric Mayhem to have performed at the Grammy Awards. Which musician did he sing with?

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: He sang with John Denver.

BECCA: It was John Denver. 

JOE: Can I get a bonus point for knowing what song they sang?

BECCA: Oh, well, please. Yes. Tell me the song that they sang.

JOE: I don’t need. I don’t actually need the bonus point. I just want to prove that I remember. They sing “Gone Fishin’” from Rocky Mountain Holiday.

BECCA: Correct. Yes.

JOE: Yeah, it’s a great song.

BECCA: It is.

JOE: From a mediocre special.

BECCA: Yeah. I would venture to say a bad special but I guess.

JOE: Yeah. I was being kind.

BECCA: I don’t know. Anytime the Muppets are on location, I can’t hate the special. Like it just looks so good when they’re out in the real world.

JOE: Even though half of those location shots are fake. Do you know that?

BECCA: Oh, I guess I haven’t watched it in a long time. I haven’t watched it since I was a child. So maybe I don’t…

JOE: They did a really good job at faking the fake location. But apparently they filmed half of that special out on location and half of it in an airplane hangar.

BECCA: Huh.

JOE: So think about that folks, next time you watch Rocky Mountain Holiday.

BECCA: Whenever that is! Maybe every week.

[Dave laughs]

JOE: Or don’t watch it. Ever. That’s also an option. 

BECCA: All right, two questions about Animal. Our first Animal question. According to a beloved quote from Frank Oz, you shouldn’t mess with Animal because he eats this.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: He eats glass.

BECCA: It is glass. “He eats glass, man,” is the quote. Second Animal question. In 1998, Animal was the mascot for which US Olympics team?

[Clock ticking sound]

BECCA: Come on. All three of us were alive for this one.

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Was it the snowboarding team?

BECCA: It was the snowboarding team. Correct.

DAVE: Good job.

BECCA: They stapled his feet to a snowboard and threw him down a mountain for some television appearance.

JOE: [laughs] Great. So glad that exists in the world.

BECCA: Hey, we got two questions about Janice. While many assume that Janice is named after Janis Joplin, that has never been officially confirmed. However, Michael Frith notes that her design is based off of which rock musician?

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe. Joe’s on a roll. Joe?

JOE: Only because I could see Dave thinking and going, I don’t know this. Or else I’d give you an extra few seconds to chime in. I think it’s Mick Jagger, right?

BECCA: It is Mick Jagger. She was actually originally conceived as an androgynous male character and was going to have a pronounced Adam’s apple that bobbed up and down. They were going to make a mechanism to move the Adam’s apple.

DAVE: That’s wild.

BECCA: Mmhmm. Question two about Janice. Richard Hunt is Janice’s most famous performer. However, on season one of the Muppet Show, she was performed by Eren Ozker. Who performed Janice before that in her first appearance on The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence? It was neither Richard Hunt nor Eren Ozker.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Was it Fran Brill?

BECCA: It was Fran Brill. Fran Brill is technically the original Janice performer. We got two questions about Lips. First Lips question. Lips’s first line of dialogue since The Great Muppet Caper was in episode two of The Muppets 2015 sitcom where he mentions that the band loves getting this kind of food from gas stations.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Is it sushi?

BECCA: It is sushi. It is, “And we love gas station sushi,” was Lips’s first line of dialogue in over 30 years.

DAVE: Nice. I’m on the board. That’s all I wanted. [laughs]

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: Our 10th question. Our second Lips question. Unfortunately, this is a little easier than it was when I wrote this question because, well you’ll find out why in a second. On Muppets Mayhem, Lips has a shirt featuring this other Muppet performed by Peter Linz.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Tutter.

BECCA: It is Tutter. And it’s a little easier now because I wrote this question months ago and then I decided to make a replica of that shirt for us to sell on Toughpigs.com.

DAVE: I saw that today on X. Or whatever.

BECCA: Yeah. Oh boy.

DAVE: And it’s a really cool.

BECCA: Thank you.

DAVE: And I heard it on the Backstage Pass podcast as well.

BECCA: Yes, well, I put it on here when it was discussed on Backstage Pass like five weeks ago.

JOE: How about that double plug just now.

BECCA: Oh yeah. Look at that.

JOE: We plugged the Teepublic. We plugged the other podcasts like wow you know.

BECCA: We plugged X.

JOE: Everybody should check out both those things.

[Dave and Becca laugh]

JOE: Yeah, we’re not plugging X. [laughs]

BECCA: All right. And lastly we have two questions about Dr. Teeth. So our first Dr. Teeth question. Technically speaking, Dr. Teeth’s first television appearance was not in a pilot episode of The Muppet Show. What was Dr. Teeth’s first TV appearance?

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Was it on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson?

BECCA: It was The Tonight Show. Correct. Jim Henson brought Dr. Teeth along on an appearance on The Tonight Show. I think it was the day before Sex and Violence aired.

JOE: My favorite thing about that Tonight Show episode is that Jim Henson’s like bringing out all these new characters. Like we see Dr. Teeth. We see Fozzie Bear. We see the Swedish Chef. And like the audience is silent. Because nowadays, you bring the Swedish chef out, and everyone goes like, (in high-pitched voice) “Oh my god. It’s the Swedish Chef.” (in normal voice) And they clap and they laugh and whatever. And now it’s the audience is just like, okay, who is this guy? What are you gonna do? And it’s like uncanny valley-ish. Like, it doesn’t seem right when you watch it.

BECCA: Doesn’t Johnny even say, like, why didn’t you bring Kermit the Frog?

JOE: Yeah, I think you’re right. Yeah.

BECCA: I think Johnny says that.

JOE: He loved Kermit though.

BECCA:  Yeah.

JOE: Johnny like every time Kermit was on the show, Johnny would make a point to talk about how much he loves Kermit and doesn’t like talking to Jim. He just wants to talk to Kermit.

[Becca and Joe laugh]

BECCA: And our second and final Dr. Teeth question. While Muppets Mayhem reveals that Dr. Teeth was a dentist, the inside cover of the Rock Music with the Muppets VHS tape claims that he has the name Dr. Teeth because he never…

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Goes to the doctor?

BECCA: Not goes to the doctor but you’re thinking on the right path I think. Joe?

JOE: Finished med school?

BECCA: No. Dr. Teeth never got a cavity and that’s why they call him Dr. Teeth.

JOE: Oh.

BECCA: According to Rock Music with the Muppets the VHS compilation tape from the 80s.

DAVE: Wow.

JOE: Uh…Interesting. Is that how dentists became dentists?

[Dave laughs]

JOE: Is they just… Because I think I would like for them to have a little bit of schooling, that seems wrong to me.

DAVE: I’ve never broken a bone, So I guess that by that logic, I could be, like a bone doctor. [laughs]

BECCA: I think that this is, I think that this is assuming that’s why they call him Teeth. And that isn’t like his actual last name. But I don’t know.

JOE: Also interesting that he’s never had a cavity and yet we can see his gold tooth. Like he’s lost an entire tooth.

BECCA: Yeah. That doesn’t have to be from a cavity. Maybe he got in a boxing match.

[Dave laughs]

JOE: Well, still. He does have good reach. He’d be a good boxer. You know.

BECCA: Yeah he’s got those long arms. [laughs]

JOE: He could hit the guy without getting hit. Yeah exactly.

BECCA: All right, well nice work, Mayheads. And now it’s time for my favorite game. That’s right. It’s time for…

[Clip from Sesame Street]

ANNOUNCER: Beat the Time.

[Sound effects]

[Clip ends]

BECCA: As Muppets Mayhem makes clear, the Electric Mayhem hadn’t released an album until 2023. In fact, we usually associate the band with performing cover songs like “Tenderly” or “Mr. Blue Sky. However, since their first appearance in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, the Electric Mayhem have performed a number of original songs.

By my count they have performed 27 original songs between that first pilot and the date we are recording this episode. This includes all of the different ways that they have appeared in movies and tv and specials. All of those things.

