The Funday Pawpet Show
The Funday Pawpet Show is the Internet's longest running interactive live puppet show. The show started netcasting weekly in November 1999. Due to problems with song royalties, the show took a hiatus after September 3, 2017. When it returned on September 9, 2018, though the show began to be broadcast biweekly, before it eventually returned a weekly schedule starting with the 2021 Easter show. The show runs four hours live from 6pm to 10pm Eastern Time Sunday Nights originating from the Orlando, Florida area. Every episode is available on the show's website. The audience interacts with the proformers via IRC channel and artwork sent in to the show through the aforementioned website. Being based in Orlando, the show is a favorite of many Disney Imagineers, and elements of the show have found their way into some recent productions. For those not familiar with the show, here is an article written by one of the main proformers to mark "A Decade of Silliness". Basicly the show is Monty Python meets the Muppets.
Tropes used in The Funday Pawpet Show include:
- A Day in the Limelight: Carrot gets a cameo in the Disney movie Bolt.
- Academy Awards: Around the time of the Oscar® Awards, the Pawpets sometimes offer The Arthur® Awards; named after cast member Arthur Bronswagger; and featuring categories such as "Best Song They Don't Play Anymore".
- Affectionate Parody: In one memorable episode, the movie Being John Malkovich is parodied as one by one each cast member discovers a mysterious doorway in back of the stage that transforms them into ferrets.
- Amusement Park: Several of the cast members work at one, and Mutt in particular is a big fan of roller coasters.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From the official website: "THIS IS NOT A KIDS SHOW! It contains adult topics, accidental foul language, and rude smells."
- Babies Make Everything Better: JR and Yappy share their baby books.
- Also Tantrum Barker-Fox, a baby fox.
- Big Eater: "The Heart Attack Grill"
- Black Comedy: Though they tend to refrain from this (one show ended abruptly when a guest crossed the rating line hard), one episode had Blitz become tired of the noise and apparently beating the constantly shrieking baby fox puppet Tantrum to death with a suspicious vibrating implement. Every bit as inappropriate yet hilarious as it sounds.
- Brain Bleach: Anything Fred Bedderhead sends to the show and/or Yappy emails to Mutt.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Quote 24. The first two items were mentioned just before the quote in a discussion about chickens in live theatre.
- Broadcast Live
- Camp Gay: Skippy "Skippages" D. Lion
- Catch Phrase: Many many many over 10 years.
- Arthur: "That's pretty spactacular!", "I'm Reeeeeeeee Calllllllllin!", "Multi Boobage", "Look into my eye!"
- Bitch Voop: "Raaaaaaaaaaasvaaaaaaaaaaaar!"
- Blitz: "I don't even know what that is!" (Although this is actually more a Mutt catchphrase ABOUT Blitz), "Oooohhhhh!", "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" (at weird times like a guy Darwining down an elevator), "Oh, I know this song! It's in Rock Band!".
- Carrot: "Bashweeeeeeeee!"
- Ezra: "Wikiwikiwikiwikiwiki!"
- Hugh Manatee: "I'm endangered!" "Oh sunuvabitch! Beeblblblblblb..." (referring to beebling)
- Javafrog: "I'm into it!"
- Lilly/Leisl: "This Is My Side!"
- Mutt: "And there's nothing wrong with that," "OH MY GOD!", "I don't even know what that is!" (see above; Mutt is the usual instigator)
- Shak: "Is it full of delicious candy?" "EGGS AREN'T WATER!"
- Everyone: "Who pooted?"
- Character Tics: Several. Derp the gator has his 'jazz hands,' Hugh rolls back and forth going 'flipper flipper flipper' as well as beebling, and Ezra scoots around on his back feetfirst while making the above mentioned 'wiki wiki wiki' noise.
- Chatroulette: From Episode 495 the Pawpets meet 3 very "happy" girls.
- The Chew Toy: Poink T. Weasel
- Carrot is a literal chew toy, he is a dog toy repurposed into being a puppet.
