Muppet viral videos

The Muppets Studio has been posting a series of Muppet viral videos on online video sharing websites starting in 2008. (These videos were originally tagged with the word "virmup" to note them as a set.)Example of the "virmup" tag on YouTube. The first set of videos in 2008 were posted on accounts created for individual characters, including Sam the Eagle, Gonzo, Beaker, the Swedish Chef, Statler and Waldorf, Fozzie Bear, Rizzo the Rat and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. In 2009, the videos were posted under a central Muppets Studio account on YouTube.
One of the first videos, Beaker performing "Ode to Joy", won the "People's Voice" award at the 2009 Webby Awards, and has had more than 14-million views on YouTube.As of November 24, 2010: 12,083,469 views of the original posting on the "meepmeepmeepow" account, and 2,433,633 views of the HD version on the "MuppetsStudio" account.
The Muppets' rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", posted on Thanksgiving week 2009, was especially popular, and reached more than 17-million views on YouTube within its first year online. The video won Webby Awards in both the Music and Viral categories, including the People's Choice in both categories.2010 Webby Winners
The last video in the series, "Pöpcørn", was released in July 2010. In late 2013, Disney revived the concept as Muppisodes, to promote the March 2014 release of Muppets Most Wanted.
The videos have proved popular since their initial release. All original music releases of the videos have gained over 1,000,000 views.
==Videos==
Picture	Date 	Description
 	June 27, 2008 	Stars and Stripes FOREVER!!
Sam the Eagle leads a penguin, the Swedish Chef, 2 chickens, Bobo the Bear, Beaker, Animal and Crazy Harry. Sam attempts a reading of the U.S. Constitution as the others perform a rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa. American patriotic images such as the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and hot dogs cascade behind them.
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* YouTube
 	July 16, 2008 	Ode to Joy
Beaker performs nine parts of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" chorus from his 9th Symphony.
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* YouTube
 	July 16, 2008 	Classical Chicken
Gonzo and some chickens perform "The Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss II.
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* YouTube
 	July 16, 2008 	Habanera
The Swedish Chef and Beaker perform the "Habanera" aria from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. Animal provides assistance and the Chef eats Beaker at the end.
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* YouTube
 	July 17, 2008 	Meh, Blech, Mmph, and Hrmph
Four different insulting responses to popular YouTube videos by Statler and Waldorf; on other websites, the videos stand alone as random critical curmudgeonism.
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* YouTube - Meh, Blech, Mmph, and Hrmph
 	October 20, 2008 	Rolling with the Skateboarding Dog
Fozzie records a skateboarding dog at the beach with comments from Rowlf, Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo.
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* YouTube
 	October 23, 2008 	The Skateboarding Dog Gets Served
Rizzo and Rowlf make a skateboarding dog video of their own.
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* YouTube
 	October 26, 2009 	Muppet Labs Experiment 2Q975: Carve-O-Matic
Bunsen tests out his pumpkin carving machine with Beaker.
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* YouTube
 	October 26, 2009 	Muppet Labs Experiment 5T832: Ghost Hunt
Bunsen and Beaker investigate a haunted house.
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* YouTube
 	October 26, 2009 	Cårven Der Pümpkîn
The Swedish Chef attempts to make jack-o-lanterns out of two talking pumpkins for Halloween.
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* YouTube
center 	November 23, 2009	Bohemian Rhapsody
The Muppets' version of Queen's 1975 hit. Instead of Statler and Waldorf commenting on the video, it turns out Kermit and Scooter have been watching the video as a video conference.
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* YouTube
center 	December 9, 2009 	Ringing of the Bells
The Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal sing the song. Animal leaves to find a big bell, which falls on Beaker.
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* YouTube
 	February 8, 2010 	Beaker's Ballad
Dressed in hippie clothing, Beaker meeps to the tune of "Dust in the Wind", but the screen constantly gets filled with annotations, most of which are negative comments.
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* YouTube
 	April 1, 2010 	Stand By Me
Big Mean Carl lures some rabbits for his meal with a song.
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* YouTube
 	May 27, 2010 	American Woman
Sam the Eagle tries to sing a karaoke version of the song, and is quite shocked when Kermit informs him that the song is actually Canadian.
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* YouTube
 	July 2, 2010 	Pöpcørn
The Swedish Chef prepares popcorn shrimp to the tune of Hot Butter's "Popcorn." The video also provides captions, although the caption writer admits that they have no idea what the chef is saying; they just try to write it phonetically, which even the writer can't spell.
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* YouTube
==Promotional videos==
Picture	Date 	Description
 	April 24, 2009 	Webby Awards: Beaker for the Win
A campaign video for Beaker to win the 2009 "People's Voice" Webby Award. The video was posted under various Muppet profiles with varying names, including "Beaker for the Win" and "Beaker Never Wins."
The original version contained music from Clint Mansell's score for Requiem for a Dream. This was replaced with a version using stock music on April 28. This video was removed from YouTube after the Webby voting ended.
 	April 27, 2009 	Auto Tune - Ode To Joy - Beaker For The Win!!
A campaign video for Beaker to win the 2009 "People's Voice" Webby Award featuring a remixed version of Beaker's "Ode to Joy" using an auto-tuner on the vocals and included instructions on how to vote for the Webbys. The video was posted under various Muppet profiles with varying names, including "T-Pain's in Love with a Beaker", "Kanye West Spoof - Beaker Auto-Tune!", and "Auto Tune - Remix Ode To Joy!" The video was removed from YouTube after the Webby voting ended; however, a copy of the video is still available on Vimeo.
