Muppets Kodachrome

This video hit the internet over the holidays so it's possible that a lot of people might have missed it.  I can't even count the number of times I've watched it.  It encapsulates everything I love about the Muppets in one video.  It also doesn't hurt that it stars the Electric Mayhem.



I really need a shirt with just that Electric Mayhem logo on it.

The Muppets Offical Trailer

ABC is doing a new Muppet show.  They are calling it an adult Muppet show.  I didn't realize the original was only for children.  Regardless I'm excited.  They had me at, "Animal does nudity if tasteful".

One thing I've never cared for in the movies is how Kermit and Piggy are always an item.  It the TV show he was always trying to get away from her.  Anyway, bring on the Electric Mayhem.

#Muppets

I'll prolly go see this.

Muppets Most Wanted

This is the last update for the week.  I'm going to enjoy my birthday and try to stay away from the computer for a few days.  I do want to share the new trailer for the Muppet's sequel because it's the Muppets and I'm excited.

 

The strange thing is that I don't really need a story for a Muppet movie.  I'd be happy with an hour and a half of their skits and backstage stuff.  I've missed Veterinarians Hospital and Pigs in Space; it'd be nice to see them again.   



I Dream of Puppet

By now you should know that both Ken and I are big Muppet fans. The Henson Company is amazing at mixing whimsy and subversive, and I love every second of it. Henson Alternative is a division of the company that does more adult aimed entertainment. The improvised show "Puppet Up" is like watching "Who's Line is it Anyway" with dirty language, situations, and puppets. I would love to see one live at some point in time, alas I don't live in Los Angeles. Lucky for us with Youtube and The Nerdist channel we can see Neil Patrick Harris and the best puppeteers in the world make dick jokes.

Say hello to "Neil's Puppet Dreams"

 I am also waiting for everyone to turn in their homework assignment from last week. This is worth half your final grade, so don't delay. You can turn it in in the comments, our Facebook, or the Contact Us tab.

Muppet Pez

If you’ve been on the site since the beginning you may remember that before Brandon started here that we didn’t update the site on Mondays. Mondays are normally one of my days off. This past Monday was a rainy mess of a day. To get everyone out of the house we loaded up the car and rolled my son the local Toys R Us. After checking out the Lego, Nerf, and Superhero stuff I found some pure awesomeness on the pegs.

Behold the animal Pez dispenser. I am not a giant candy person. I’ll take potato chips over candy 99% of the time. There is something about Pez though. I don’t cheat either; I never eat a packet of Pez without loading it into the dispenser. Years ago when I was deep in MMO addiction I always had a Pez dispenser with me as I played. The process of loading the candy before you eat it slows the whole process down too, so it takes you longer to eat them all.

Anyway, they had the whole Muppet lineup there, but I’ve already said on the blog that Animal has always been my favorite Muppet. They actually have a pretty good sculpted likeness too. A lot of Animal merchandise doesn’t look quite right. We also got my son a “My First Cookie Monster”, apparently Cookie Monster has delicious eyes.

Do It Anyway

Earlier this week Ben Folds Five released their new video of the song “Do It Anyway.” I have to admit I’m not a giant fan of Ben Folds, so this wasn’t something I was anticipating. But if you fill a video full of Fraggles I’ll watch it. It’s not just Fraggles either, this video is full of people I like.

I usually prefer Muppet Show stuff to Fraggles. There was a traveling Jim Henson exhibit a few years ago. My wife and I downloaded the podcast tour and spent about 2 hours walking around. It was laid out chronologically, so the Fraggle portion of the exhibit was at the very end. Of course the podcast was talking about the Jim passing away. So there we are, both wearing headphones, staring at puppets, and crying like babies. I appreciate Fraggles much more now that I know how much they meant to Jim and after reading how they were presented in other countries.

RIP Jerry Nelson

I’ve got very sad news to report today. Long time Muppeteer Jerry Nelson died on August 23. He was 78. Like most of the Muppeteers you’ll probably recognize his characters much easier than you’ll recognize his name. Nelson was a long time member of the Henson group, going as far back as the Jimmy Dean show.

Jerry started working on Sesame Street during its second season. He stayed on the show for over 40 years. Back in 2004 he stopped performing his other Muppet characters but he continued to work on Sesame Street. During his time there he created Count von Count. He also preformed characters like Sherlock Hemlock, Herry Monster, the Amazing Mumford, Little Jerry, and Frazzle (one of my favorites).

He was a major player in the Muppets too. He was Floyd Pepper. He was also Robin, Cmilla, Pops, Dr. Julius Strangepork, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, and Uncle Deadly. In one of my favorite holiday movies Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas he played Emmet. In Fraggle Rock he was Gobo.

