"With the Mupples" - Calendar parody of With the Beatles album cover
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Jim Henson's ideas for puppets based on the Beatles for The Ed Sullivan Show.[1]
Paul McCartney as The Count for Halloween, as posted to his Facebook page in 2015. [1]
Olivia Trinidad Arias, George Harrison, and Michael Frith at Saturday Night Live studios, November 19, 1976.
Elmo crossing Abbey Road.
Elmo's family crosses Abbey Road.
Telly encounters a yellow submarine.
Shalom Sesame
Spoof for Singing with the Stars
Illustration by Bruce McNally.
Dinosaurs: Big Songs
Elmo at NYC's "Strawberry Fields" tribute to John Lennon in Central Park (tweeted from @sesamejapan on September 21, 2017) [2]
Lips ignores a call from Paul McCartney in The Muppets Mayhem
The Beatles were a British rock music group from Liverpool, England held in very high regard for both their artistic achievements and their huge commercial success, and have amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day.
The Beatles comprised of John Lennon on rhythm guitar and mouth organ, Paul McCartney on electric bass, George Harrison on lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums, with all four on vocals. The group shattered many sales records and charted more than fifty top 40 hit singles. They disbanded in 1970.
Some of the former Beatles were originally slated as guests for different episodes of The Muppet Show, but due to budget and schedule conflicts, these episodes were never produced. McCartney's band, Wings, was considered for an episode. Jerry Nelson said in a 1999 interview, "They tried their best to get the Beatles, Paul was willing to do it, but we had to hire the whole band… When he was with Wings. It was too big time. We just didn’t have the money. I think George would have done it, but they kept trying to negotiate with Paul... Ringo probably would have too. If they had asked me, I would have said, 'Hey! Get them! Don’t dicker... Get the ones who are ready to commit.'"
Sir Paul McCartney appeared on stage with Kermit the Frog to celebrate Golden Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II.
Ringo Starr appeared in a February 2008 Disney Xtreme Digital video with Kermit the Frog and Pepe the King Prawn during the Muppets' coverage of the Grammy Awards ceremony.
Beatles producer George Martin appeared on The Ghost of Faffner Hall episode, "Sounds Become Music."
Songs[]
- "All Together Now"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0015)
- Kermit Unpigged
- "Yellow Submarine"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0017)
- "Octopus' Garden"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0019)
- The Ed Sullivan Show, March 1, 1970
- The Muppet Show episode 312
- "Help!"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0135)
- "The Word"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0197)
- "Here Comes the Sun"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0777)
- "Get Back"
- Sesame Street (First: Episode 1088)
- "Come Together"
- The Ed Sullivan Show, April 12, 1970
- "I'm Looking Through You"
- The Muppet Show episode 119
- "In My Life"
- The Muppet Show episode 121
- "She Loves You"
- The Muppet Show episode 407
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
- The Muppet Show episode 419
- "With a Little Help from My Friends"
- The Muppet Show episode 419
- parodied on Sesame Street as "With a Little Yelp from My Friends"
- "Blackbird"
- The Muppet Show episode 503
- "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
- The Muppet Show episode 517
- Muppets on Location: Days of Swine and Roses
- "Good Day Sunshine"
- The Muppet Show episode 522
- Let It Be
- parodied on Sesame Street as "Letter B"
- "Hey Jude"
- parodied on Sesame Street as "Hey Food"
- Beatles covers
- "Ain't She Sweet"
- frequent Beatles performance done on The Muppet Show episode 211
- "Act Naturally"
- The Muppet Show episode 405
- The Muppets Go to the Movies
- "Searchin'"
- The Muppet Show episode 120
References[]
The Muppets[]
- A 1960s IBM film, in which Rowlf demonstrates the IBM electric guitar, uses audio snippets of The Beatles' recording of "Roll Over Beethoven" for Rowlf's guitar solo. (video)
- Sgt. Floyd Pepper's name and usual attire references the Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- Janice and Zoot referenced the group in a Muppet Show At the Dance segment:
- Zoot: Say, do you wanna come to my place and listen to the beetles?
- Janice: Oh, I love their music!
- Zoot: Not music, I mean real beetles!
- The Muppet Show band is dressed as the Beatles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a 1977 puzzle.
- In episode 106 of Muppets Tonight, Johnny Fiama shows off his Tony Bennett album, Sergeant Tony's Lonely Hearts Club Gang, which he claims came out a week before the album with "those other guys" (referring to the Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).
- In episode 201, Rizzo jokes that the only song that
can possibly come up with in the commissary is "I Wanna Hold Your Ham," referencing the Beatles' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
- The 1997 Muppet Parody Calendar: The Sequel parodies the Beatles' album With the Beatles as "With the Mupples."
- In Muppet King Arthur #2, Baskerville sings "Baby, You Can Drive My Car," which wins the heart of Merlin, but fails to faze Arthur and Morgana Le Fay, who have no idea what a car is.
- The title of The Green Album is a reference to The Beatles' record, "The White Album."
- During The Muppets Take the O2, a musical performance of "Hair" is cut short. To fill time, Scooter calls for their "Plan B," which Sweetums states is having Paul McCartney come out and sing "Let It Be" (while releasing several bees into the crowd). However, McCartney backs out due to the bees, and the bees back out when McCartney quits.