 	December 8, 2008 	Glad All Over
A lip-sync video featuring clips and outtakes from A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa was posted under the various Muppet profiles to promote the premiere of the NBC special. This video was removed from Youtube after the special aired; however, copies of the video are still available on Vimeo. It was re-posted to the Muppets Studio YouTube channel in December 2010 under the title "Blooper Compilation for 'A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa.'" The video was also posted on Muppets.com and was included as a special feature on the DVD release of A Muppets Christmas.
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*YouTube
 	April 21, 2010 	TWO WEBBY NOMINATIONS!!! Animal spreads the word . . .
Animal calls his mother to tell her that "Bohemian Rhapsody" has been nominated for a Webby Award. This video was removed from the Muppets' YouTube page, but it still can be seen on Queen's YouTube page.
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*YouTube
 	April 27, 2010 	Bohemian Rhapsody [Kermit's Commentary]
Kermit tries to give some behind the scenes info, but all his friends are trying to join in.
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*YouTube
 	May 10, 2010 	The Muppets: Good News For Mama
Animal calls his mother to tell her that "Bohemian Rhapsody" has won a Webby Award.
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*YouTube
 	September 9, 2010	The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora- Coming Soon!
Cat Cora tells Angelo how excited she is to be cooking in The Muppets Kitchen, with no Muppet surprises. Gonzo appears with some anyway.
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*YouTube
 	December 24, 2010	I Believe
Kermit the Frog and Tiffany Thornton sing "I Believe" together in a record studio.
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*YouTube
 	May 9, 2011 	Kermit the Frog at the World Premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Kermit reports from Disneyland for the "black-carpet" premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He interviews various celebrities and even gets several kisses. The video also promotes The Muppets.
Interviewees are Jerry Bruckheimer, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Penelope Cruz, Rob Marshall, Johnny Depp, Steven Tyler, Geoffrey Rush, Keith Richards, Bruno Tonioli, Vanessa Hudgens, Teri Hatcher, Martin Short, Ian McShane, and Kirstie Alley.
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*YouTube
==Releases==
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The series launched on June 27, 2008 with Sam the Eagle's "Stars & Stripes FOREVER!" posted to YouTube, MySpace and Vimeo. Three abstract music videos followed on July 16 posted by Gonzo, Beaker and the Swedish Chef.
Fozzie Bear added a video on October 20, 2008 of the Muppets' visiting Tyson the skateboarding bulldog at Huntington Beach. Rizzo the Rat launched a profile on October 20th as well; and posted a video response to Fozzie's video featuring Rowlf the Dog on October 23rd.
On October 26, 2009 three new Halloween videos were posted on YouTube. The Swedish Chef's pumpkin carving video, and two Muppet Lab sketches posted by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew ("Carve-o-matic" and "Ghost Hunter").
Each video closes with critical comments by Statler and Waldorf, who also posted four independent heckling shorts under their own account in July 2008.
The Muppets Studio head Lylle Breier stated at a 2009 D23 presentation that more viral videos were planned for 2010 - including "Dust in the Wind", "American Woman", "Popcorn", "Carol of the Bells" and "Stand By Me".Muppets at D23: Movies, DVDs, and Merchandise News!The Muppets at D23D23 Update: Special Muppets Presentation
In fall 2009 the first four shorts were made available for download at The iTunes Store.
Beaker's "Ode to Joy" was also posted on Muppets.com and the three Halloween videos from October 2009 were also showcased on Disney's Haunted Holidays website.
==Development & production==
Steve Whitmire spoke of the development of the project in a 2008 interview, stating: 
The initial set of videos were directed by Kirk Thatcher.Tough Pigs Interview
==Awards & recognition==
Beaker's "Ode to Joy" video was nominated for a People's Voice Webby Award in April 2009. (A previous Muppet video series, From the Balcony, won a Webby in 2007.) The public was invited to vote in the Webbys' "People's Voice." Two campaign videos were posted on several of the Muppets' accounts in to support the effort. It was announced in May that "Ode to Joy" won the People's Voice award.13th Annual Webby Awards Nominees and Winners, Webbyawards.com.
The Muppets' rendition of Queen's "Bohemian's Rhapsody" won Webby Awards in both the Music and Viral categories, including the People's Choice in both categories.2010 Webby Winners
==Sources==
==External links==
YouTube channels:
*Sam Eagle (patrioticeagle)
*Beaker (meepmeepmeepow)
*The Great Gonzo (weirdowhatever)
*The Swedish Chef (deumnborkborkbork)
*Statler & Waldorf (heckleu247)
*Fozzie Bear (wockawockabear)
*Rizzo the Rat (rizzratz)
*Dr. Bunsen Honeydew (themuppetlabs)
;Vimeo accounts
*Sam Eagle
*Beaker
*The Great Gonzo
*The Swedish Chef
*Statler & Waldorf
*Fozzie Bear
*Rizzo the Rat
;MySpace profiles
*Sam Eagle (proudbaldamerican)
*Beaker (meepmeepmeepow)
*The Great Gonzo (bluenosedgeek)
*The Swedish Chef (deumnborkborkbork)
*Statler & Waldorf (heckleu247)
*Fozzie Bear (wockawockabear)
*Rizzo the Rat (rizzratz)
==See also==
*The Muppets at YouTube Space LA
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Category:The Muppets Web Content
Category:Muppet Shorts