- Clip Show: The "Acid Flashback Segments", although, since the show isn't rerun the audience enjoys them more than other show's clip show episodes.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Java, Java, Java...
- Cluster F-Bomb: A few of these lead to the Swear Jar, and a dollar per swear fine.
- Cooking Show: Parodied with Cooking With Shak.
- Cool Old Guy: Gof.
- Cool Shades: Ezra.
- Cute but Cacophonic: Tantrum and the Peckers.
- Dirty Old Manatee: Hugh, whose interests and subjects of affection range from women in their golden years to Carvel's Fudgie the Whale.
- Dog Walks You: Bandit, Yappy's dog, frequently tries to herd the cast members and guests.
- Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off: Poink often brings up situations he dubs "Ass Beating Hours," where someone, most commonly his grandmother, would catch him misbehaving in some form or fashion and administer corporal punishment...creatively. Very creatively. He's admitted to being spanked with, among other things, a douche bag, a Stretch Armstrong toy, a piece of Hot Wheels track (with the pins exposed), and The Six Million Dollar Man. He admits he often deserves them though, having been a self-admitted hellraiser in his youth.
- Drugs Are Bad: Meet Earl,the Eyeball.
- The Drunk Show.
- Episode 420.
- Early Installment Weirdness: The show's first season has a few things that differ from the rest of the series.
- The show didn't have a theme song until Episode 4, when "Soul Bossa Nova" became its theme song. It would remain as the show's theme song until Episode 397, when it was replaced with 2 the Ranting Gryphon's "Pawpet Song."
- The first six episodes were filmed with Yappy's couch being used in place of a stage. From Episode 7 onward, an actual stage is used instead.
- The show itself didn't even have an official name until Episode 8, when it was announced that the show would be called, "The Funday Pawpet Show."
- In the first season, almost every episode ended with the closing credits theme from The Muppet Show. From Season 2 to Season 17, the show would instead end with "Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Weiderschein" from The Lawrance Welk Show instead.
- Eek! A Mouse!: Often Florida wildlife will invade the live webcast, leading Ezra to envoke this trope, while Mutt commands the show's border collie to "Eat it, Bandit! Eat it eat it eat it!"
- Endangered Species: Hugh Manatee.
- Everythings Better With Bunnies: The Pawpets Mystery Science Theater 3000 "The Adventures of The American Rabbit"
- Everything's Better with Chickens: BAWK!
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Jimmy Noneck.
- Everythings Better With Vixens: All the Voops, especially Lilly and BV.
- Excited Show Title!: The OMFG Blitz! Show.
- Fan Art: A tradition on the show with the Art Jam segment, where images sent in by the viewers are shared live.
- Fartillery: Yappy and JR for the most part.
- One of Poink's more infamous examples of the trope. He not only clears the stage, he also ends up killing the live feed for a short while.
- Game Show: The show has presented versions of "Pawpet Match Game", "Pawpet Hollywood Squares", "Pawpet Deal or No Deal" and "Who Wants to Win Nothing and Like It?"
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Well, technically, there is no radar as the FCC doesn't govern internet shows. However the show likes to keep it to a PG-13 level, although somethings do get through from time to time.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Simba is challanged to eat an entire pack of Listerine breath strips.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: "Pawpets Pawpets/We will sing and dance/Pawpets Pawpets/We're not wearing pants".
- Halloween Episode: Once a Season the show celebrates on the Sunday before the 31st. One year when Halloween fell on a Sunday, Yappy set up outside cameras to catch the reactions of Trick or Treaters who encountered screams, fog .... and a giant dog mascot upon ringing the bell.
- Happy Birthday to You: "This is your birthday song, it isn't very long." (Or the even shorter version "Birthday song, very long")
- Intercourse with You: The Pawpets do "Bad Touch"
- Media Watchseal: Seal of Disapproval
- Medium Awareness: Tantrum, of all people!
