Sesame Street Muppets answer questions on Wired

[Schfifty]

WIRED Magazine just released a video today featuring several of the show's popular Muppet characters answering Google autocomplete questions. Quite a few interesting answers here (and I love Elmo's "BOOOOOOI!" bit)...

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

I love videos that let the Muppets be Muppets and ad-lib up a storm.

Not to deviate too, but I can't help but note the comments on this. Half of the people are griping about the voices. It mystifies me that people are suddenly not used to Matt Vogel's Big Bird, despite the fact that he's voiced him for "Journey to Ernie" and he's been the understudy for twenty years! Sheesh.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Not to deviate too, but I can't help but note the comments on this. Half of the people are griping about the voices. It mystifies me that people are suddenly not used to Matt Vogel's Big Bird, despite the fact that he's voiced him for "Journey to Ernie" and he's been the understudy for twenty years! Sheesh.

Yeah, that annoyed me. Clearly these people hadn't even seen the show in years, so i'm not sure why they thought the voices would stay the same forever. That being said, I still don't like Billy's Ernie very much.

Either way, very enjoyable video. I liked the running gag about them not seeing the assistant's face

 

[D'Snowth]

I'd give people the benefit of the doubt, Matt doesn't sound in too good a voice here for either Big Bird or Count - he sounds a little under the weather, which probably has an affect on his voice.

Billy's voice for Ernie doesn't bother me so much as his lip syncing does: seems like Ernie is just flapping his mouth half of the time rather than hitting every syllable.

But the thing that gets me the most is . . . they had to bring the Veggie Monster rumor up again. Twice.

And some of the questions, I mean really . . . "does Elmo have a tail?" Who asks these things?

And why does Oscar's tongue look like it's about to fall out of his mouth?

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

Yeah, that annoyed me. Clearly these people hadn't even seen the show in years, so i'm not sure why they thought the voices would stay the same forever. That being said, I still don't like Billy's Ernie very much.

Either way, very enjoyable video. I liked the running gag about them not seeing the assistant's face

Yeah, to be honest, Billy's Ernie has been the hardest to stomach for me, though he has gotten better at it recently. Even if it's not as good as Jim or Steve, I can kind of accept it as it's own thing. I've always thought I could do a pretty good Henson voice, but that's not really the point. It's more about nailing the character and personality, and I think Billy does fine with that.

 

[dwayne1115]

I don't know but out of all of them Bert sounded the most off to me.

 

[cahuenga]

Eric its perfect as Oscar! its incredible how he nails Oz and Spinney characters!!!

 

[D'Snowth]

There's only one thing that neither Steve nor Billy (nor Johnny T. for that matter) have been able to recapture from Jim's Ernie, and that's the laugh. Steve has come close enough for jazz I would say, but neither Billy nor Johnny T. have been able to do it well.

But yes, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Eric as Oscar has been the single most seamless change I have ever heard, and is the closest I've ever heard a newer performer sound like their predesessor. I've gotten used to him as Frank's characters over the years, as well as David's Cookie; I appreciate what Matt has done with Jerry's characters; and Steve's Ernie and Kermit have been around pretty much all my life, yet you can still detect the difference in their performances in comparison with their predessesors. With Eric on the other hand, there's pretty much no comparison, because his Oscar sounds exactly like Caroll's, which I think is amazing, because I figured Oscar's voice would be so distinct that it would be a challenge to try to replicate.

 

[Schfifty]

The only gripe I have with Billy's Ernie here is that he doesn't sound as "derpy" as Steve's or Jim's Ernie was...he sounds kind of brighter to me. I haven't seen much of Billy's performances since he took over, to be honest, but I'm not gonna start criticizing on the ropes of not sounding close enough to the predecessors. It's just a little thing I wish could've been there, but Billy is his performer now, and I can accept it.

I'm kinda disappointed Zoe and Telly weren't in the video. I mean, Zoe's started to appear a bit more on the show again, so where was she? And I guess Telly's not as popular a character as he was before?

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I'm kinda disappointed Zoe and Telly weren't in the video. I mean, Zoe's started to appear a bit more on the show again, so where was she? And I guess Telly's not as popular a character as he was before?

That's something that's bothered me for a long time. Zoe and Telly almost never make guest appearances on anything. It's sad that they're so underrated. As for Baby Bear, I think he's a good character and one that adults would enjoy if David Rudman got a chance to ad lib with him a little. I think he's the only character that i've never seen be a guest on anything. Even Snuffy has made guest appearances on occasion, despite the fact that he's probably super hard to move around because the puppet is so large.