Starting with Dave, name an original song by the Electric Mayhem. We will go back and forth between the two of you to see who can name more. If you can’t remember one or you get the answer wrong, your opponent will have the chance to steal. Some notes. I’m counting both instrumentals and songs with lyrics. If you don’t remember the name, particularly of an instrumental, you can describe the song or the scene or something like that. Right?

Also, at least two of the members of the band need to have been performing for this to count as an Electric Mayhem song. What I’m not counting are original songs sung by other characters but accompanied by the Mayhem. So, for instance, this really mostly only excludes “Pictures in My Head” from The Muppets, 2011, because that’s really a Kermit song that the Mayhem plays some instruments at the end of. There might be another it excludes, but I’m not counting it and I didn’t write it down.

So we understand what we’re looking for?

JOE: Yes. Also, I just want to point out, I wrote an article on ToughPigs a few months ago about…we were ranking all of the original Electric Mayhem songs before Muppets Mayhem came out. And I thought to myself, there’s no way that Becca will ask about this because I wrote a whole article about it and I did not look back and remind myself what all those songs were. Which is a good thing for this.

BECCA: Here’s the funny thing, I read that article when it came out. I forgot that that article was written when I wrote this up. And I went to Muppet Wiki list of Electric Mayhem songs and went through one at a time crossing out all of the covers because they are not really separated on the way Muppet Wiki organizes these things. And I think there might be some you missed. I will say.

JOE: Yes, I guarantee there’s one that I can think of that I deliberately left out and we’ll talk. We’ll cover that in a few minutes.

BECCA: Well, Dave, name an original song by the Electric Mayhem.

DAVE: Let’s start off with “Nightlife” from what’s that, The Great Muppet Caper?

BECCA: That is The Great Muppet Caper. Yeah. How about a little traveling music? Very good. Joe.

JOE: “Can You Picture That?”

BECCA: “Can You Picture That?” Correct.

JOE: Can you? Can you?

BECCA: No. Dave.

JOE: Oh. [laughs]

DAVE: Original. I’m tapped out. [laughs]

BECCA: Okay. Well, we’ll pass to Joe and we can come back to you, see if you can think of one in the meantime. Joe?

JOE: “Can’t Take No For an Answer.”

BECCA: “Can’t Take No For an Answer” because technically that’s Dr. Teeth and Zoot. That counts as two members. Dave, if you want to try again?

DAVE: Original, man.

BEC CA: It can be an instrumental if you can like describe the scene or something like that. Or any of the new songs.

DAVE: Well, if it’s any of the new songs.

BECCA: Right. I said from their first appearance till now.

DAVE: “We Are One.”

BECCA: “We Are One.” Correct. Back to Joe.

JOE: I don’t know the title of it, but it’s the song that they sing during Fozziwig’s party at Muppet Christmas Carol. Or they play I should say.

BECCA: Yeah, it’s labeled as “Fozziwig’s Party Waltz.” I will count that. Dave.

DAVE: I’m trying to think of something obscure from like Muppets Party Cruise. [laughs]

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: Sadly only Kermit had an original song in Muppets Party Cruise.

DAVE: Yeah. Yeah, I’m blanking.

BECCA: Again. New songs count. New songs count.

DAVE: Yes, still blanking. 

BECCA: Okay, I will jump back to Joe. Joe?

JOE: They sing. Oh sorry, played again another instrumental in Muppet Treasure Island with a pirate dancing. They’re not really dancing.

BECCA: Yeah, well Muppet Wiki labels that as “Island Party Music.” 

JOE: Yeah, would not have known that title.

BECCA: I didn’t expect you to get it.

JOE: Appreciate that.

BECCA: Dave, anything else? Should I just…

DAVE: They wouldn’t be considered part of “Cabin Fever” even though there’s a couple people singing from them. Would they?

BECCA: No, I don’t think any of the Mayhem members are actually even in that. We’ll find out on season five of Movin’ Right Along: a Muppet movie podcast brought to you by ToughPigs.com. But I don’t think any of the Mayhem are actually in that scene, maybe Animal is.

DAVE: No. I got nothing.

BECCA: Okay, back to Joe.

JOE: One of my favorites, “No Room For Boring.”

BECCA: “No Room For Boring” from the Toyota commercial. Joe, I guess keep going. Dave, if you think of one, raise your hand.

JOE: Raise your hand. I’ll just shut up. Well, let’s see in the new show, we’ve got “Rock On.” The theme.

BECCA: Correct. The theme song.

JOE: We’ve got oh, from Muppets Most Wanted they have the really long instrumental that’s like, it’s like 10 hours of them playing.

BECCA: That’s referred to as “Total Mayhem” on Muppet Wiki.

JOE: “Total Mayhem.”” Right. 

BECCA: Again, I didn’t expect you to get the names.

JOE: Let’s see. I know, god, we’re missing a bunch from Muppet’s Mayhem. Are we counting the Muppets Mayhem end music?

BECCA: We are.

JOE: Which was also the theme song that we use for Muppets Mayhem: Backstage Pass. 

BECCA: Correct.

JOE: Plug. Dave, you got anything?

DAVE: I got nothing. I appreciate trying to to give me the alley-oop, but I got nothing.

JOE: Well, you know, for the sake of sportsmanship, I will stop there as opposed to wasting time with me thinking as well.

BECCA: Okay, here’s some other choices that you could have had: “The Sweet Tooth Jam” from The Muppet Show. It was on some of the albums. It’s the one where Animal just yells, “Jam, jam, jam” all the time. “Love Ya to Death” which is one of the songs that they played on Sex and Violence, if I recall correctly. Floyd’s Muppet Show credits theme “Fugue for Frog.” His replacement for The Muppet Show theme. “Don’t Blame the Dynamite.” My personal favorite Mayhem song that’s from The Muppet Show.

DAVE: I have to be honest, I thought that was a cover. [laughs]

BECCA: Nope. That one’s original. “The Pittsburgh Polka” from Muppets Take Manhattan, “Rockin’ Rollin’ All Around the World” from The Muppets take The Muppets at Walt Disney World. “Nap Time” from Muppet Wizard of Oz. 

JOE: Wow. Yeah.

BECCA: The theme to Up Late with Miss Piggy.

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: And their depressed song, depressed version of the theme to Up Late with Miss Piggy that they play when Josh Groban takes over the show. Other songs from Muppets Mayhem I would have counted: “Gonna Get There,” “Gotta Be,” “The Sound of Us,” “Believe in Us,” and “On Our Way.” And one that I genuinely didn’t know existed, “Where You At” from MuppetFest, which was Dave Goelz and Jerry Nelson messing around and riffing with the Floyd and Zoot puppets. That counts as a song according to Muppet wiki.

JOE: Wow. That’s new to me as well. 

BECCA: But we’re going to move into another game. This one about the Mayhem’s best original song, “Can You Picture That?” We’re going to play a new game that I’m calling (in echo sounding voice) Picture This.

(in normal voice) Now, Joe this game is pretty similar to one that you played with me back in season one of (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?! (in normal voice) Specifically, I’m thinking of the time you were on our Muppet Movie episode and we played a song lyric game. In this game, I am going to say a lyric to “Can You Picture That?” You’ll buzz in and respond with whatever the next lyric is.

However, to make this challenging, I’ve mixed up the order of the lyrics so we’re not going to go from the beginning of the song to the end of the song. I threw them all over the place. Right? Don’t get confused. I based these questions off of the lyrics on genius.com, which seem accurate to me, a person who’s heard this song a zillion times but I do apologize if there’s somehow an error.

Each of these lyrics is going to be worth one point. Buzz in when I finish saying my lyric with what comes next. I am going to expect you to get the words basically as accurate as possible because these are quotes. All right. 

[Clip from The Muppet Movie “Can You Picture That?” begins]

[music starts]

DR.

TEETH: Oh yeah! Woo! (fades out) Everybody’s lover…

[Clip ends]

BECCA: Question one. “Fact is there’s nothin’ out there you can’t do.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Yeah, even Santa Claus believes in you.

BECCA: Correct. I like how we’re just gonna say this very matter of factly, I guess.

[Joe and Dave laugh]

BECCA: Question two. “Jelly-belly gigglin’, dancin’ and a wigglin’.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Honey, that’s the way I am.

