Rockers Ok Go with their pal Kermit.

To create buzz for the new Muppet movie coming out this Thanksgiving (which will feature songs by Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie), YouTube heroes and indie rockers Ok Go have covered the theme song from The Muppet Show on “The Green Album,” which drops August 23.  NPR says the album “sticks to songs written specifically for or performed by the Muppets, and culls from a deep catalog of fan favorites.”  Tracks include “Rainbow Connection” by Weezer and “It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green” by Andrew Bird.  Enjoy a preview of some of the tracks below! Continue reading »

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Is Bert slowly exiting the closet?

So what if Bert and Ernie are a couple of guys who have shared a bedroom for four decades? So what if they bathe in front of each other! In the puppet world, like in life, that doesn’t have to mean anything.

Unless it does.

For years, folks have wondered whether Bert is gay. An overlooked Tweet from a few months ago might be the pigeon-keeping, paper-clip collecting, mono-browed Muppet’s test of the waters. Did Bert take a first step out of the closet? Continue reading »

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Animal on Drums vs. Elmo

Jeramie Trespalacios, a young man who does meet-and-greets as Elmo for a living, loves to see the look of surprise on children’s faces when he walks in a room.  But this weekend, Trespalacios got a surprise of his own.

While taking a break from his job at Learning Express Toys in Winter Park, FL, the costumed actor entered the nearby Guitar Center and was met with a wild man on the drums – one The Consumerist has described as an “Animal,” if you will – which is when a smackdown of epic, Muppet-sized proportions began.

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After all the fuss people made over Adam Lambert’s performance on the American Music Awards, we should remember that he has been compared to the dearly departed lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury was a lot better. Also great — The Muppets. And while I think Muppets Studio did not follow that bizarre logic when they decided to make a video of The Muppets performing the classic Queen song “Bohemian Rhapsody,” it doesn’t matter. What is important is that they did, in fact, make a video of The Muppets performing “Bohemian Rhapsody.” And it is good. Continue reading »

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Google has replaced their logo with a series of Sesame Street-inspired images in honor of the big birthday.

1969 was certainly a banner year.  Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon.  Woodstock took place in upstate New York.  The Beatles released Abbey Road.  The Boeing 747 is first placed into service.  The television shows The Brady Bunch and Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted.  While those shows, for better or for worse (not necessarily in that order), eventually went off the air, another show that got its start in 1969 is still going strong: the venerable children’s show Sesame Street.

It would be difficult to be a part of American society and not be familiar with the show — everyone, it seems, knows Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the ubiquitous Elmo.  The show was meant to depict the sort of world kids in the big city themselves lived in and the idea worked.  It worked so well that now, forty years later, the show is as popular as ever.  As of 2006, Sesame Street was the most watched children’s show in the world — there are 20 international independent versions and it is shown in over 120 countries.
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As I’ve always said, the best way to reach kids is by framing the lesson through the malaise of post war America.

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There are a whole lot of talented people in the U.S. of A. School teachers doing a great soft shoe, the checkout clerk who kills on the electric guitar and the chicken farmer who wows listeners with his heartfelt ballad.  You know who else has talent? Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Yes these two have a long – and I mean long – history of entertaining the masses and somehow they don’t age a day. It’s that good old Muppet magic. Continue reading »

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