His performances played a major part in my childhood. The Muppets I’ve listed here are just a small portion of the characters he preformed. He was an amazing talent and his passing makes the world a little less magical.

Muppets Feel the Hunger

I don’t think it will surprise anyone to know that I loved the latest Muppet movie.  I thought their parody trailers were extremely funny.    To celebrate the DVD release, they've done it again.

Looks like I’m heading to the store on the 20th.



A Brief Interlude

Real life is hitting us here at That F'ing Monkey pretty hard as of late. Hence the reason the posts have been a bit lax. So here is another quick one for ya.

Next week shall be the conclusion of the Group of Extraordinary Individuals with your groups and the "Official" F'ing Monkey Group. Stay tuned...

Sick Day

Something happened to my sinuses today.  I've got a nast headache and have become a snot factory.  That and a crazy work load... 

Yup, all you get is this picture.  Bonus points if you get which song it is from.

Jim Henson’s The Storyteller

In 1987 television was graced with something unique from Jim Henson, a collection of myths and legends retold using a mixture of live action and some Jim Henson’s Creature Shop magic. Jim Henson’s The StoryTeller had 8 half hour episodes that ran either a specials, a regular show, or as part of The Jim Henson Hour. It even spawned 4 more episodes as The StoryTeller: Greek Myths. The show was amazing. Someone at Archaia Comics felt the same way, because this December they released The StoryTeller graphic hardcover.

The book is good, really good. If you have fond memories of the show, this is a must buy. If you like reading myths and legends, this is a must buy. If you just enjoy a well told story and beautiful art to go along with it, this is a must buy. If you’re tired of all the shakeups in your current superhero comics, buy this book. Do you see where I’m going with all this?

Inside the book there 9 stories from all sorts of sources from Japanese folktales, Aesop fables, all the way to Appalachian folktales. The most exciting is adapted from an unused screenplay from Anthony Minghella, He was credited with the final script on every episode of the StoryTeller, it is incredibly cool to be reading what might have been another episode.

I haven’t really talked about the talented group they found to work on the book. The list of writers and artists are amazing. I just want to toss out a couple of names. When you think Muppet comics you have to think of Roger Langridge and thankfully his story opens the book. Tom Fowler does beautiful work, as does Evan Shaner. Plus you get work by people like Ron Marz, Craig Rousseau, and Katie Cook. I’m leaving out so many talented people that you need to see this for yourself. Seriously, at 20 dollars this book is a steal.  I honestly hope there is already a second book in the works, because I'd like to have a new one every Christmas.

In The Grim Dark Future There Is Only Nerf

For the past few months both Ken and I have been fairly immersed in the 41st millenium. It is a universe of militaristic science fiction were life is dark and the future outlook is grim, also know as "grimdark". It makes for a great setting for a tabletop wargame were everyone is constantly at each others throats, but it can get just a bit dull when delving into the background stories. That is were Sandy Mitchell comes in. He is the writer of the Ciaphas Cain series of books.


Cain is a Commissar in the Imperial Guard. Commissars are morale officers responsible for discipline. Most Commissars are only good at the discipline part of their job, killing anyone for the slightest infractions. Cain on the other hand is all about the morale bit, and shows quite a bit of concern for those under his charge. On the surface that is. In reality he shows that concern in order to get the troops on his side, mainly so he does not get shot in the back and has an abundance of human shields when it gets dicey. Through a combination of pure luck and a shrewd mind for saving his own ass, Cain has become a living legend.

The book series is a sort of memoir of Cain looking back on his numerous adventures. The series is a super fun read so far. They come at the world of Warhammer 40k from another perspective, one of a "normal" guy just trying to make it in "the grim dark future where there is only war". I would recommend picking up an omnibus or two if you are into Warhammer at all or have read any of the Black Library books. My only complaint is that Mr. Mitchell tends to use the defining characteristics of the characters pretty much every time he talks about them, and it gets just a bit tedious at times. It is a small complaint though and the comedy infused in the stories breaks up the drab grey of the dark future.
I would be remiss if I did not tell you that the title for the blog today comes from a quote of Ken's at a DragonCon one year. It was said as a group of folks dressed as what can only be described as post apocalyptic goths armed with bright and unpainted NERF guns walked by.


On another note, if you have not seen "The Muppets" you need to as soon as possible as it is fantastic.


Have you read the Ciaphas Cain books? Don't care about 40k and wish I had just done a review of "The Muppets"? Let Your F'ing Voice Be Heard in the comments or on our Facebook page.

