ToughPigs - Muppet Fans Who Grew Up » News

Pepe’s Magic Potato

Joe Hennes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:36:43 +0000

This is officially my favorite article title of all time.

If you’re in the UK, you can join in on Cravendale Milk’s latest offer and get your very own Kermit the Frog backpack! And if not, you can still enjoy this fantastic commercial starring Kermit, Pepe, and a bit of the bizarre.

Click here to levitate and spin on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

Miss Piggy to Host Bafta Awards

Joe Hennes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:35:08 +0000

Here’s what I think happened: The Bafta Awards somehow overlooked Miss Piggy’s nomination for Best Actress in The Muppets. When she found out, she threatened them and they panicked, offering her a job as their “red carpet host”. Misunderstandings will be had as she expects to host the entire show, and we all win because of it. Except the unlucky corporate stooges who take the brunt of her karate chops.

On February 13, Miss Piggy will be the red carpet host at the Bafta Film Awards in London. She’ll be interviewing lots of celebrities, and we’ll be watching it all online the next day (we hope hope hope).

As always, stay tuned to ToughPigs for the videos once they come online! And if you’re over the pond, be sure to watch the Bafta Awards live on February 13!

Click here to meet a pig on a red carpet on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

Muppets Join Disney Universe

Joe Hennes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:22:43 +0000

Someone at Disney’s video game division really likes Muppet costumes!

This March, you’ll be able to download Muppet costumes for “Disney Universe”, a video game on the Playstation 3 and XBox consoles (it’s available on other consoles too, but not the downloadable content, so who cares?). Sound familiar? It should! Check out our coverage of LittleBigPlanet here.

Specific details and pictures haven’t been released yet, but costumes will most likely cost about $0.99 each, or $2.99 for the whole set.

And of course, keep reading ToughPigs for pictures once they become available!

Click here to Muppetize your avatar on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

No Muppet Song at the Oscars??

Joe Hennes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:11:41 +0000

According to sources, we have reason to be outraged!

The rumor currently running around the water cooler is that the Academy Awards have decided not to allow the Best Song nominees to perform. That means “Man or Muppet” won’t be in the telecast, nor whatever song Rio was nominated for.

Of course, this means war.

We have no idea why the Academy would make a decision like this, especially when there are only two nominees. Maybe they need to make room for 23 more Best Picture candidates, or Billy Crystal is demanding to sing throughout the entire three hour show.

Hopefully the rumors are false and we can all sleep easy. But until then… RAGE!!!

Thanks to Ryan Dosier from The Muppet Mindset for the tip!

Click here to sing the damn song anyway on the ToughPigs forum!

by Joe Hennes – Joe@ToughPigs.com

A Henson Puppet Is Running for President

Ryan Roe — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:16:47 +0000

Marvin E. Quasniki wants to be your president.

Marvin E. Quasniki is one of the Miskreant Puppets, which, as you may or may not recall, is what they’re calling the Henson Alternative family of puppets these days. Marvin is performed by Henson puppeteer Paul Rugg, and he’s being described as a “turqouise farmer.” And now he’s running as a Republican candidate for president. He’s already appeared on CNN, and delivered a fireside chat.

You can read Marvin’s blog on the Huffington Post, and you can follow his campaign via the YouTube channel for podcast network The Nerdist. Here’s Marvin talking to ordinary American citizens on the street:

Maybe this isn’t saying much, but as a Henson Alternative project, Marvin E. Quasniki has already made me laugh more than Alt Reality and Late Night Liars combined. There’s some real comedy potential here if they can keep getting Marvin on TV. And of course, so many jokes write themselves… He’s better than [insert candidate's name here]. He’s a puppet for special interest groups. And so on.

Click here to spell backwards on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

Muppet Music Comes to Carnegie Hall

Ryan Roe — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:42:48 +0000

We reported on this some time ago, but we didn’t really know much about it then… Now we have a few more details on an exciting upcoming event at New York City’s Carnegie Hall: “Jim Henson’s Musical World.” On April 14, the New York Pops will perform a concert full of songs from various Henson productions, hosted by John Tartaglia. The Jim Henson Legacy is involved, so it should be a great overview of Muppety music. And if that’s not cool enough, we’ve been told that there will be several special guests… including some actual Muppets!

You can buy tickets now (DO IT NOW!) by clicking right here for the Carnegie Hall website.

Hmm… Are you allowed to sing along at a Pops concert? ’Cause we’re going to want to sing along.

Click here to make an obvious joke about how you get there on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

Katherine Heigl Might Be in That Henson Puppet Noir Movie

Ryan Roe — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:48:58 +0000

It’s been a long, long time since we heard any news about Happytime Murders, the Jim Henson Company’s long in-development puppet murder mystery film. Now here’s something from Variety: Katherine Heigl (currently on the screen in One for the Money) is in “final negotiations” to star in the project alongside a cast of Henson puppets. Cameron Diaz’s name was mentioned in connection to Happytime some time ago, so it seems pretty likely that Heigl is up for the same role.

I guess we haven’t talked about this movie much on Tough Pigs, so in case you forgot, it’s a not-for-kids movie about a detective solving the murders of cast members from a children’s puppet show. Variety describes the story as taking place “in a world where puppets and humans live together, but the puppets are viewed as second-class citizens,” so we can expect every review of the finished film to compare it to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Click here to point out that the really hip folks will be comparing it to Greg the Bunny on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

OK Go’s Colorful Sesame Street Song

Ryan Roe — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:21:30 +0000

The members of the band OK Go are masters of the viral music video, and they’ve already worked with the Muppet Show people, so where else could their career path possibly take them than a music video for Sesame Street? As reported by Rolling Stone, the song is called “3 Primary Colors,” and the video is a fun, old school Sesame-style stop-motion-y romp. And it teaches you about colors! It will air in the February 2nd episode of the show, but you can watch it online RIGHT NOW. Check it out:

Thanks to Tough Pigs’ own Michal Richardson for alerting us to this! Click here to paint the town red on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

Watch ANOTHER Old Jim Henson Robot Film

Ryan Roe — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:47:19 +0000

Henson geeks and casual fans alike were buzzing last week when AT&T posted a film made by Jim Henson in 1963. Now, as reported by IT World and various other sources, they’ve brought another Henson film out of the vault, which stars the same robot puppet. It’s called Charlie Magnetico, and it also features Jerry Juhl as the title character… and his mother. As the description says, “In the film, Magnetico makes a small — but important — electronics part, used universally. When communications problem begin to plague Charlie’s small shop, problems of supply and demand wreak a particular Henson-y (and explode-y) kind of havoc on, especially, the rocket industry. Those problems, in this film, are solved by Data Communications — and by the machines.”

I don’t know if there are any more of these hidden away, but if there are: Keep ‘em coming, AT&T!

Click here to wreak explode-y havoc on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com

Watch a 49-Year-Old Video of a Muppety Robot

Ryan Roe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:29:28 +0000

The internet era has proven to be a golden age for Jim Henson fans, with old and rare stuff surfacing online left and right. Here’s another one: As reported by IT World, AT&T has released a long-unseen film that Jim Henson made in 1963 for a seminar for business owners, featuring a robot talking about the “growing relationship between man and machine.” Check it out:

I can’t be the only Muppet fan who watched this video and thought of the Talking Machine and Sam the Robot, right?

Thanks to Tough Pigs’ own Staci for alerting us to this! Click here to get wound up on the Tough Pigs forum!

by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com