BECCA: Correct. That is the way you are but don’t call me honey.

DAVE: I couldn’t think of the sweet word before. I was like, oh, what is it? I’m gonna mess it up. 

BECCA: Sweetie, that’s the way I am.

DAVE: Yeah.

BECCA: Cutie, that’s the way I am. I can’t remember.

JOE: Babycakes, that’s the way I am.

BECCA: [laughs] Question three. “Use it if you need it.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Don’t forget to feed it.

BECCA: Correct. Don’t forget to feed it. Question four. “Now begins the changin’, mental rearrangin’.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Nothing’s really where it’s at.

BECCA: Nothing’s really where it’s at. Correct.

DAVE: Well done.

JOE: I had a question mark over that really? I wasn’t hundred percent there.

BECCA: Nope, it’s really. Question five. “Crazy as a rocket. Nothin’ in my pocket.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: I keep it at the rainbow’s end.

BECCA: I keep it at the rainbow’s end. Correct. Question six. “I never think of money. I think of milk and honey.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Grinnin’ like a Cheshire cat.

BECCA: Correct. Grinnin’ like a Cheshire cat. It’s hard when you mix the order of the lyrics around.

DAVE: I just keep wanting to, I just want to buzz in and go, “Can you picture that?”

[All laugh]

BECCA: Maybe you’ll be right eventually. Yeah. Question seven. “Let me take your picture.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Add it to the mixture.

BECCA: Add it to the mixture. Exactly. Question eight. “Now the Eiffel Tower’s holdin’ up a flower.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: I gave it to a Texas cat.

BECCA: I gave it to a Texas cat. Correct.

DAVE: Wow. That’s…

JOE: Did you know that he gave it to a Texas cat? Did you know that?

BECCA: I did.

[All laugh]

BECCA: Question nine. “Everybody’s lover, everybody’s brother.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Hooray for Donald Glover.

[All laugh]

BECCA: You know what? Yes. They predicted that. Was he performing in movies?

JOE: Donald Glover, Danny Glover because one of them, yes.

BECCA: Oh yes, yes. That’s why I was confused. Donald Glover wasn’t born yet. Danny Glover was in movies by then. That explains my confusion. No, unfortunately, that’s not right.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Joe? Everybody’s lover. Everybody’s brother.

JOE: I want to be your lifetime friend.

BECCA: I want to be your lifetime friend. Correct. That’s the first lyric.

JOE: I want to be Donald Glover’s lifetime friend.

BECCA: Oh, it’s probably fun.

JOE: I’m genuinely saying that on this podcast, if anyone knows Donald Glover. I feel like he and I would get along real well.

BECCA: You both like Spider-man.

JOE: Yeah, he was in the 2011 Muppets movie. Remember that?

BECCA: I forgot about that.

JOE: He probably did too.

[Dave and Becca laugh]

Question 10. “All of us are winnin’, pickin’ and a-grinnin’.”

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Lordy, but I love to jam.

BECCA: It is Lordy, but I love to jam.

JOE: Lordy lordy, Janice is 40.

DAVE: When you’re saying them, I can hear the voice that’s saying them and following them but then they’re just like…

JOE: And take it. Take it 

BECCA: Part of what I like when I was writing this, I was like I have to scramble them because otherwise I think it’s too easy to just keep going in your head with the song.

DAVE: Yeah, super smooth and easy without it. 

[Dave and Joe laugh]

BECCA: Yeah. Question 11. And the final one here. “Beat down the walls.” And you gotta get this next part right. What does Dr. Teeth say after he says, beat down the walls.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Wait, this is the hard one.

BECCA: Yes.

JOE: I know because it sounds like he says something but the lyric is something else. It’s beat down the walls, begin, believe…God, I want to say beheat. That’s not a word. Then begat is the last one. Oh, what is that word?

BECCA: Oh, you got three-fourths of them, right. Dave, do you know the missing word there?

DAVE: No, I just know the cadence changes on this one. And yeah.

BECCA: It gets confusing. This is the hard one. The sources that I can find and you can hear it, so I think these sources are right are “Beat down the walls, begin, believe, behold, begat.

DAVE: Wow.

BECCA: Behold.

JOE: Behold?

DAVE: Biblical.

BECCA: You can’t hear that?

JOE: No. It sounds like he kind of does like a “Beheah”. Did Jim Henson get it wrong.

BECCA: I see behold in every lyrics sheet.

JOE: I’m sure you’re right.

BECCA: Well, I was going to say…

JOE: I’m sure you’re right.

BECCA: In the ones that I’ve looked up, that feels like the most accurate answer from what I’ve seen. Now listen, the lyrics on the Internet could be wrong. Bill Barretta…

DAVE: On the Internet? No way!

BECCA: Bill Barretta, if you want to tweet at us with the actual lyric is, if you’re telling me it is not “Begin, believe, behold, begat. I will happily retroactively give both of these fine gentlemen one point.

JOE: Let’s ask Paul Williams. He might know.

BECCA: I doubt he remembers.

JOE: I don’t know. Paul Williams has an amazing memory and you know, especially for those Muppet songs.

BECCA: That’s fair. That’s fair.

JOE: He might.

DAVE: And as discussed in Backstage Pass, apparently he no longer even wrote Picture That. 

BECCA: That’s true.

JOE: That’s true. Yeah. You’ll have to listen to the podcast to know what we’re talking about. 

DAVE: Yes.

BECCA: Well, I think either way we can agree that now your car can’t be recognized. So, that’s good. Now, for our final regular game, it’s another one of my all-time favorites: (in echo sounding voice) Mystery Guest.

(in normal voice) We previously talked about various songs performed by the Electric Mayhem. However, they also frequently appeared as a backing band in Muppet productions, accompanying guest stars and Muppets. And of course, many of these guest musicians would also appear in other Muppet-related productions over the years.

I’m going to describe a musician’s appearance in another Muppet production. You’ll buzz in and name that musician. You will earn one point for doing so. Then you can name the song or songs that this artist performed with the Electric Mayhem. If you can name the song or songs, you’ll get two points for each of them.

So I’m going to name a time that a celebrity appeared with the Muppets. All of the celebrities that I’m naming have also performed with the Electric Mayhem at another point in their career. You know what, let’s make it fun. You get two points if you can name the celebrity and you will get three points for each song you can remember.

DAVE: Oh, thank god. I wasn’t losing by enough.

[Dave and Joe laugh]

BECCA: Some of these are a little tricky, but I believe in you. Just like the Electric Mayhem believes in us. Ready? All right.

Question one. In an early episode of Sesame Street, this musician sang one of his hits while a little girl enthusiastically added lyrics about dancing.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Paul Simon.

BECCA: It is Paul Simon. Joe, what song did the Electric Mayhem accompany Paul Simon in performing?

JOE: “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover.”

BECCA: Incorrect. They performed that without Paul Simon.

JOE: [Gasps] You’re right.

BECCA: That was just the Electric Mayhem.

JOE: Was it “Fifty Ways To Love Your Leaver? [laughs]

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: No, that’s not right either unfortunately. Sorry, Rowlf.

JOE:. Oh, darn it.

DAVE: So I don’t know the song. But is it performed on the Muppets Beach Party soundtrack?

BECCA: No, Paul Simon is not on that album.

DAVE: Oh.

BECCA: But this is the closing number of the Paul Simon episode of The Muppet Show. Dave, you want to guess a song.

DAVE: I want to guess it, but I’m not going to get it, so no.

BECCA: “Loves Me Like a Rock.” Question two. One of the only celebrities to appear with the Muppets, the Fraggles, and the Sesame Street gang, he’s had so many appearances, it’s hard to choose just one but he and his band did cover “Fraggle Rock Rock” for Back to the Rock.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: It’s Dave Grohl.

BECCA: It is Dave Grohl. Joe, what song has he played with at least one member of the Electric Mayhem?

JOE: Oh, you know, I can picture him singing with Animal on drums. But off the top of my head I can’t think what song they sing.

BECCA: Dave, do you remember the Muppets 2015 sitcom?

DAVE: Yeah. I can see him dressed up as Animal and everything.

