Music Blogs

Everything is better when puppets are involved. This is just a FACT. And this fact is especially factual when it comes to music. Whether it's Feist singing with furry friends on Sesame Street, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog putting J.Lo and Bon Jovi in their place, the stars of Team America: World Police belting out expletive-filled odes to the U-S-A, Sifl & Olly spoofing Devo on their brilliant short-lived MTV show, Debbie Harry and Alice Cooper guesting on The Muppet Show, Robert Goulet partying in Vegas with the Anipals on TV Funhouse, or even Spinal Tap opening for a puppet show in a memorable movie scene...well, pop music and puppets go together like Kermit and Miss Piggy.

So naturally, over the years various musicmakers have featured puppets in their music videos, and lately there's been a virtual puppet onslaught. The latest puppet-tastic works of video genius are Coldplay's Thunderbirds-meets-Punch & Judy sendup "Life In Technicolor ii"; BPA's (aka Fatboy Slim's, aka Norman Cook's) "He's Frank," featuring the vocals of the real Iggy Pop and the uncanny puppet likeness of a fake, felt Iggy Pop; Kanye West's 2008 Olympics-themed "Champion"; and the hilarious strumpet-puppet saga "Sugarbaby" by New York rockers Morningwood.

Here's the awesome new Coldplay clip (minus, sadly, a Steve Vai marionette bumrushing Chris Martin's puppet show in protest):

Below is the Iggy/BPA video. The Stooges may have just been passed over yet again for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but we think Iggy's immortalization in "He's Frank" is, frankly, a far more honorable tribute:

And here's Kanye's puppet show. We all know Kanye can be kind of a jerk sometimes, but he sure makes a cute puppet. It's hard not to root for him here:

Meanwhile, Morningwood's "Sugarbaby" actually manages to make a puppet look downright sexy:

But these two videos are just the tip of the felt iceberg. There's plenty more puppetry where that came from. Here are some more clips to get your own music-video puppet show going...

Genesis's 1980s hit "Land Of Confusion" is a true video classic. The political puppets in this video were from Britain's satirical sitcom Spitting Image (NOT Sid & Marty Krofft's similar American show D.C. Follies, as I originally believed--thanks, puppet-loving Yahoo! readers, for setting me straight). But both Spitting Image and D.C. Follies were cult-classic shows featuring public-figure puppet recreations of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Margaret Thatcher, and others. Genesis continued the political party here:

Weezer's "Keep Fishin'" is still perhaps the ultimate puppet video of all time, trumping all others, as it starred the entire cast of The Muppet Show. According to Weezer's official site, Kermit The Frog said, "It was wonderful returning to the set of The Muppet Show to tape Weezer's new music video...I know I speak for all the Muppets when I say it was great working with such a talented band. I just hope Pat has recovered from Miss Piggy's extra attention--both the kissy-kissys and the karate chops, sheesh." Pat surely thought it was worth it, since it's every drummer's dream to one day jam with Animal:

Like Morningwood above, Eminem employed the puppets from Comedy Central's Crank Yankers for one of his funniest vids. Which was ironic, since it wasn't long before this video was shot that he sparred with Triumph The Insult Comic Dog at the VMAs. But Shady got the last laugh here:

Lesser seen but just as entertaining was Starlight Mints' "Popsickle." This low-budget yet inventive video received so much attention in the art community that it was included in the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival as part of its "Eclectic Mix" program, which featured clips that "summarize pop art history while inventing the video future." Finally, puppets get some respect!:

And then there was Mr. Oizo's bizarrely amusing "Flat Beat." French filmmaker/musician Quentin Dupieux created this puppet, "Flat Eric," for a series of bizarre British Levi's commercials that he directed, which featured Flat Eric dancing with reckless abandon to this techno song (which Dupieux also wrote). The ad campaign was a phenomenon all over Europe, so Dupieux released the song, "Flat Beat," under the name Mr. Oizo. The single soon went platinum. And the rest was puppet history:

Speaking of bizarre, Interpol's disturbing, literal carwreck of a puppet video, "Evil," proved that puppets aren't always warm 'n' fuzzy. This video is NOT cute:

And speaking of low-budget videos, the New Zealand garage rock band D4 has broken up...but before they split, they solidified their legacy with this simple but extremely entertaining sock-puppet tour de force:

Indie icons Superchunk also went the DIY route with a grainy marionette clip, in which  they fulfilled every rocker's secret dream (besides jamming with Animal, that is): being immortalized as puppets themselves. This video's director, Peyton Reed, has an obvious knack for quirky projects; his credits include directing TV remakes of Disney's The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Love Bug, Weird Al Yankovic's short-lived Saturday-morning TV show, and the HBO comedy cult classic Mr. Show. He recently graduated to the big screen, directing the Kirsten Dunst cheerleader movie Bring It On. But Superchunk's "Package Thief" may still stand as his best work:

Britpoppers Supergrass were also transformed into puppets for "Pumping On Your Stereo," albeit with a much bigger, almost Jim Henson-level budget:

And Beck took the artist-as-puppet theme to a whole new level for his Guero tour, in which a band of puppet replicas pretty much stole the show:

Lily Allen tried to put a positive anti-drug message in her "Alfie" video, but the titular puppet was so endearing, he made being a basement-dwelling stoner loser seem almost cute:

Chances are Alfie would have been more at home starring on the Sesame Street-meets-Girls Gone Wild "Let's Begin" video by frat band Bad Ronald, starring a slew of keg-tapping puppets and bikini-clad party babes:

On a much sadder note, "You Are My Joy" by Scottish indie supergroup the Reindeer Section (featuring members of Snow Patrol) depicted a puppet couple quite literally torn apart at the seams:

Going back to the Muppet theme, shortly after touring with Weezer a few years ago, emo band Saves The Day shot "Freakish." And they claimed it was just a freakish coincidence that they released their video mere weeks before their tourmates Weezer came out with "Keep Fishin'." That may or may not be true, but there can never be enough puppets on MTV as far as we're concerned, so who cares who copied whom?:

And finally, that brings us to our logical conclusion: An actual Muppet video. Enjoy this cameo-assisted cover of Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," by a collective billed as "Kermit Unpigged," for final proof that REAL puppets in music videos are far more entertaining than some of the record-company "puppets" putting out music these days: