The Complete History of Mahna Mahna and his alter ego Bip Bipadotta

[Fozzie Bear]

http://muppet.wikicities.com/wiki/Mahna_Mahna

 

[minor muppetz]

It is interesting that Henson wanted Bip Bipodotta and Mahna Mahna to be different characters, because I don't think they ever appeared together. I'm not sure if Bip Bipodotta was in The Muppet Movie finale, but Mahna Mahna was there, and not too far away from the Sesame Street Muppets at that. Mahna Mahna also appeared at the wedding in The Muppets take Manhattan (a few rows in front of the Sesame Street characters) and in The Muppets: A Celebration of Thirty Years, yet Bip Bipodotta was nowhere to be seen in either production. Neither character appeared in A Muppet Family Christmas (though I feel that it would have been fitting to have at least had Bip Bipodotta with the Sesame Street cast in that special) Having the two appear together would certainly clear up confusion.

 

[jacobsnchz]

Oh yeah, he is bigger isn't he?

http://muppets.scarecroe.com/mahna/mahna_celebrate30.jpg

I don't think they used the same puppet for The Muppet Show Live though because he wasn't this big. They either found the original or rebuilt it (with sloppy eye stitching )

Better Link?

 

[minor muppetz]

Take note of the Giant Manha Manha from The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years !

They couldnt find the original Puppet, So they rebuilt him and made him very large.

How do you know that they couldn't find the original puppet and therefore rebuilt him? Do you have insider information on the subject?

I find it weird that Henson saw a need to rebuild Mahna Mahna for that production, since he's just in the background and has no significance. And from what I remember, he's only seen behind the big monsters, not in any good close-up shots. There were several characters who didn't appear in the special (Thog, Mean Mama, Timmy, The Mutations, the SNL Muppets, Leo and Grump, many SS characters who were no longer beign used on SS). Weird that they thought it was important to include him in the special, but not the others that I mentioned (though I don't know what the status was for some of the puppets I mentioned, but I think most of those full-body characters have been used since then).

 

[dinoboy]

Mahna Mahna? I remember that song, and I heard it being sung on a TV commercial advertising some car. Sometimes I thought that maybe it might've been a commercial to advertise a mahna mahna product.

 

[CBPuppets]

and it was used on a Dr. Pepper commercial. on that note, Didn't Kermit perform the song once? and here's one that always get to me. Have Frank Oz Always performed the Snowths or were there others, because on the Ed Sullivan DVD the snowths didn't sound like Frank at all. and I heard Jullianne Buescher performed them at a local thelethon with Kermit. This feels awkward right here.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I don't think that was even Frank's voice doing "Do doo do doo doo" (or a variation thereof) at all. I think he only performed the puppets. Especially since there are two of them.

I think Kevin Clash was the Snowths at MuppetFest (anybody remember?) and Bill Baretta was Mahna-Mahna.

The only product I know of came from Palisades:
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Palisades_Mini_Muppets

 

[minor muppetz]

It is interesting how the Sesame Street one is officially considered a seperate character, but Sesame Workshop rarely acknowledges his name as Bip Bipadotta. The credits on Everybody's Record lists him by name, but I've read that the record sleeve isn't a gatefold and doesn't include images to inform people who the singers are. And I've read that the song was recorded especially for the album, premiering on the show afterwards. And I'll be surprised if there were ever any sketches where Bip refers to himself by name.

Most official sources seem to incorrectly call him Ma Nah Ma Nah or some similar name. The video pages at sesamestreet.org all list him as "Mah-Na-Mah-Na Muppet". The 40th anniversary book does refer to him as Bip Bipadotta, and mentions that he's "hear don the album Everybody's Record" (perhaps listing a source for the name, though the way it's written is a bit awkward).

It's interesting how his appearance has changed a bit over the years (in part because he was an anything muppet used sparringly). Since Muppet Wiki I've been aware that a different Anything Muppet base was used in Everybody's Song, but after watching the sketch on sesamestreet.org I never really realised how different compared to other 1980s appearances. I had seen the segment many times as a child, and I think I'd watched it online a few times in the last few years, but didn't really notice until last week.

In that appearance, he has a shaggy ponytail. And his beard is really small. And he has short sleeves (of course after this appearance he had short arms), and had some dark green furry things on his wrists as well as his neck. After noticing that I noticed that in other appearances that the cuffs of his sleeves and collar appear to be a darker shade of green, though I'm not sure if those are seperate pieces or not.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

He has indeed gone through more changes than Joan Rivers.

Was it the 30th Muppets Celebration where he was sitting in the back with the Monsters and was a HUGE Muppet? I think that's correct.