BECCA: Oh, that’s a different one.

DAVE: Oh, that’s a different one.

JOE: Yeah. That’s when he was with the Moopets.

BECCA: Yeah. When he was Animool.

JOE: Was it on the 2015 Sitcom?

BECCA: It was. It was on the 2015 sitcom. I was just double checking.

JOE: It doesn’t help me identify the song but I can picture that.

BECCA: Well, it was written, you got to remember, it’s a song that was written before 2015. So maybe that’ll help you. A Dave Grohl song from before… No, it was “Learn To Fly.”

JOE: Oh.

BECCA: From “There Is Nothing Left To Lose.” Remember they play it over… it’s actually one of the better parts of Muppets 2015. They play that intercut with scenes of Gonzo shooting himself out of the cannon.

JOE: For the brief moment that show was not bad.

BECCA: Yeah, exactly. That’s like one of the good, one of the good episodes. All right. Well you did guess that it was Dave Grohl.

Question three. She played Kermit’s doctor in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: It was Linda Lavin.

BECCA: It was Linda Lavin. Joe, do you know what song the Electric Mayhem played with Linda Lavin.

DAVE: I literally just watched this two days ago, too.

JOE: Did you?

DAVE: Yeah.

JOE: Well you think while I’m thinking because I can picture her. She’s in the red sequin dress. She’s got the band behind her. What are they singing? David Beukema is listening to this right now and he’s screaming at his podcast app. But I do not know what it is.

BECCA: Dave, do you want to guess?

DAVE: I just like when I tell you, I just watched it. I just watched it. And as I think I’m proving repeatedly here, zero stuff is sticking. I am Zoot right now.

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: Dave, you have some points so don’t… you’re getting some points.

DAVE: I got my name correct at the beginning. Yeah. [laughs]

BECCA: You did. Zoot can’t always remember that. He’s Zoot. Sax is your axe.

DAVE: I do not remember.

BECCA: It is “The More I See You.”

DAVE: Even hearing it.

JOE: Oh.

DAVE: Even hearing it I’m like, yeah, no.

BECCA: I don’t know.

DAVE: The old 90s dial up modem sound is playing in my head right now.

[Joe laughs]

BECCA: All right. Question four. He is the only Muppet Show guest star to also appear in Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Is it Tony Bennett?

BECCA: Tony Bennett was not a Muppet Show guest star. Tony Bennett was a Muppets Tonight guest star.

DAVE: Oh.

BECCA: So that is not correct. I’m sorry. Even though Tony–the late Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga were friends. But Joe, do you know who is the only Muppet Show guest star to also appear in Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular? You don’t watch this every year?

JOE: Sure don’t.

BECCA: Joe, you know, you were just saying that maybe we want to do a four-week long holiday podcast. Maybe we do a four-week holiday spectacular of Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular. 

JOE: You’re killing me, Becca. Dave just had a look on his face as if he suddenly remembered it. So if Dave, if you remember feel free to jump in.

BECCA: Dave, Dave, do you want to try again?

DAVE: Was it Elton John?

BECCA: It was Elton John. Correct.

DAVE: Because I remember watching it going like, so we’re just not going to address the fact that everybody knows he was on The Muppet Show.

BECCA: No. No. They don’t say it at all. Dave. Dave, so here’s a chance for you to really pull ahead. The Mayhem performs three songs with Elton John on the Elton John episode of The Muppet Show. What are the three songs that the Mayhem accompanies with? I will give you three points for each song you name. You don’t have to name all three.

DAVE: What a handicap. [laugh]

BECCA: Any one you get right, you will get three points.

DAVE: “Crocodile Rock.”

BECCA: That is one. Hold on, let me just write down the points. Okay, “Crocodile Rock” is one.

DAVE: My absolute favorite Elton John song, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”

BECCA: And that one was also featured on Muppets Mayhem, a clip of that episode.

DAVE: And the last one I don’t know. They all look like they were dressed up like a stolen car. I do not remember.

BECCA: To be fair, the Mayhem always looks like that. Dr. Teeth again, dresses like that to begin with. Joe, do you remember what the last song that they performed with Elton was?

JOE: I believe it was “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.”

BECCA: It was. That Elton John sang with Miss Piggy, but they’re playing the instruments in the background.

JOE: Eat your heart out, Kiki.

BECCA: Question five, Kermit flirted with this musician, both on The Muppet Show and on the album Kermit Unpigged.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: Debbie Harry?

BECCA: It’s not Debbie Harry. He did flirt with her on The Muppet Show, but Debbie Harry, not on Kermit Unpigged. There’s an episode about Kermit Unpigged that’s up on our other ToughPigs feed, where Ryan Roe, Anthony Strand and I talked way too much about every single moment on Kermit Unpigged. That’ll be going up in four days or whatever.

Joe, who is it?

JOE: Was it Linda Ronstadt?

BECCA: Linda Ronstadt! Yes. That’s what Kermit says when he opens the door.

JOE: And then everyone applauds even though they can’t see what’s going on backstage.

BECCA: Oh there’s no applause on Kermit Unpigged. You gotta to listen to that.

JOE: I thought you were talking about on The Muppet Show episode.

BECCA: Yes, yes. No. On Kermit Unpigged there’s no applause. No.

JOE: No, no. Not even from us at home. 

BECCA: What song does Linda Ronstadt play with the Electric Mayhem on The Muppet Show? 

JOE: It’s just one song that they’re on?

BECCA: So it’s technically like one and a half, if we count a song with one member of the Electric Mayhem.

JOE: Right. Because I was thinking, well, I think I know the half off the top of my head. Is “It’s in His Kiss.” Janice is in that.

BECCA: “It’s in His Kiss.” Yes, that’s just Janice and like some doo-wop singer Whatnots.

JOE: Right.

BECCA: So I wasn’t going to count that because.

DAVE: It’s something about you’ll be in my heart, right? Isn’t it the finale song?

BECCA: I don’t know off the top of my head. It’s not called, “You’ll Be in My Heart.”

DAVE: I know that’s one of the lines from it or something.

BECCA: Is that? Hold on. Let me look. 

JOE: It’s called… oh, I gotta go through the whole song in my head. You’re going to find it before I remember it. “When I Grow Too Old to Dream.” That’s what it’s called.

BECCA: Okay. It is not that song. 

DAVE: Oh.

BECCA: And the song, the word heart never appears in this Linda Ronstadt song. It is, of course, “Blue Bayou.”

JOE: Oh, I didn’t remember the Muppets were– I mean, the Mayhem was in that. I thought it was just frogs.

BECCA: Apparently they’re in it.

JOE: I believe you.

BECCA: According to Muppet Wiki.

JOE: Great.

BECCA: I haven’t watched that episode in a while. I reviewed it for the website ToughPigs when we did our…

JOE: It’s a terrific episode.

BECCA: Muppet Show 40 years, yeah. All right. Next question. In a season 16 episode of Sesame Street, Oscar tries to get this celebrity to play terrible music by giving him a broken trumpet only to realize that he can make anything sound good.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: It is a total guess, but going on the broken trumpet thing, is it Dizzy Gillespie?

BECCA: It is Dizzy Gillespie. Correct. I was hoping that someone would just be able to figure that out. Do you remember what song The Mayhem plays with Dizzy Gillespie?

DAVE: Is it “Hello Dolly?”

BECCA: It is not “Hello Dolly.” Good guess. Joe, do you remember.

JOE: I remember the song. I remember he’s wearing a weird like vest with no shirt underneath.

BECCA: Okay. I can’t give you credit for reminding us that this was filmed in the 70s.

JOE: Although I guess Animal sort of dresses the same way.

BECCA: He does.

JOE: Is it “Swing Low Sweet Chariot?”

BECCA: It is not. It is the “St. Louis Blues.”

JOE: Can you check the Muppet Wiki? I want to say, I’m not gonna say this for points but just to make sure I’m not a crazy person. I think the song segues into “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” but I could be wrong. I could be remembering this completely incorrectly.

BECCA: Oh! You are right. You are right. It does segue into that in the closing number of episode 413.

DAVE: Nice. Nice.

