Welcome to Muppet Wiki!
Beaker's performance of "Feelings" became a popular clip to sync to other songs.
Blooper Compilation for "A Muppets Christmas Letters to Santa" The Muppets
The Muppets' "Glad All Over" lip-sync video
The Muppets have been featured in many unofficial fan-edited lip-sync videos, a phenomenon which started as early as 2006 and reached its peak, with frequent coverage by media outlets, between 2014 and 2016.
As with fan edit lip syncs in general, they use existing Muppet footage matched to other recordings, frequently adult and raunchy. Most appeared on YouTube and similar video sites, although copyright claims mean the greater number have been removed or had accounts deleted in the intervening years. Musical choices often came from hip-hop or heavy metal.
One of the less explicit and more enduring videos came out in 2008, capitalizing on the Rick Astley Rickrolling meme and labeled "Hilarious Muppets Bloopers!" Beaker (footage from "Feelings" on The Muppet Show) lip synced to "Never Gonna Give You Up," playing off the bait-and-switch Rickrolling meme. (YouTube)
The Muppets Studio showed their own awareness of the fad with an official 2008 video, using outtakes from A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa synced to the song "Glad All Over" by the Dave Clark Five. (YouTube)
Internet sites began noting the trend as early as 2011, as in a Mashable piece promoting a lip sync video to the Kanye West song "Monster" said, "Growing up, everyone loved the Muppets, but they were always so innocent. It's fun to apply their whimsical and childish look to adult themes. It's so out of place, that it's entertaining."[1] The adult element was what most press outlets seized on, as in a 2015 Uproxx article: https://uproxx.com/viral/12-muppet-lip-sync-videos/
Slate.com covered four videos between 2014 and 2016, including The Leprechaun Brothers synced to the Beastie Boys[2], Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance,"[3] Warren G and Nate Dogg,[4] and Snoop Dogg.[5] All of these were made by Adam Schleichkorn, whose YouTube playlist includes several still online examples.[6] Interviewed in 2015 by Yahoo! after pairing Scooter with Eminem, Schleichkorn said, "For years I edited cat and dog footage to make it look like they were singing or rapping, until I realized, this might actually be easier with Muppets!"[7]
Uproxx selected 12 Muppet lip sync videos in June 2015, with the titillating headline "The Complete History Of The Muppets Lip-Synching About Smoking Blunts And Humpty Humping."[8] In August the same year, a long since offline video with Kermit the Frog and others lip synced to N.W.A.'s "Express Yourself" received widespread coverage, including by Billboard,[9] Vulture[10], MTV.com[11], and Fast Company.[12]
As coverage of Muppet lip sync videos faded in 2016, a Billboard headline summed up the entire fad: "Ruining Childhood Memories: 7 Best Inappropriate Lip Syncs to Kids Shows."[13]
Sources[]
- ↑ The Muppets Do Kanye West's "Monster" — Again January 2011
- ↑ "Three of the Best Muppets Lip Sync to the Beastie Boys." August 11, 2014.
- ↑ "Watch Gonzo from The Muppets Perform 'The Humpty Dance'." March 30, 2015.
- ↑ "Bert and Ernie Mount Up, Perform Warren G and Nate Dogg’s 'Regulate'." March 29, 2016
- ↑ "Watch Rowlf the Dog and Fozzie Bear Team Up for a Snoop Dogg–Dr. Dre Classic." April 18, 2016
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@isthishowyougoviral/videos @isthishowyougoviral playlist.
- ↑ "Which Muppet Is the Real Slim Shady?" November 25, 2015.
- ↑ Uproxx.com. June 10, 2015.
- ↑ "The Muppets Perform N.W.A’s Classic ‘Express Yourself’: Watch." August 18, 2015
- ↑ "Watch Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog Pretend to Rap Along to N.W.A’s ‘Express Yourself’." August 18, 2015.
- ↑ "The Muppets Love 'Straight Outta Compton' - Watch Them Lip-Sync N.W.A's 'Express Yourself'." August 18, 2015.
- ↑ "Fozzie And Kermit Covering N.W.A. Looks Less Wrong Than You Think." August 19, 2015.
- ↑ Billboard.com. April 1, 2016.