New Muppet Soundtrack

If you’re like me you still have the Green Album in your car’s CD player, but if you’re looking for something new to listen to you are in luck. The soundtrack to the new Muppet movie came out on the 21st. Music has always been important to the Muppet movies and this one is no different. Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords served as musical director of the movie and wrote two of the new songs. Check out the teaser video for the soundtrack to get a preview.

Make sure you watch the whole thing.  The Animal part at the end is fantastic, but I'm biased towards him anyway.

The Muppets and Ken O.

The new Muppet Movie is coming out next week. When the news first broke, I was very worried. As more and more details emerged I was skeptical, but I was starting to get excited. Then the parody trailers came out. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I really wanted to see the new movie. There is still a part of me that thinks the movie is going to be horrible, but it is the most excited I’ve been to see a movie in a long time. So what is the big deal about the Muppets anyway? Why do we keep bringing up Muppets on That F’ing Monkey?

The Muppet show premiered a month after I was born, so obviously I wasn’t watching it then. The series did run for 5 years though. I definitely grew up watching it. Those episodes stuck with me and while I didn’t realize it till later in life, they were teaching me important things that I still take with me. Animal was my favorite. There was no competition. I had an Animal puppet (I still have it actually) that I carried everywhere for a little while. Gonzo was next. After that it gets even more obscure, Uncle Deadly. He was the creepy looking Muppet who most remember from the Vincent Price episodes.  He fascinated me.

So as I got a little bit older, well I grew up strange. Most the people reading this probably felt the same way. Everyone is watching football and I’m thinking about monsters, T-Rex slap fights, and zeppelins. Although I found people with interests like my own, there were many times growing up that I wondered why I didn’t like the same things “normal” people did. Yeah, I was one of the weird kids in the back of the class. At some point in my early teens I came back to the Muppets.

I think it was the first Muppet movie. That great big group of weirdoes were saying if it made you happy, it was okay if you want to spend your life throwing boomerang fish. I think it was Nickelodeon who started replaying the original Muppet show. So many of the songs they sang just reinforced that it was perfectly alright if you were different. I’m not saying all my confidence comes from the Muppets, but some of it does. So I get a bit excited when I see Muppets.  I get a bit choked up thinking about Jim Henson.  And I'll be seeing the new Muppet Movie at some point next weekend.

Muppet Etiquette

The Muppets have been releasing a steady stream of teasers for their new movie and I have to say that although I wanted to stay cautious, I’m really excited to see it. The latest clip to hit the Muppet Studio Youtube channel is actually a policy video for AMC theaters.

Yeah, I’m officially excited. Depending on my work schedule I may even try and see it opening week. I can’t remember the last time I went to a theater on a holiday weekend. Anyway as the movie gets closer I’m sure we’ll have even more Muppet news.

Happy Labor Day

Here is some Sam the Eagle for your Labor Day viewing pleasure.

What? This holiday is not about sitting around your place naked and playing X-Box? What the hell is this holiday about then?

Muppets: The Green Album

Did you know that the Muppets have a new album in stores right now? Well, it isn’t the Muppets signing, it is actually a number of bands covering some pretty famous Muppet songs. It’s called the Green Album and it was released on August 23rd.

I was very skeptical when I first heard about this. I really enjoy the Muppets and if something like this didn’t have the right feel to it, it would have just made me angry. But this is like everything else the Muppets have been involved with lately, it is handled with care of source material and turned out fantastic. If you want to check it out before you buy anything, thanks to NPR you can listen to the entire album by clicking HERE.

Oh yeah, there is also this incredible video by OK Go. The Muppets have been steadily gaining steam again with all the fantastic web videos. Now we get this fun album. Things are looking up for the movie. I’m still very scared of it; I don’t want to get my hopes up too high.

Once Upon A Monster

I know this is making the rounds on the internet but I figured some of you haven’t seen it yet. Watch beloved game developer Tim Schafer pitch a new game to a very powerful executive.

I know Once Upon A Monster is a kid game but I have a feeling it will eventually end up at my house.  How can you not want to hang out with Cookie Monster?

Updates

This is the last one of these for a bit, I promise. Tomorrow we get back to normal. Thursday morning there will be a Hangover Thursday like normal, but while the site is updating I’ll be on a flight to Charlotte for Heroes. There should still be updates on Friday and Saturday, so for the reader nothing should really be changing.

While I’ll have laptop access this weekend, expect the actual Heroes update on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. If you read our Megacon report, it is going to be very similar. If you’re going to be at the con, look for the bald guy in the F’ing Monkey T-shirt and say hello. Speaking of shirts, they are for sale. The button on the left goes to our new store. I will have some at the con, but if you want to make sure I have your size it would be best to email me before.

And then there is this….