BECCA: So the closing number is technically. Wait, where is “St. Louis Blues,” anyway? Hold on. Oh yeah. So that’s earlier in the show and then, yes. And the Mayhem are there. Good. You know what, I’m learning something even new today. But “St. Louis Blues” also counts but I will give you one point for “Swing Low Sweet Chariot.”

JOE: I will cherish this point.

DAVE: [laughs] I always had a problem. I don’t know if we’re gonna have an opportunity to talk about it, but I know that Muppets are genuinely going to be left-handed, because performers are right-handed, but as a trumpet player and knowing how they used the armature for Lips. There’s no reason he had to play trumpet backwards. And that is something that has bothered me my entire life.

[Becca laughs]

JOE: Do they make left-handed trumpets? Is that a thing, Dave?

DAVE: I’m sure they do, but I’ve known a couple left-handed trumpet players and they just play a regular trumpet. It’s, you know, it’s really just how your hand fits over, and how your right hand would hold it. But for the armature, and for the mechanisms that they built, no reason for Lips to be left-handed trumpet player. No reason at all.

JOE: Wow. Maybe they made the trumpet prop in a mirror.

DAVE: [laughs] Yeah, probably.

BECCA: All right, question seven. He performed “The Rainbow Connection” with Paul Williams for Paul’s CD/DVD set I’m Going Back There Someday.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: This doesn’t really count as a celebrity. I just know that he was on this album, is it Gonzo? [laughs]

BECCA: It is not Gonzo. This is an actual famous musician.

DAVE: No.

JOE: Can I make a second guess just because I know this person has sung this song many times. Is it Willie Nelson?

BECCA: It is Willie Nelson. Yes, because Willie Nelson kind of almost had a hit with that song. 

JOE: Sure. Yeah.

BECCA: So I guess I’ll open up the floor here since neither of you got it when you initially buzzed in. So buzz in if you know. There are actually two songs that Willie Nelson has performed with the Electric Mayhem. Buzz in to name at least one of them.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Do they sing “On the Road again?”

BECCA: They do. They do sing “On the Road Again.”

JOE: The other one, I don’t think I will even be able to guess. I’m drawing a blank on Willie Nelson songs.

DAVE: Is it a Willie Nelson’s song?

BECCA: I believe so. I didn’t write that down, but I will check because I can cheat.

JOE: [laughs] The only other Willie Nelson song I can think of is “Rainbow Connection.”

BECCA: It is a Willie Nelson song.

DAVE: I thought I had it. I do not.

BECCA: It is “Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground.” They perform it in the credits tag of the episode “Generally Inhospitable” which is the episode that Willie Nelson appears on.

DAVE: How did you not know that Dave?

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Geez. Dave.

DAVE: You could have said that about literally every question. 

[All laugh]

BECCA: Question eight. Alongside her daughter, Tracy Ellis Ross, she sang “Picture a World” on Sesame Street.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: Diana Ross.

BECCA: That is Diana Ross. Diana Ross appeared on an early episode…early-ish. I mean, Sesame Street has been on for 54 years, but appeared in an earlier episode of Sesame Street. And Tracy Ellis Ross appears as one of the kids in that episode because she was a very young child. So she’s just one of the kids in the crowd singing with Diana Ross.

Joe, there are two songs that the Mayhem performs with Diana Ross. Can you name at least one of them?

JOE: Well, I know on the Diana Ross episode, they sing “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand.” I don’t know if Mayhem’s in that or not.

BECCA: The Mayhem is not, at least, not by my count. I will double check because I’ve been…Listen now I feel like I’m going to be wrong about everything. But no, I mean, Janice and Floyd are singing, but it’s not.

JOE: Nah yeah. That doesn’t count. No.

BECCA: It’s one of those just like every puppet that we had on hand is around Diana Ross numbers.

JOE: On hand. That’s a puppet joke.

BECCA: Oh, true. Like I wouldn’t call that a Beauregard number either.

JOE: [laughs] I mean I can picture like the way that she’s singing the song. You know, like I can picture what she looks like on stage. Without really spending a good 10 minutes of thinking time, I’m probably not going to remember.

BECCA: Dave, any guesses?

DAVE: Is it “Last Time I Saw Her?”

BECCA: It is “Last Time I…” Well, “Last Time I Saw Him.”

DAVE: “Last Time I Saw Him.”

BECCA: But it’s okay. [laughs] Yeah. They change it obviously.

DAVE: It’s a great song and the ending of that song, it’s just the way. I don’t know that Lips is playing it, but even the way that trumpet goes [scats] just from a brass standpoint…muah.

BECCA: Can you name the other one because there was actually another one that I would have counted.

DAVE: Oh I can see it, but I can’t hear it.

BECCA: Oh, I’m sorry. It’s not in the episode. It’s not… I had it written wrong here. God, I just keep making mistakes. This is like, is this my first time hosting (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?! A Muppet movie podcast brought to you… (in normal voice) Wait.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Is this my first time hosting (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?!: (in normal voice) a Muppet quiz pro–

DAVE: Sounds like it.

[all laugh]

BECCA: Don’t quit my day job. I just keep making mistakes. Is this my first time hosting (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?! (in normal voice) a Muppet quiz show podcast brought to you by Toughpigs.com?

JOE: Look, Becca, everyone makes mistakes. 

BECCA: [To the tune of “Everyone Makes Mistakes”] Doo, doo doo, doo, doo, doo. I had written down “Feelings.” But that’s Beaker singing lead in the Diana Ross episode. Not Diana Ross.

JOE: Maybe Diana Ross performed Beaker in that scene. We don’t know. 

BECCA: She didn’t.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Question nine. He famously performed Larry of Larry and Phyllis in season two of Sesame Street, or I guess also more famously The Muppet studios tour guide in The Muppets 2011 film.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe knows this one. Joe.

JOE: That is oscar-winner Alan Arkin.

BECCA: It is oscar-winner Alan Arkin. The late Alan Arkin.

DAVE: I knew that, but I didn’t really realize…is he a musician?

BECCA: No, but he sang a song with the Mayhem. 

DAVE: Ah geez Louise. I’m like that’s Alan Arkin but he doesn’t sing, does he?

BECCA: No, he doesn’t.

JOE: He sang in that one Larry and Phyllis sketch. Remember that?

BECCA: No, I don’t.

JOE: He goes, “Aroom beep beep, aroom beep beep. And he goes, “That’s singing. That’s singing, Phyllis.

BECCA: I guarantee that even our listeners to this podcast do not know what you’re talking about when it comes to Larry and Phyllis.

JOE: [laughs] Well listen…Actually don’t listen to me. Just move on.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Do you know what song he sang with the Mayhem?

JOE: I don’t. I’m not as familiar with this episode because this is a season 5 one if I’m not mistaken. Season four or five. This one was like, it wasn’t on DVD and therefore, I saw it a couple times, but I didn’t see it over and over and over again.

BECCA: It is season four which is why I’m not familiar with it because I know the DVE episodes and season five which I had most of taped as a child.

JOE: Yeah.

BECCA: But it is “The Pig Shuffle” an original song written by Alan Arkin and performed by him and the Electric Mayhem. About the life of a pig wallowing in the mud. Piggy gets angry about it and karate chops Alan Arkin.

JOE: You know, I was gonna guess “The Pig Shuffle:” an original song by Alan Arkin and the Electric Mayhem singing about a pig that gets caught in the mud and Miss Piggy gets mad at them and karate shops him. But I thought, no, that’s a little too specific.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: All right. Next question. He once gave a TED talk about how puppets like the Muppets were superior to CGI creations.

[Clock ticking sound]

BECCA: This is kind of a trick question.

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: If this is the trick, then I’m going to be very upset. Is it Kermit the Frog?

BECCA: It is not Kermit the Frog, but you’re close in your trick.

JOE: Yeah, I had a 50-50 shot with this one. I’ll let Dave run with it. Knowing what I know about TED talks.

DAVE: Would it be Steve Whitmire?

BECCA: No, it’s Scooter. The correct answer is Scooter. 

JOE: That was the 50-50 shot. I knew they both gave TED talks. I just couldn’t remember what it was about. 

DAVE: I didn’t know Scooter gave a TED talk?

BECCA: Correct. You can watch it. There’s a full like TED talk that he gave specifically about why puppets are better than CGI. There are two songs that Scooter performed with the Electric Mayhem where Scooter sang lead on an Electric Mayhem song. I guess buzz in because–

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: There we go. Dave.

DAVE: “Mr. Bassman.”

BECCA: “Mr. Bassman” is one. I will give you three points for that. Dave, can you name the other one?

DAVE: I was gonna say “Act Naturally” but that’s not Scooter.

BECCA: No, that’s Gonzo.

DAVE: No, I don’t have it.

BECCA: Joe, you must know this one. You showed it at the Muppet vault a bunch.

JOE: I’m sure I did. It’s “Six String Orchestra.”

BECCA: It is “Six String Orchestra.”

DAVE: Another great song.

JOE: Yep.

BECCA: Okay, question 11. We’re almost done with this round. Question 11. In season one of Sesame Street, this R&B singer became one of the show’s earliest celebrity guests when he sang the alphabet. According to the old school DVD box set, he initially refused to use cue cards. But then changed his mind when he realized he couldn’t remember the order of the letters.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Joe.

JOE: That is Lou Rawls.

BECCA: That is Lou Rawls.

DAVE: I almost buzzed in and said Stevie Wonder until you started talking about the cue cards.

BECCA: No, no.

DAVE: And I was like, that doesn’t make any sense.

[All laugh]

BECCA: Yeah, he had braille cue cards. He just had a very long arm. 

BECCA: Joe, what song did Lou Rawls perform with the Electric Mayhem?

JOE: Is it multiple songs? I feel like he did more than one in this episode.

BECCA: I’m only seeing one by my count.

JOE: Okay, that helps. That narrows it down a little bit.

BECCA: You’d think I’d know. I reviewed this episode for Toughpigs.com. And, I also was on this episode of Muppeturgy where we talked about this episode so…Oh, I’m sorry. Oh my goodness. Did I plan this episode or what? It’s two songs.

JOE: It is two songs. Okay. All right. Well, I know he’s sang… the title is coming to me, that’s why I’m stalling. But it’s the one that he sang at the end of his talk spot with Kermit and the characters come out and he starts singing about birds.

BECCA: He does.

JOE: And then it leads into… title of song which is coming right now, out of my brain through my mouth. I can’t think of it. Can’t think of it.

BECCA: He also does the closing number with Miss Piggy.

JOE: Yeah, I mean I can picture him singing a song that does not have the Electric Mayhem in it. He sings “Groovy People.” I can’t think of the other songs he sings on that episode though.

BECCA: Dave, any idea?

JOE: Oh, I just got it.

DAVE: Go for it then.

JOE: [laughs] I knew it’d come late. “Bye Bye Blackbird.”

BECCA: “Bye Bye Blackbird” is that song. That is not the closing number. That’s the one from the talk spot.

JOE: That’s not the closing number. I can’t remember that one. 

BECCA: That one is “You’re the One.” 

JOE: Mmm.

BECCA: And the last question in this round. And one that I know I have the right number of answers to. On the Muppets ABC sitcom, Miss Piggy wore a mouse outfit inspired by something this musician wore to the 2013 MTV Music Awards.

[Clock ticking sound]

[Buzz in ding]

BECCA: Dave.

DAVE: I’m gonna say deadmau5.

BECCA: Not deadmau5. Good guess. Joe?

JOE: Lady Gaga.

BECCA: It is not Lady Gaga. It is, of course, Miley Cyrus. Let’s do a buzz in again. What song did the Electric Mayhem perform with Miley Cyrus in the special Studio DC Almost Live?

JOE: [laughs] I quit.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: [laughs] You can’t quit. You’re producing this.

[Buzz in ding]

JOE: Dave chimed in.

BECCA: Dave, do you know?

DAVE: I didn’t see this but I have to take a guess. It’s got to be “Party in the USA.”

BECCA: It is not. You’d think.

DAVE: Huh.

JOE: “Party in the USA” I feel like came after the special.

BECCA: I was gonna say this might have been Pre- “Party in the USA.” I can’t believe you guys don’t… first of all, that you haven’t rewatched this special every year. And secondly that you don’t know your early Miley Cyrus discography like back when she was still Hannah Montana. You don’t know that?

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: The song is obviously called “GNO (Girls’ Night Out.)”

JOE: Oh.

DAVE: I did not g’know.

JOE: Oh, sure. I knew. I knew it the whole time.

BECCA: That’s the one where she doesn’t want to play with the Electric Mayhem because she thinks that they are weird. And then Rizzo and Pepe convince her that they are superstars who have played with people such as Garth Brooks and Prince and Elton John.

And you will note that only one of those is true because they did not play with Garth Brooks and Prince. Because only Floyd played with Garth Brooks and none of the Electric Mayhem appear in the Prince episode.

JOE: Amazing.

BECCA: Anyway, so look, we can’t we can’t get any worse than ending with a reference to Studio DC: Almost Live.

[Dave laughs]

JOE: You are correct.

BECCA: We’re gonna move into our stump-the-host game. (in echo sounding voice) The Anything in the World Prize Game. 

(in normal voice) Now today, I’ve been stumped a lot by things that I wrote down…

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: So maybe stumping me isn’t gonna be so hard. But in this round, you guys will be able to ask me anything in the world about the Electric Mayhem. If you stump me, you’ll earn 15 points. So let’s start with Dave. You can ask me anything in the world.

DAVE: Okay. So I wanted to come up with something that was unique, so I wrote to all of our good friend, Jamie Carroll. And I said, “Hey, hook me up with a Palisades Electric Mayhem-type question.” And after he wrote a 32-page dissertation on exactly what that should be. [laughs]

JOE: [laughs] We love you, Jamie. Never change.

DAVE: Absolutely.

BECCA: I gotta get Jamie. I gotta get Jamie on this show. That’s for certain.

DAVE: I’ll say every time I bust Jamie’s chops, it is followed with, I made a documentary about how wonderful he is so I can get away with it.

But speaking of the Palisades Muppets toy line, which two Mayhem members received more than one version or variant. So all of them…not all of them. But name two Mayhem members that received more than one variant or version.

BECCA: I think I know this. So one of them is Animal because there was a bunch, there was like the Palisades Collectors Club one. There was a giant Animal that they made as well. Is the other Dr. Teeth?

DAVE: No. And I would have thought that too. But the answer is, according to Jamie Carroll, actually Lips.

BECCA: That was my second guess because I remember there were a couple of different Lips outfits for some reason. And I also knew that there were a couple of repaints of the Java that came with him. Because for some reason Lips was packaged with Java. I guess that’s a trumpet song, right?

DAVE: Yeah.

BECCA: Maybe Lips was playing Java this whole time back in, you know, on The Tonight Show or whatever. When they– er Ed Sullivan Show when they performed it. But, no, that counts. So, Dave, you have earned 15 points. Joe, do you have a question for me?

JOE: Sure do. I was so tempted to give you a question that would be actually impossible for you to know off the top of your head. But I’m going with one that I think that you might have come across in your research for this episode. You know, just trying to be fair. And maybe people at home will know the answer too.

So from 2016 to 2023, the Electric Mayhem got around primarily in their custom van. In that time, two celebrities have joined the band inside the van. Can you name them? And I am not counting, you know, Lilly Singh and Saara Chaudry and the other cast of Muppets Mayhem as celebrities.

BECCA: Okay, I was about to say. 

JOE: Yeah. Yeah, not them. Two celebrities have been inside the van. Do you know who they are?

BECCA: Okay, here’s one that I do know for a fact is Kristin Chenoweth.

JOE: Yes.

BECCA: That episode of The Muppets ABC sitcom is very awkward and I do not like it. It’s the one where Kristin Chenoweth kind of gets forced into going on a road trip with them and the Mayhem all fight with each other over who gets to date Janice. It’s weird. I don’t care for it.

JOE: But you are correct, yes. You are correct both about Kristin Chenoweth and about how weird that episode is.

