Muppet viral videos

The Muppets Studio has been posting a series of Muppet viral videos on online video sharing websites starting in 2008. (These videos are tagged with the word "virmup" to note them as a set.) The first set of videos in 2008 were posted on accounts created for individual characters, including Sam the Eagle, Gonzo, Beaker, the Swedish Chef, Statler and Waldorf, Fozzie Bear, Rizzo the Rat and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. In 2009, the videos were posted under a central Muppets Studio account on YouTube.

One of the first videos, Beaker performing "Ode to Joy", won the "People's Voice" award at the 2009 Webby Awards, and has had more than 14-million views on YouTube.

The Muppets' rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", posted on Thanksgiving week 2009, was especially popular, and reached more than 17-million views on YouTube within its first year online. The video won Webby Awards in both the Music and Viral categories, including the People's Choice in both categories.

The latest video, "Pöpcørn" was released on July 2, 2010.

The videos have proved popular since their initial release. All original music releases of the videos have gained over 1,000,000 views.

Releases
The series launched on June 27, 2008 with Sam the Eagle's "Stars & Stripes FOREVER!" posted to YouTube, MySpace and Vimeo. Three abstract music videos followed on July 16 posted by Gonzo, Beaker and the Swedish Chef.

Fozzie Bear added a video on October 20, 2008 of the Muppets' visting Tyson the skateboarding bulldog at Huntington Beach. Rizzo the Rat launched a profile on October 20th as well; and posted a video response to Fozzie's video featuring Rowlf the Dog on October 23rd.

On October 26, 2009 three new Halloween videos were posted on YouTube. The Swedish Chef's pumpkin carving video, and two Muppet Lab sketches posted by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew ("Carve-o-matic" and "Ghost Hunter").

Each video closes with critical comments by Statler and Waldorf, who also posted four independent heckling shorts under their own account in July 2008.

Muppet Studios head Lylle Breier stated at a 2009 D23 presentation that more viral videos were planned for 2010 - including "Dust in the Wind", "American Woman", "Popcorn", "Carol of the Bells" and "Stand By Me".

In fall 2009 the first four shorts were made available for download at The iTunes Store.

Beaker's "Ode to Joy" was also posted on Muppets.com and the three Halloween videos from October 2009 were also showcased on Disney's Haunted Holidays website.

Development & production
Steve Whitmire spoke of the development of the project in a 2008 interview, stating: "The idea for that came from the whole department at Disney. Actually it was Dave Cook who decided we should originally be involved in that. So kudos to the executive force, you know? I had a lot to do with putting it together, making it work, along with the guys from a company called Soap Box, which I think is an outside production company that was brought in to produce the pieces. Great group of guys."

The initial set of videos were directed by Kirk Thatcher.

Awards & recognition
Beaker's "Ode to Joy" video was nominated for a People's Voice Webby Award in April 2009. (A previous Muppet video series, From the Balcony, won a Webby in 2007.) The public was invited to vote in the Webbys' "People's Voice." Two campaign videos were posted on several of the Muppets' accounts in to support the effort. It was announced in May that "Ode to Joy" won the People's Voice award.

The Muppets' rendition of Queen's "Bohemian's Rhapsody" won Webby Awards in both the Music and Viral categories, including the People's Choice in both categories.