The Muppets make me happy, just purely and simply happy. Growing up with them has provided me with many a happy television-related memory, and in the pop culture museum of my heart they are placed alongside treasures like Charlie’s Angels, The Bionic Woman, Donny & Marie, and Land of the Lost. But the Muppets and Sesame Street are special in their own way. They’re, like, Ark of the Covenant special.

Kermit and crew are a team that I can share with my kid and actually enjoy as much – if not more – than she does. If Ernie showed up at my home, I’d be putty in his hands (in a totally non-creepy way.)

Muppets have never really let me down (possible exceptions: Kermit’s nephew Robin, and Elmo, who makes my head hurt) and it’s been a life long dream to actually meet one (ed. note: I MET GROVER. I TOTALLY DID. IT WAS AWESOME.) Which if you think about it, that’s kind of strange that I want to meet puppets but darn it, they just look so huggable. Of course I’d take my daughter along if the opportunity ever arose because hello, perfect beard, but also because she’d share in the excitement.

Anyway. If you were to ask me what Muppet I relate to the most on this particular day, it would be Gonzo. This week has been a stunner but gosh darn it, I’m not giving up. I’m also craving chicken.

So how about you: What Muppet do you embody today?


Now that you’ve answered that, which Name Etymology do you fall into? Random question: am I alone in my Venn diagram fetish? (Ed. note: no.)

Happy Friday y’all.

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Did you watch the premiere of the new season of Mad Men the other night? Did you drink a martini while you watched? Did you find yourself wondering what it would look like if Jim Henson had done Mad Men? Were you drunk when you imagined that? Does it matter?

Why are we still even talking about this? WATCH:

Who needs the Food Network’s Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson, or Gordon Ramsay when there is the Swedish Chef? Everything I learned about the kitchen I learned from Swedish Chef which probably explains why no one will let me into their kitchen.

My evil plan to never be responsible for feeding anyone anything that required preparation has worked. Bwahahahahahaha.

Anyway. Just when I thought this cooking video of how to prepare popcorn shrimp hosted by Swedish Chef was going nowhere he breaks out the popcorn song which is one of those ear-worm type tunes from the 70s that makes you want to get up and leave the room. Ah the memories.

Please enjoy this video responsibly which means: for the love of all things culinary, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

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Who’s your favourite Muppet?

Yesterday Katie posted a pretty awesome video featuring her fave, Animal, engaged in a pretty serious staring contest with the drummer from OK Go.

It’s hard not to like Animal. I think everyone’s got a little Animal in them, you know? Personally, I’ve got a soft spot for Kermit the Frog and I really, really love Guy Smiley, but if I had to pick my top favourite Muppet, it’d have to be Loveable, Furry Old Grover. I love him, his alter-ego Super Grover, and I love this video mashup, in which Grover shakes it to a song from a 70s Pakistani movie.

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Do you ever wonder what really happens behind the scenes at award shows? Take the Webby Awards for example. Do the various stars, celebrities, and industry people collide and mix or do they all ignore each other? Or do they challenge each other to see who is indeed worthy of the fans adulation that keeps them going in the industry?

Apparently it’s all about challenging each other like a bunch of drunken frat boys without the the drunk or frat boy (unless you count Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover as a failed frat boy.)

Perhaps the better question would be: what exactly am I babbling about? I’m babbling about the recent Webby Awards, the band OK Go, and Muppets all showing up in the same physical space and creating a hilarious video about backstage antics.

Starring my favourite Muppet by far — for the official record that would be ANIMAL! — and the drummer who’s name I do not know from the viral video kings OK Go, let’s see who would win in a good old fashioned staring contest. So you know who my money is on but please do enjoy (’tis funny I say):

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Sesame Street has changed since it first hit the airwaves back in 1969. It had to evolve with the changing times and audience  — it’s the only way a show like Sesame Street, however amazing, could survive this long. (If you ask me, though, the Muppets will always be universally cool and you can’t tell me otherwise.)

Their influence is strong and my love of characters like Gonzo, Snuffleupagus (sp?) and Oscar the Grouch are still strong. I grew up with the characters, you probably grew up with Kermit and the gang, and my child definitely can name her characters from both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. So obviously it makes sense that these characters would be inspiration for some artists.

Obviously this artist also was strong influenced by the Street Fighter series. Behold The Muppets Street Fighter Redux — you will never think of Ernie and Bert the same way again. FIGHT WITH ME! SESAME!

More in the artist’s gallery. SO MUCH WIN.

via AllTop

… and attacked the Lost production team, it would be so many light years beyond awesome that you could probably launch yourself into an alternate parallel universe just thinking about it.

(Don’t try that at home, though. At least, not without supervision of a physicist and maybe also a Time Lord.)

This is just so much win that words fail me, seriously.

Because you probably need to cleanse your visual palette after yesterday’s episode of cupcake-oversharing, lest you never eat cupcakes again — and also because, MUPPETS! — we offer you this:

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Don’t take the Animal one. That one’s mine.

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I know, I know: when are the Muppets not feel-good? But really – take two parts Muppets and one part sappy song and one part big mean monster and a smidge of crazy back-up singers and mix them together in a big Henson blender and you get the video that follows, which will make you feel good in the baddest way.

Unless, that is, you have no soul. We won’t judge.

Happy early Easter. Go hug a monster.

via Alltop

I don’t know if you read Go Fug Yourself, but if you don’t, you totally should, because, seriously, anyone who can reference Heidi Montag Pratt and Sweetums in one sentence deserves your complete and undivided attention, like, for real:

“I know this is supposed to be art — and it is, if the visual painting you are doing is of the offspring of Heidi Montag and Sweetums.”

And if you are not laughing out loud right now, I don’t understand you at all.

Go Fug Yourself; photo: Splash News