- The Muppets Mayhem episode "Eight Days a Week" parodies Peter Jackson's documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Floyd's guitar is marked with a sticker reading "Mr. Bassman," in the same style as Paul McCartney's "Bassman" sticker seen in the Let It Be film. Various Beatles song titles are peppered into the dialogue throughout the episode.
Sesame Street[]
- "I Wanna Hold Your Claw" is one of the hits played on Oscar's favorite grouch radio station in Episode 0068.
- In an early segment, Kermit demonstrates "between" with a ping-pong ball, a donut, and a Beatles record. Beautiful Day Monster ends up eating the record, shouting, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" in reference to the song "She Loves You."
- In Episode 0227, Cookie Monster becomes a part-time worker at Hooper's Store. He gets hunger pangs over various items, including a Beatles record. He mentions the record includes "Yellow Submarine."
- In Episode 0297, the Mudman can be heard singing, "I am the Mudman, they are the Mudmen..." to the tune of the Beatles' 1967 song "I Am the Walrus."
- In The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook, the story "Six Monsters in the Restaurant" concludes with the six monsters eating a wooden table. One remarks, "Isn't it good?" to which another responds, "Norwegian wood!" quoting the Beatles' 1965 song "Norwegian Wood."
- Oscar calls Biff the Paul McCartney of jackhammers in Episode 0665.
- When the Little Theatre of the Deaf demonstrates various words in Episode 0896, several of the cast and others start to sing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" when the group pretends to be a jukebox.
- Count von Count inundates Maria with deliberately off-base answers while playing "Guess Who?" in Episode 0899 (so he can count them). One of the names is Yoko Ono.
- The Sesame Street song "Elbow Song" questions why other body parts have well-known songs about them, but elbows do not. Gordon sings the title lyric of the Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as an example of a "hand" song.
- In Count It Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street, the music video captions for "Letter B" list the record producer as "Lemon Records", referencing The Beatles' record label, Apple Records. After the music video, The Count sings "Yeah, yeah, yeah," referencing "She Loves You."
- The cover of the Sesame Road album spoofs Abbey Road.
- In a cartoon by Joey Ahlbum, the number 9 is featured in various forms underwater, and also shows up on a yellow submarine.
- In Episode 3096, Dr. Sing tells Telly to let his arm cast dry and exits singing "Let it dry" to the tune of "Let It Be."
- In a section of Elmo Through the Looking-Glass, the player can click on Elmo asking Telly (dressed as a walrus) if he's the Eggman, a reference to "I Am the Walrus". Telly confirms this and then says, "but everyone knows me as Telly." One of Telly's later phrases is "coo coo ka-choo," a lyric from the same song.
- In Episode 4067, 1970s band The Electric Three (consisting of Bob, Luis, and Gordon) is practicing, but Luis is distracted by a girl he's met, named Maria. The rest of the band worries she'll break them up in a reference to Yoko Ono.
- In Episode 4068 after Humpty Dumpty falls, the first of the king's men who rushes to the scene yells "coo coo ka-choo," a lyric from "I Am the Walrus."
- Prince Paul Charming is modeled after Paul McCartney in Episode 4139. He also suggests "coo coo ka-chack" as a rhyme for "pack," referencing "I Am the Walrus."
- On the "Things That Go Day" introductory video on Sesamestreet.org, among the forms of transportation that go by Telly is a yellow submarine.
- In the Sesame Street Season 40 press kit, Oscar the Grouch lists two of his favorite songs: "All You Need is Trash" (a parody of "All You Need Is Love") and "I Wanna Hold Your Trash" (a spoof of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand").
- An image of the band from their 1965-67 animated series is seen on the cover of the Sesame Times in the Shalom Sesame episode "Welcome to Israel."
- To promote the Singing with the Stars DVD release, Sesame Workshop artists Diana Leto and Mark Magner created a poster spoofing the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was released online on May 3, 2012.[2]
- In the web video "I Spy (Rainbow)," Telly Monster appears in a yellow submarine.
- In The Sesame Street Podcast episode "Nature", Elmo and Foley greet a beetle, who speaks with a Liverpudlian accent.
- A photo behind Louie seen in Episode 5235 shows he, Mae, and Elmo crossing Abbey Road in homage to the album cover.
Other[]
- At the end of The String Quartet sketch from the Ed Sullivan Show, Mahna Mahna sings a few stanzas from the chorus of "With a Little Help from My Friends".
- On an appearance on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, a group of reindeer perform their roll call. The last one, Blitzen, instead calls out, "Ringo!"
- The Mighty Favog claimed to be a personal friend of the Beatles, and told Chevy Chase that he would get them to appear on Saturday Night Live if Lorne Michaels would let the Muppets stay on the show.
- A promotional poster for the Dinosaurs album Big Songs spoofs the Abbey Road cover.
- In episode 116 of The Animal Show, when Tizzy asks, "How many kinds of beetles are there"?, Stinky and Jake then try to figure out how many were in the Beatles.
T-shirt parodies[]
