give the 'net credit

After a long week, blogging was about the last thing on my mind. Instead, I flipped to Facebook tonight, but a video a friend posted gave me the simple topic I needed to keep my streak alive. In what I saw as ironic, yet genius, one of the oldest forms of entertainment is adapting to the Web quite well.

I’m talking about the Muppets, the brainchild of Jim Henson and the former hosts of a prime-time TV program. I was always a fan as a kid. I felt too often like Fozzie Bear growing up. I wondered why no one thought I was as funny as I thought I was. I was disappointed their last attempt at prime-time TV, Muppets Tonight on ABC fizzled. So where do you reboot an aging franchise based on puppets to gain a new audience? Why YouTube, of course!

According to this AP story, the first new Muppet video posted on the Muppets Studio YouTube channel, boasted more than 8.6 million hits its first week. It’s a classic in my book. The Muppets take on “Bohemian Rhapsody” as only they can. It’s a new classic in my book. I can’t believe they dusted off the Manah Manah dude.

The newest video, the Muppets take on “Carol of the Bells’ debuted Thursday. I think it’s almost as funny.

What is seems like the people behind the Muppets reboot get is how people watch videos on the Internet. Muppets Studio General Manager Lylle Breier said:

“When the Muppets came into real popularity was the ’70s. What was popular in the ’70s? Variety shows — that’s what `The Muppet Show’ was. What’s the Web? It’s a giant variety show. That’s why the Muppets fit so perfectly. Parody has always been at the heart of what the Muppets do.”

Maybe they just read the same AP article, but a handful of people who left comments on the video felt the same way.

I hope this new attempt at reaching an audience works. As I said, I’m a fan. But as an Internet researcher trying to find ways that the news industry can adapt online, I’m hoping the Muppets succeed for another reason. Their new efforts could show that listening to fans and reaching them with free content in a way they enjoy consuming it and sharing it with their friends can lead to bigger and better and profitable things.

I encourage you to check out some of the other videos as well. I love how they have embraced the medium. Having Stadler and Waldorf sitting in front of a computer at the end instead of in their balcony box is inspired. My favorite joke:

Stadler: You know when I was a kid, they hadn’t invented the Web?

Waldorf: When you were a kid, they hadn’t even invented the wheel.

or

Stadler: How many hits did that one recieve?

Waldorf: I don’t know, but not enough to kill it!

They also remade a classic YouTube video of the skateboarding dog and taken on current, but lesser known TV shows, such as Ghost Lab, and integrated modern video technology into nearly every aspect. I saw green screen effects and 3D animation. Was there even some CGI?

If an entertainment form as old as puppetry can learn to adapt to the Web, it gives me hope for a medium as old as newspapers.

In the same vein, I’ve been seeing this promotion for the DVD release of Public Enemies every time I log into Mafia Wars on Facebook. Even though I’m not sure what the 9 Dillinger pistols and 9 prison stripes I’ve earned from doing the special quest gets me, I like the promotion. It makes sense to promote a mafia movie in a mafia game. With more than 29.5 million active accounts, those ads will reach more people than most TV shows.

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