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‘Mah Nà Mah Nà’: Song made famous by the Muppets was originally from a 1968 Italian softcore film


 
Although most people would associate “Mah Nà Mah Nà” with The Muppets or Sesame Street, this iconic song that’s been sung by children the world over for nearly half a century actually originates from a racy 1968 Italian softcore “mondo” documentary called Sweden: Heaven and Hell.
 

 
The film, which has scenes of swingers parties, nude beaches, porn films and lesbian nightclubs—and even a scene of drug addicts huffing gasoline and eating shoe polish on bread to get high—used the song in the context of its camera ogling several towel-clad blondes cavorting in a sauna giving the scene a comic “leering” quality when a few of them drop their towels and decide to frolic in the snow (because that’s what nude Swedish ladies apparently used to do back then).
 

 
Italian cinema composer Piero Umiliani’s original soundtrack score—or at least one number—“Mah Nà Mah Nà”—took on a separate life when it became a novelty hit, reaching #55 on the Billboard singles chart in October of 1969. (It would eventually reach #8 on the British singles chart in 1977. It’s been covered by the likes of the Dave Pell Singers, Tom Jones, Giorgio Moroder, Goldie Hawn, Nancy Sinatra in her Vegas act and there’s even a Moog version.)
 

 
The song was also associated with both Benny Hill and Red Skelton, then it was adopted by bearded hippy puppeteer Jim Henson. The beatnik Muppet character who would become known as “Mahna Mahna” debuted on Nov. 30, 1969, on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Read more after the jump….

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.14.2016
10:49 am
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The Muppets awesomely cover ‘Jungle Boogie’
08.04.2015
01:29 pm
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Not sure what the Muppets are promoting during this fine, sultry August week—maybe it’s just their bad selves.

But if you combine Kool and the Gang‘s classic funk jam “Jungle Boogie,” which was of course made extra super famous by Pulp Fiction, and make Sam the Eagle the cranky frontman, and you really can’t go wrong.

This was clearly the song Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem were put on this earth to play. Enjoy!
 

 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Garage Rock Madness with The Muppets first Ed Sullivan appearance, 1966
Gonzo from The Muppets sings Digital Underground’s ‘The Humpty Dance’

Posted by Martin Schneider
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08.04.2015
01:29 pm
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Gonzo from The Muppets sings Digital Underground’s ‘The Humpty Dance’
03.30.2015
12:08 pm
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I’m crazy. Allow me to amaze thee. They say I’m ugly, but it just don’t phase me.

Normally I hate this kind of shit, but this one works well because of all the clever editing. I mean Gonzo as Shock G is a perfect match, right?

The video is by YouTuber Milo the Cat.

 
via Laughing Squid

Posted by Tara McGinley
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03.30.2015
12:08 pm
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Garage Rock Madness with The Muppets first Ed Sullivan appearance, 1966
12.24.2014
11:30 am
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Garage rock and Muppet history was made on September 18, 1966 as this date marked the first television appearance on CBS-TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show of Jim Henson’s Muppets. This is long before the Muppets became an institution, this is back when they were just an act. They were thereafter featured on the show regularly until it ended in 1971. For this first appearance, Henson chose a demented and pretty savage pure 1966 garage rock song called “Rock It To Me” by a teen band comprised of four actual brothers (Alf, Frank, Mike, and Joe Delia) from Pearl River, New York, amazingly called The Bruthers. The Bruthers had a great 45 on RCA Records this same year called “Bad Way To Go” backed with “Bad Love.” The A-side was included on influential, early 80’s garage compilation LP Pebbles Volume 8 and was a big hit with the new generation of sixties garage fanatics.
 
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The Bruthers were managed by famous New York promoter Sid Bernstein, and also rumor has it, Ed Sullivan himself. Either way it couldn’t have been more perfect. This insane song has never surfaced outside of this clip, not even on the compilation of unreleased Bruthers material on Sundazed Records.

Sullivan introduced the sketch by showing the audience a present that the Muppets had given him, an instant rock and roll group in a box. He takes it out and places it on a table where the group grows from a small fuzzball into the three-headed rock and roll monster (with built-in guitars and drums). After the monster plays the song, it shrinks back to its original form and is eaten by the character Sour Bird.

In the original footage, Ed Sullivan intro’d this as “Jim Newsome’s Puppets,” but this was later overdubbed.
 

 

Posted by Howie Pyro
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12.24.2014
11:30 am
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The Muppets go Situationist
10.16.2014
01:24 pm
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I doubt I’ll be able to watch The Muppets again without quotes from Guy Debord popping up unannounced in my noodle. These magnificent images are the work of artist and writer Amy Collier, who posted them on Toast where she gives some explanation of her work in the comments:

Oh look! I found some history about Guy Debord’s “The Muppets”:

Though the name “Guy Debord” is now synonymous with two things: Situationist philosophy and The Muppets, this pairing of passions was not as easily reconciled as you might think. “I had to fight really hard not to be pigeon-holed as a Marxist theorist in the puppeteering community,” Debord once said. “They told me ‘Kids don’t want to hear about how the concrete life of everyone has been degraded to a speculative universe, Guy.’ I said ‘How about we let the children decide that?’”

Decide they did.

Years later, we remember him as both a Marxist visionary who criticized societies where modern conditions of production prevail in which all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles, and the beloved man who brought Kermit, Miss Piggy, as well as many other characters into our hearts.

You can read the rest of it here and now I can’t wait for On the Passage of The Muppets in Rather Brief Unity of Time.
 
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More of Guy Debord’s Muppets, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.16.2014
01:24 pm
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Muppets dump Chick-Fil-A for anti-gay stance

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Bert & Ernie, together since 1969

The Jim Henson Company has severed their partnership with fast food chain Chick-Fil-A. The company’s “Creature Shop” toys are being given away with kid’s meals, but that’s coming to an end, due to Chick-Fil-A’s conservative Christian President-CEO Dan Cathy’s anti-gay public statements.

The Jim Henson Company posted this statement to their Facebook page:

The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD.

The comments are fascinating.

Meanwhile Boston mayor Tom Menino has publicly stated his opposition to a Chick-Fil-A opening in Beantown. It’s not like a mayor can single-handedly decree something like this, but Menino can make damn sure that opening the Boston branch of Chick-Fil-A is a very, very slow and expensive process for Dan Cathy and his crew.

Not eating at a Chick-Fil-A is an easy way to send a message that this kind of thing won’t be tolerated in your community, either. Why give Truett and Dan Cathy your money to fight marriage equality? Bigotry = bad business. It’s time Chick-Fil-A’s stockholders and franchise owners realize this and kick Dan Cathy to the curb. He’s a PR disaster.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.23.2012
12:44 pm
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A Muppet Wicker Man
02.08.2012
04:50 pm
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Here’s a trailer for the comic A Muppet Wicker Man. The comic, which is described as, “Bad puns, paganism and the smell of burning felt…” can be read in its entirety here.

Let there be no doubt that this is a hell of a lot better than that shitty Nicolas Cage remake!
 

 
Thank you Trey Lane!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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02.08.2012
04:50 pm
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‘The Muppet Show’ without The Muppets

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These two delightful behind the scenes videos from The Muppet Show were generously posted by an ATV cameraman who worked on the program named John O’Brien.

In the first clip, we see what The Muppet Show would have been like had they used real-life actors—well, at least the crew members—instead of puppets. Not quite the same, is it?

A little bit of fun by the crew recorded at the end of the first series/season of The Muppet Show in 1976 (I joined ATV in 1977 during Season 2) ... I am not sure who was responsible for putting this together (I suspect Peter Harris had an input) but I’m sure someone will tell me.

The cast includes Peter Harris, Richard Holloway, Jim O’Donnell, Brian Grant, Steve Springford, Jerry Hoare, Phil Hawkes, Gerry Elms, John Rook, Martin Baker, Sue Boyers, Francis Essex, Dennis Bassinger, David Chandler, Bryan Holgate, Peter Milic, Claude Walters and the ladies from the Canteen.

 

 
And then there’s the second video, which is also pretty amazing:

A behind the scenes glimpse of the Muppet Show on it’s last day of recording at the Elstree Television Studios in 1980 on which I was privileged to work as a Cameraman.

Featured is Jim Henson and Frank Oz who were the main inspiration and creative forces behind the show. Narrated by Peter Harris, one of the two directors on the show … it mostly reveals crew and cast having a very silly day as everyone said their final farewells. Richard Holloway (now Executive Producer on “The X Factor”) had been the Senior Floor Manager for the duration and it was probably inevitable that he became the victim of the flan flingers … he took it in great spirits.

This last day in Studio D was the culmination of 5 years work, fun and laughter on what was arguably the most successful Children’s Programme in the world at the time, having been sold to some 110 countries … it was the end of an era for many and the Muppets have gone on to become truly iconic.

 

 
Via Nerdcore

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.26.2012
03:42 pm
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Orson Welles’ creepy interview with Jim Henson and Frank Oz

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Creepy is an understatement considering there’s a scene where Miss Piggy’s “lifeless” body is poked and prodded in a lake. Here’s little bit about the unaired pilot via Wikipedia:

The Orson Welles Show was an unsold television talk show pilot. It has never been broadcast or released. Filming began in September 1978 and the project was completed around February 1979. […] Welles interviewed Burt Reynolds (taking several questions from the audience,) Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and performed two magic tricks assisted by Angie Dickinson. Several of The Muppets were featured in taped segments, including Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great and Animal.

Update: A Dangerous Minds reader points out the dead Muppet scenes are from a Late Night with Conan O’Brien sketch. Thanks for the heads-up, Meaning_of! 

 
(via Nerdcore)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.12.2011
12:29 pm
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Jim Henson’s seldom seen 1969 pilot for ‘The Wizard of Id’
03.29.2011
03:32 pm
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Jim Henson’s test pilot of Johnny Hart’s Wizard of Id strip from 1969. If this was pitched again in 2011, the “class war” humor would be more in tune with the times, eh?
 

 
Via Classic Television Showbiz

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.29.2011
03:32 pm
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The Muppets Wanna Start Nuclear War in a Gay Bar
07.23.2009
12:28 am
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I wonder what all of this is about?


(via Nerdcore)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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07.23.2009
12:28 am
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