BECCA: James Corden.

JOE: That’s a great guess and you are… you don’t know how close you are. Because the answer is Jason Sudeikis. Because they did an episode of Carpool Karaoke, James Corden’s…

BECCA: That’s what I was thinking of. That’s what I was thinking of.

JOE: But it was Jason Sudeikis.

BECCA: I knew that there was an episode of Carpool Karaoke in it but I never watched that episode because it was…didn’t you have to like pay extra for it or something?

JOE: Yeah, or like it was, I want to say it was like on Apple TV before Apple TV was like a thing that people subscribed to. Like you had to pay for like their two TV shows.

BECCA: Yeah. Now I have Apple TV because there’s a decent amount of stuff. But I didn’t then including Fraggle Rock.

JOE: Right.

BECCA:  No. Okay, I mean I was close but…

JOE: You were.

BECCA: But no cigar. With both of you, I got pretty close but not what we were looking for. And now talk amongst yourselves while I do some math.

JOE: While you’re doing that, you want to hear my other question? Here’s my harder question I was going to ask in case that one came up in the game. In the Muppets Mayhem, the band sings the song “Have a Little Faith in Me,” recorded by Joe Cocker. The show goes out of its way to tell the audience that it’s a Joe Cocker song, but it’s not a Joe Cocker song, it’s a cover. Who sang the original version?

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: I don’t know. I knew that it wasn’t a Joe Cocker song. I did know that because I looked this up around when the episode was airing. I was like…

JOE: Yeah. John Hiatt is the guy’s name. I don’t know anything else about him.

BECCA: No you do know something else about John Hiatt.

JOE: Do I?

BECCA: You do. I should have remembered John Hiatt. You know plenty about John Hiatt. I’m getting excited because John Hiatt wrote and performed the songs for the Jim Henson Company picture The Country Bears.

JOE: Really?

DAVE: Wow.

BECCA: He is the lead singer of the Country Bears.

JOE: Wow! That is an insane… I love Muppet connections where it’s like there’s this one thing where there’s a Muppet connection, there’s this other thing that’s a Muppet connection and they actually triangulate into three things.

BECCA: I don’t have his character here by my desk.

JOE: [laughs] Is he only the singing voice or does he do one of the speaking voices too?

BECCA: Yes. I believe he’s only the singing voice.

JOE: That’s amazing. Like Duane Allman or whoever that was.

DAVE: I’m just learning there’s Country Bear figures. 

BECCA: Yeah, they were McDonald’s tie-in like Happy Meal toys.

JOE: Yeah, any day now McFarlane is gonna start making highly detailed Country Bears action figures.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: I’m ready. Hold on. Yeah. You know I’m keeping that in.

DAVE: Nice.

JOE: Great. [laughs]

BECCA: Okay, so it’s looking like, let me just 10, 20, 30, 40 50.

DAVE: Yeah. Looking like I’m on the edge of my seat. [laughs]

BECCA: Well, listen. I need to know how many points you each have. And so our point total right now, right? It’s still anybody’s game because we are into our final game. (in echo sounding voice) Say the Word. (in normal voice)

In this game, you can wager any amount of points. The winner gets those points and the loser loses them. You will get to hear the questions before you wager. So assuming my math is correct, which i don’t, it looks like Dave, you have 59 points. And Joe, you have 92 points. So that’s how much you have to bet. So I am going to ask you a multi-part question. Whoever gets more of these answers correct will win back their bet. You do not have to get all of these answers correct. You just have to get more of them correct.

So here’s the question. In an episode of the Muppet Christmas Carol season of ToughPigs Movin’ Right Along podcast, I mentioned Michael Frith’s original design sketch for Dr. Teeth. You know the one. It’s the one where he’s called Leon Doctor Elton John Don’t Shoot The Piano Player.

Well. On that episode, I was slightly misinformed because Michael Frith did not draw the first sketch of Dr. Teeth. In fact, before that sketch, a different artist drew a design sketch for the character who would one day become Dr. Teeth. This sketch inspired Frith’s sketch which would of course lead to the puppet that Don Sahlin would build.

Three questions about that 1973 sketch. Number one. Which cartoonist drew the original Dr. Teeth sketch? Question two. What was Dr. Teeth named at the time. And question three. What other important Muppet reference material did this cartoonist draw in that same year: 1973.

Joe, you were on a podcast about this. Don’t give me that face. You should know everything about the Electric Mayhem.

JOE: I should. I have thoughts that I cannot say out loud. So we’ll…let’s figure out what we’re doing here.

BECCA: You don’t have to get all three right. Whoever gets more of these questions right will get the points. So if Dave gets one and Joe gets zero, then Dave still is considered to have gotten it correct.

[Clock ticking sound]

DAVE: What other Muppet reference material had this cartoonist drawn in that same year? Holy crap, Becca.

BECCA: I know. Listen.

JOE: Is it 1973? Is that right?

BECCA: 1973. [laughs] Get as many right as you can.

DAVE: I’m guessing a lot on here.

JOE: This is a tough one Becca, Well done.

[Clock ticking stops]

BECCA: See, listen. One of the things that it’s, it’s been tricky. I’m trying to make these like somewhat possible. And I will say, one of you did get more of these right than the other. So that means it wasn’t impossible. But it’s tough. Because one of the things I found is, people know that I look at Muppet Wiki for these questions. And some people have been coming this season prepared, having read what feel like relevant articles on Muppet Wiki.

So I gotta click through and like keep going, which is how I got that third part. Because like, even if you read the Dr. Teeth page on Muppet Wiki, you weren’t going to see that third part unless you kept clicking.

JOE: I will say I did a lot of my own research here and nothing that I researched came up.

BECCA: Great.

JOE: Not one thing.

DAVE: I listened to Backstage Pass. Almost every episode except for maybe the most recent one that came out. 

BECCA: Yeah. Because you hate Dave Goelz so you were like not listening to anything that guy is talking on.

DAVE: [laughs] And then I had a couple episodes of just The Muppet Show playing in the background. Only to realize I was too busy working to actually pay attention to any of it. 

JOE: Yeah. Not helpful.

DAVE: So I’m like back in high school. I’m like, this is how I study. Didn’t work then. No reason why it should work now.

BECCA: You had 59 points. You got some things correct.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: So let’s start with Dave. Dave, what cartoonist did you say drew the original sketch of Dr. Teeth?

DAVE: So, I’m wondering if you were trying to throw people off with specifically using the word cartoonist, or if it was just a nomenclature that you decided to use. But I just took a wild guess and said it was Jim Henson.

BECCA: Okay. It is not Jim Henson but that is a good guess. Unfortunately I wasn’t trying to be that evil but also Jim Henson once taught me how to doodle whatever’s in my noodle. To be a cartoonist is fun in the playhouse video: “Wow, You’re a Cartoonist.” So it could have been right but it’s not.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: Question two, what was Dr. Teeth named at the time? Dave, what did you guess for that?

DAVE: I guessed who I’ve heard who he was based on. And I put Dr. John.

BECCA: Good guess he is based on Dr. John, but that was not his name at the time. And I said, what important Muppet reference material did this cartoonist draw in that same year? You guessed…?

DAVE: I decided to try and go three for three for wrong and I put Animal.

BECCA: Yeah, no. Did not design reference material for Animal. But good guess. You bet 34 points and unfortunately, you lose 34 points. Bringing you down to 25 points. Joe, you guessed for the cartoonist name, you guessed.

JOE: I guessed Dave Hulteen Jr.

[Dave laughs]

BECCA: A great guess. A great guess. Dave. Dave, how old were you in 1973?

DAVE: I was negative five.

[All laugh]

BECCA: Okay, that’s what I thought. That’s what I thought.

JOE: So no? You’re saying, “no.” Okay. Got it. Okay.

DAVE: I’m saying I’m missing a lot of residuals if I was.

[All laugh]

BECCA: Well, the correct answer is Bob Taylor. The cartoonist Bob Taylor drew that first Dr. Teeth sketch. What was Dr. Teeth named at the time? Joe, you said…?

JOE: This is the only one that I knew for sure. He was called the Boogie Man.