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Ezra: (Trying to determan Tantrum's sex) Tantrum, what's between your legs? |
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- Multi Boobage: Trope Namer.
- The best part was the Lilly with six breasts
- Must Have Caffeine: Javafrog (And to a much lesser degree, Mutt)
- No Mouth: Mouthless Marvin.
- Notable Commercial Campaigns: Yappy almost deletes 45 minutes of comedy gold as Ezra, Hugh and Arthur MST a bunch of old commercials sent in by the audience.
- Nuns Are Funny: J.R.'s Halloween costume one year.
- Once a Season: The show holds a Telethon as well as having Christmas, Chistmas in July, Easter, Holloween, and 4th of July/Yappy's Birthday episodes.
- Oven Logic: Herbie once recounted how he tried to bake brownies, substituting more water for the eggs, "After all, eggs are water, right?" Leading Shak to exclaim "Eggs Aren't Water!" which became a semi Catch Phrase for the shark.
- Parrot Exposition: Blitz often ends up doing this thanks to his tendency to ask about things that are assumed to be common knowledge.
- Pink Flamingos: Long before "2 Girls, One Cup" came The Pink Flamingos Challenge". Chocolate donut, anyone?
- Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Subverted when the cast interviewed Jeff the Pizza Guy. When asked if he is ever greeted at the door by naked women, Jeff said he has in the past (there is a nudest colony on his route), but they are generally not the women you'd want to live this trope out with.
- Puppet Show
- Rascally Raccoon: Rummage. Also when the show showed clips from the movie Pom Poko
- Road Apples: Early episodes featured a green bean puppet whose dark green color came across on the Real Player screen as black, making the puppet look like a Mr Hanky Expy
- Sarcasm Blind: Blitz misses a lot of the instances of snark, sarcasm, and other such things from the cast, especially from Poink.
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Poink: "Get up on screen or I will taser you." |
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- Self-Deprecation: "Hi, I'm ________, and you're wasting your time watching the Funday Pawpet Show!".
- Service Sector Stereotypes: Temp Ferret
- Sgt. Pepper's Shout Out
- Significant Birth Date: Yappy Fox happened to be born on Independence Day (July 4th).
- Species Surname: •Both followed (Poink T. Ferret, Java Frog, Hump T. Camel, Hugh Manatee, Temp Ferret) and averted (Mutt Barker - illegitimate son of Bob, Arthur Bronswagger, Jimmy Noneck, Shak, Ezra Shawartz, Crappy Shawartz). One of the newest characters, Gof, has a name that stands for Gray Old Fox.
- Spin-Off: The OMFG Blitz! Show
- Sunglasses at Night: Ezra.
- Talkative Loon: Javafrog gets shades of this.
- Talking to Himself: Scott does so many characters, he is often called upon to carry on a conversation between two of them. Also JR has Poink and Huge Manatee frequently talk to each other.
- Tastes Like Diabetes: Invoked; at one point, the cast got annoyed with a handfull of channel dwellers who kept complaining that the show was getting too raunchy. In response they split one episode into two parts - First half was The Squeaky Clean Pawpet & Friends Show which fit this trope, followed immediatly by The Poink Show which allowed the naughty weasel to crank the raunch Up to Eleven.
- The Teaser: For a while the show used thirty second cold openings featuring people such as Trout Fishing in America, Ben Franklin, and the cast of Between the Lions saying variations of "Hi, I'm/We're ____ and your wasting your time watching The Funday Pawpet Show.
- Telethon: Once a Season the Non-Profit show holds a telethon to help Yappy pay for the operating and music rights costs.
- This Is My Side: Because its not Xmas in July without a little light bondage.
- Visual Pun: Bawk, a chicken puppet who is larger than most of the other puppets in the cast. An entirely intentional example.
- Weasel Mascot: Poink (and to a somewhat lesser extent Todd).
- We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: Poink and KP do one that reflects Pawpet Show happenings.
- Wicked Weasel: Poink, again.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: With show Chew Toy Poink as Scrooge.