ABC’s new series The Muppets put me in the mood to showcase some of my favorite Muppet characters, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.
Rock on!
While doing the research for this entry, I discovered some interesting bits o’ trivia: did you know that band leader Dr. Teeth was modeled after both Dr. John and Elton John? (His unique mode of ‘speechifying’ was directly patterned after Dr. John.) And that he received his signature gold tooth from a voodoo priestess in Tupelo, Mississippi? Did you know that bassist Floyd Pepper’s name and costume are a direct reference to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Did you know that lead guitarist Janice was originally conceived as a male character, and her large lips were originally meant to be a caricature of Mick Jagger’s, and that she’s a literal flower child, as her mother’s name is Daisy? Did you know that drummer Animal may have been partially inspired by Keith Moon, The Who’s wild drummer? Did you know that saxophone player Zoot is 50 years old, once lived in a phone booth for 3 months and only owns 1 pair of pants? (None of this comes up in the video; I’m just showing off my geek-level trivial knowledge.)
Today’s 2 Funny is an early skit from season 1 of Robot Chicken, with the band being chronicled on VH-1’s Behind the Music. Like many RC sketches, it tends to get a tad dark in places, but unlike a lot of the current RC outings, it doesn’t overdo it and is genuinely funny for the most part. Here’s “Behind the Music – Electric Mayhem”.
-Funny stuff, but one minor nitpick: why no mention or appearance of Lips, the trumpet player who joined the band in The Muppet Show‘s 5th and final season and has been with the Mayhem ever since?
Come on, the guy blows a mean horn and talks like Louis Armstrong. That’s gotta be worth a mention at least.
Today’s Nerdvana is a selection from the early 1980’s band Haircut 100, who had a very brief and tumultuous career (the band only produced 2 albums and the lead singer was only present for the first). I used to see the video for this particular track on TBS’s Night Tracks a lot (Night Tracks was basically TBS’s mini-MTV clone block, back when the ‘M’ in MTV stood for Music, rather than Mediocre), and it continues to be one of my favorite 80’s pop tunes.
Because of the video, I always think of tropical islands and exotic rain forests whenever I hear this song. Remember Wild Cartoon Kingdomfrom last year? This would be a fitting opening theme for that if it were a show. Plus, I just really like the title. Enjoy “Love Plus One”.
All of the hype surrounding the imminent premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens caused me to remember this ad from a year or two ago. This is the 2nd (I believe) spot from LEGO’s “Build Together” campaign with the father/son road trip (because apparently, mothers and daughters don’t bond, play with Legos or go on road trips. So LEGO is strictly a guy thing now? Wuuuuut?). Anyways, this particular spot focuses on the Star Wars franchise. Check it out:
Yes, that’s George Lowe as the announcer there, and that’s awesome. Despite this, however, I have a couple of nitpicks about this ad. Yeah, I know that I shouldn’t be over thinking a toy commercial, but the fact that Darth Vader is there and not being the bad guy is nothing short of bizarro. Darth Vader is the dark lord of the Sith and Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and the droids (but not Princess Leia, because girls are icky and they’d contaminate the RV with their cooties) are part of the rebel alliance determined to bring down the empire. They wouldn’t be hanging out as such. Again, yeah, I know this is just a toy commercial and as such, nothing that happens in it is in any way canon to the movie universe, but Darth Vader hanging out with the rest of the Star Wars crew like he’s just one of the gang is just weird. It’d be like seeing the Shredder chillaxing with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or He-Man and Skeletor hanging out and acting like bros; it’s just plain odd.
As for the commercial’s punchline where the kid asks his father if they can keep Chewbacca as a pet…
“I won’t even dignify that joke with my analysis!”
Warner Brothers’ latest animated outing, Wabbit – A Looney Tunes Production, which currently airs simultaneously on both Boomerang and Cartoon Network, isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty decent overall, especially since the show is much welcome return to form for it’s star, the wascally wabbit Bugs Bunny himself. Ol’ Bugsy is back to being an energetic, wise-ass trickster and troublemaker again, rather than his much more restrained self from The Looney Tunes Show. In Wabbit, Bugs takes on every manner of foe from tiny peg-shaped ninjas to giant irascible painters to a feisty King of the Jungle to the Tooth Fairy. The art and drawing style takes some getting used to (Yosemite Sam in particular looks like he jumped off the Spumco drawing board) and some of the stories work better than others (the shorts in which Bugs interacts with Bigfoot tend to irritate more than amuse) but overall the hyper-kinetic pace and the non-stop barrage of gags keep things entertaining, and with the promise of more Looney Tunes stars to appear on the show, including Porky Pig and a “totally nuts” Daffy Duck, Wabbit looks to be a winner.
However, the series has already performed a bizarre oddity: it suddenly and without warning switched its’ opening and closing theme music from this jazzy score:
To this more Bluegrass-ey number:
“I’m a -pickin!” “And I’m a-grinnin’!”
This is not a complaint, mind you; both themes are OK (I admit to liking the first one a little more, but that’s probably because by this time I’ve grown more accustomed to it). I don’t mind the change necessarily, it’s just that there was nothing wrong with first theme and the switch just seemed to come from out of nowhere, like the sudden shift from Power Rangers Zeo to Power Rangers Turbo. Weird, right?