BECCA: He was called the Boogie Man. You are correct. He was called the Boogie Man. So this Bob Taylor sketch of him was labeled as the Boogie Man. And question three, what other important Muppet reference material did this cartoonist draw in the same year? You said…?

JOE: I just made a guess as to like who debuted around the same time and I said the Swedish Chef.

BECCA: Yeah. So I actually I meant reference material when I said reference material. I didn’t mean design sketch of a character.  Because that same year, Bob Taylor drew the first Sesame Street style guide. The one that’s on display at the Museum of the Moving Image.

JOE: Really?

BECCA: The original Sesame Street style guide from 1973 was drawn by Bob Taylor.

DAVE: That’s super cool.

JOE: Wow, that is cool and this sketch of Dr. Teeth that we’re referencing here, where he’s called the Boogie Man, is also or usually on display at the Museum of the Moving Image. So that’s cool that he’s got so much of his work up in a museum where it belongs.

BECCA: Yeah, no, listen, we’ve got some scans of that 1973 style guide on Muppet Wiki. I’m not going to post a link because that would spoil the answer to this question if you saw my link on social media before you listened to this episode but you should check it out. That art is fabulous. And again, you know, before 1973, there was really no standard way to draw the Sesame Street Muppets. And you can tell looking at merchandise from before 1973 that that was the case. 

JOE: That’s why it looks so cool.

BECCA: I love it. But you can tell that there was no style guide before 1973. [laughs] So yeah. Again a true Henson art legend. Joe, based on my rules, you have earned back your 27 points bringing you to 119 points.

DAVE: Hooray.

BECCA: So almost 100 points more than Dave. But you know what? Dave will always be a legend around these parts.

DAVE: I’m just here for the fun.

BECCA: Yeah. And Joe you are of course our winner and today’s Toughest Pig.

JOE: Yay.

DAVE: I feel a little slighted going up against the editor-in-chief. [laughs]

JOE: It’s not even that I’m the editor-in-chief. Because I always tell people, I don’t remember things so well. I’m still a human being who’s getting older by the day. But I did just finish a podcast all about the Electric Mayhem. So that may have been a little unfair, but you still agreed to be here. It’s on you Dave. 

BECCA: That’s true.

DAVE: It is.

JOE: It’s your fault. 

DAVE: That’s definitely on me.

BECCA: I warned you. I think I even told you that Joe would be your opponent. When I brought my friend Alethea from Sesame History on, I didn’t warn her in advance that Ryan Roe would be her opponent and well folks, you’ll have heard how that goes. But Alethea was a great sport and had a lot of fun. [laughs]

DAVE: My opponent could have been a bowl of dried fruit and I probably still would have lost, but like I said, I came on because I wanted to hang out with the two of you.

BECCA: Well, I really appreciate it. Joe, you win your choice of prizes, as you know. So your choices are as follows. You could choose to win some dental floss. Or this. So I started doing these little like art card things, instead of doing magnets, because I got kind of tired of doing magnets. So I’ve got a little art card here of Lips. And he’s wearing a (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?! (in normal voice) t-shirt.

DAVE: That’s great.

JOE: Whoa. Yes he is.

DAVE: That is fantastic.

JOE: I’ll take the floss.

BECCA: Okay.

JOE: I’m just kidding. No, I don’t want the floss. I want the Lips. [laughs] Yes, thank you. No, very exciting.

BECCA: I will definitely send that your way. And you can get floss at pretty much any like grocery store or pharmacy.

JOE: I mean look, god bless you for thinking that I floss.

BECCA: You gotta floss. You gotta floss. I’m calling up Bill Barretta right now to tell him to tell Dr. Teeth that you don’t floss.

JOE: Don’t tattle on me to Bill Barretta. Come on. Every time I do something wrong, you’re like, I’m gonna call Bill Barretta and tell him what you did.

[All laugh]

BECCA: Well, that brings us to the end of another one. So guests, where can people find you, if you wish to be found? Let’s start with Dave.

DAVE: You can follow me on Instagram and X, I guess it’s called, @davehulteen. When I get to, when I get a chance to post stuff. And I try and post as much Muppet art as I possibly can.

BECCA: Your Muppet art is extremely good. I feel like we said that but let me just, you know, make sure that I’m getting a nice clean take of that. Your Muppet art is really good.

DAVE: I appreciate that. It’s the most inspiring and fun thing to be able to draw.

BECCA: I agree. Joe, where can people find you if you wish to be found?

JOE: Well, you’re probably going to mention all the ToughPigs social stuff in a moment. So I will let you run with that.

BECCA: Wow, it’s like you know my script.

JOE: It’s like I’ve listened to the show before.

BECCA: Yeah.

JOE: If you want to find me personally, I don’t post as much because social media will rot our brains. But I’m on Twitter @Joehennes. I am on Instagram @toughpigsJoe. And I’m usually hanging out at the pizza place out on the corner so if you want to share a slice with me, come find me. It’d be great to meet you.

BECCA: All right, well, hey, that feels like a great setup for me to start plugging some ToughPigs stuff. ToughPigs, as I say now on every podcast, ToughPigs website’s been around 22 years, 22 years longer than any social media website. So the one place I can guarantee that you will find us is Toughpigs.com. You can also find ToughPigs on social media for now: Twitter Instagram, Bluesky, Youtube.

JOE: TikTok.

BECCA: That’s right, Joe, that’s right. You’ve got a TikTok. A great ToughPigs TikTok. 

JOE: Well, we. We have a TikTok. We share it. All of us at the ToughPigs team. I just happen to be the only one who uses it.

BECCA: Yes.

JOE: Poorly. Uses it poorly, I should say.

BECCA: Anyway, @Toughpigs there. You can also find us, of course, at Toughpigs.com. You can, if you like our work, you could consider donating to the ToughPigs Patreon where you can get some exclusive free stuff as well. We have ToughPigs t-shirts for sale on the ToughPigs Teepublic page. Includes some cool stuff, some Hubba-Wha?! shirts. And hey I’ll plug, it just came out when we’re recording this, just came out yesterday or two days ago, a brand new Muppets Mayhem inspired shirt of Lips’s Tutter Street Trumpet Company shirt from Muppets Mayhem. You could get it. You could wear it. You could be a chrysanthemum.

If you want to find me separate from ToughPigs stuff, I am still on Twitter, not as much as I used to but still on Twitter @unclepetunio. That’s petunia with an o. I’m on every other social media website that isn’t Twitter @tallgirlpetunia. That is petunia with an a. Not confusing at all.

So, I’d like to thank some people for helping out. I’d like to thank both of our guests. Again, I can’t thank you enough. It really is always a pleasure, you know, talking to Muppet fans. I do want to thank myself for writing, editing, producing and hosting this show. I want to thank Staci Rosen for writing the theme music to this show. Thanks to Richard Gomez for doing the host artwork for the show.

Thanks to, I don’t know, some jerk named Joe Hennes for being the ToughPigs Muppet fan podcast executive producer, whatever that is. And thanks to–

JOE: Someone’s got a executively produce this thing.

BECCA: I know. No, Joe helps out a ton with this podcast stuff. I can’t thank him enough for that.

And I do want to thank Katilyn Miller for doing transcripts for this show. And of course, I want to thank Nora for helping to get the Electric Mayhem to finally record an album. If you want to hear about that story, there’s a place you can find out.

And lastly, thanks to all of you at home for being with us on (in echo sounding voice) Hubba-Wha?! (in normal voice) the Muppet quiz show. And as always, don’t mess with Animal. He eats glass, man.

[End of Hubba-Wha?! theme music plays]

[Clip from Kermit Unpigged plays]

[Music plays]

FLOYD: Shake it, man. Shake it Wild Thing.

[Ukelele plays]

[Raucous drums]

KERMIT: Uh, Animal.

[Animals grunts in exertion]

FLOYD: He gets like this when he hasn’t had his nap.

ANIMAL: Wild thing! Wild thing! [grunts]

[Drums and music end]

FLOYD: Time for num nums and a nap.

ANIMAL: Feel tired.

FLOYD: Yeah.

[Clip ends]