Fighting games are awesome, even a clueless gamer like myself can attest to that. However, as an artistic geek, one of my favorite elements of fighting games are the stages the bouts take place in. Often so much care and detail goes into the stages, arenas and kick-ass background music of fighting games that I find myself paying more attention to them than the fights themselves, usually resulting in me getting my butt handed to me. Today’s Player two Start pays tribute to some of my personal favorite fighting game stages and their music. Once again, these won’t be in any particular order, so I won’t be numbering them. Also again, these are just my personal favorite fighting game stages; others will have their own picks, and I welcome any feedback. Now, let’s do this!
BALROG (M. Bison in Japan) STAGE – STREET FIGHTER 2
While I like this stage, this one is a particular favorite of my twin brother Jason (aka our very own Goldstar); those who know him personally can attest that this stage is so him! This is easily one of the most eye-catching stages in all of SF2; I personally dig the twin bikini babes in red and blue. The music’s cool too.
FEI LONG STAGE – SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2
While Fei Long is basically another “I wanna be like Bruce Lee!” fighting game character, his stage immediately caught my eye when I first spotted a SSF2 arcade machine in some chintzy little shopping center somewhere in Columbia, MD. It’s really breathtaking, I like the music and as added surprise, at the end of the bout(s), the exotic bird and dragons start cheering their approval. That blew me away, because up to that point I thought they were just statues. So mythical birds and dragons are real in the Street Fighter universe? Rockin’!
CAMMY STAGE – SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2
Our younger brother Chaz (aka CJP from the Otaku Gamer Spot) is fond of this stage, as am I. I’m not sure if the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) can really be seen in the skies of the United Kingdom, but the stage is cool anyway.
CAFFEINE NICOTINE STAGE – SAMURAI SHODOWN 2
The character of Caffeine Nicotine (get it?) immediately got my attention when I first read about SS2 in Electronic Gaming Monthly (there I go, dating myself again). I thought they couldn’t be serious, adding this little old man character who looks like he couldn’t hurt a fly, to a fighting game; I figured he must be a joke character or something, but Nicotine quickly became a favorite of mine as he combines 2 things I’ve always liked: deceptively powerful characters and mystics. His stage is at the floor of temple steps shrouded in mist (nice touch), and his music is pure Asian goodness–it sounds like something out of Noh theater (which theater? Noh theater! Insert your own “Who’s on First?” routine here).
GALFORD STAGE – SAMURAI SHODOWN 1 & 2
One of my favorite Samurai Shodown charcters has always been Galford. He’s an American in a Japanese setting, and I sort of fancy myself an Eastern/Western hybrid, a weirdo in 2 cultures) and he’s flashy and showy but a heck of a nice guy and devoted to justice–again similar to me, though I’m considerably more snarky and lazier. I like Galford’s harbor based stages with the rowdy seagoing types watching the fray (I always felt particularly bad when Galford would get wasted by a fatality move and you had to see his dog Poppy bow his head and face losing his master–what?! I have a sensitive side!), and his music rocks hard. Galford also has two of my all-time favorite win quotes:
“Forgive me. I possess power you can only dream of.” and
“Maybe I should get back to basics and stop the flash…naah.”
Here’s the music for Galford’s stage, Tuna. (No kidding, that’s really what it’s called.)
KEN STAGE -STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2
You probably figured this was going to make the list. No surprise there, it’s awesome. Ken tossing a birthday bash for his lady Eliza aboard his own massive luxury yacht with a ton o’ Capcom characters in attendance as his guests–how can anyone resist? FTR, here are the other characters who cameo in this stage:
Pure from Capcom World 2
Felicia from Darkstalkers (in the pool)
Morrigan from Darkstalkers
Lord Raptor (Zabel Zarock) from Darkstalkers (in human form strumming on his guitar)
Lei-Lei & Ling-Ling (aka Hsien-Ko and Mei Ling) from Night Warriors
Unknown Soldiers 1 and 2 from Forgotten Worlds
Michelle Heart from Legendary Wings
Linn Kurosawa from Aliens VS Predator (climbing out of the pool)
Biff and Ortega from Saturday Night Slam Masters
Strider Hiryu
Captain Commando
Ginzu from Captain Commando
Kenzou Sujimoto, Capcom staff member (as a butler)
DINER STAGE – STREET FIGHTER 4
Not much explanation needed here. It’s a 50’s style diner at night. Cool tunes and bouncing cars. Grab a burger and a chocolate malt and enjoy the brawl.
OVERPASS STAGE – STREET FIGHTER 4
Even I’m not sure why I like this stage so much. It’s not very showy or flashy; it’s just the underside of a bridge somewhere in Japan, where a small group of kids have gathered to watch the fight, run around, goof on each other and well, just be kids. Sometimes understatement is the best statement. The music’s decent as well, kind of J-Pop, and strangely fitting to the stage.
ASGARD STAGE – MARVEL VS CAPCOM 3
Anyone who regularly follows this site knows that I like me some Asgard. I just love the idea that there’s this magical dimension of myth, might, advanced space technology and mysticism with a Rainbow Bridge, Pegasi and giant flying fire chickens just hanging a stone’s throw away from Earth.
And the place really lights up at night, literally!
I’m going to cheat a little with the music for this one. No characters in MvC3 have their own personalized stages, and I like Thor’s personal theme more than the designated theme for Asgard itself, so I’ll be going with the former instead of the latter.
-And there you have it. Some of my favorite fighting game stages and background tunes.
Whut, mate? No love fer my stage? I’ve got got me stage in a public loo! That’s classy!
Twin Images 
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