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"The Muppets" ends with a celeb-filled version of "Mahna Mahna," but most fans don't know that song got its start in a Swedish softcore porn film.
It might just be the catchiest Muppet song of them all, beating out "Rubber Duckie," "It's Not Easy Being Green," "Rainbow Connection" and all the rest.
But until reading this Slate article, I had no idea "Mahna Mahna" came from a softcore porn film.
You know "Mahna Mahna," of course. It's not only in the new "Muppets" movie, but it's been on "Sesame Street," "The Muppet Show," and every Muppet music compilation out there. (There's even a version by the band Cake, which has been set to an excellent "Star Wars" montage on YouTube.)
The song, however, wasn't written by Jim Henson and crew. It was composed by Piero Umiliani, and first heard in a 1968 Italian film that some consider to be softcore pornography, "Sweden: Heaven and Hell." The song plays over a scene where buxom Swedish ladies head for the sauna. The clip actually doesn't show any nudity -- even in the sauna the women are towel-wrapped -- so you can catch the song's introduction below.
The music was later used for the famous sketch in which two cow-like Muppets (called "Snouths" for "snout" and "mouth") provide backup while Mahna Mahna (voiced by Jim Henson himself) gets overly excited and keeps yelling out his signature line.
The very first Muppet version actually features slightly different performers -- you can follow the whole "Mahna Mahna" timeline at the excellent Muppet Wiki page. I love their completely serious explanation of the song's gist: "Although the back-up singers attempt to bring order back to the number, their effort is ultimately futile."
"Mahna Mahna" gets a great showcase in the new "Muppets" movie, as a rotating cast of celebs pop in to help sing along. And it's starting to make its way back onto kids' radio again, which is a big treat for this parent who grew up in the 1970s. Thanks, you Swedish sauna ladies, for giving us this irresistible earworm.
"Mahna Mahna?" "Rainbow Connection?" Tell us your favorite Muppet songs in the comments.
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Leave a Comment:
I believe it was used by Ernie Kovaks in a comedy bit in the 1950's.
Wrong
I remember hearing this long before 1968. I'm pretty sure you are right about it being used on the Ernie Kovacs show.
You are probably thinking of The Nairobi Trio "Solfeggio" from Kovacs.
This headline is COMPLETELY misleading and unfair. Although it leads one to envision the song being music from a XXX, literal porn film (and all the nasty baggage that goes with that), the text of Cooper's article shows the reality is far tamer and less offensive, bordering on "porn film" being an INACCURATE description. Cooper describes the film involved as "a 1968 Italian film that some consider to be softcore pornography" (emphasis my own). So the film is not necessarily even softcore porn, but "some" consider it as such.
I believe this headline should be changed, immediately, to better reflect the full facts of the case.
Welcome to MSNBC and their shameless self-shilling headlines. I agree 100%; this was amongst the most blatant and vile examples of MSNBC headline hyping.
SOME consider to be? SOFTcore? "Some" consider Blue Lagoon to be softcore porn. "Some" consider jeans advertisements to be softcore (or even child) porn. Doesn't make it so.
If journalism were still truly a profession, every single person working for MSNBC would be fired.
Oh, come come now. Let's not let pesky and inconvenient facts get in the way of good old fashioned sensationalism.
Don't screw with the muppets. What the hell is wrong with this reporter anyway.
To be fair, although the headline is misleading, the headline is referring to the article on Slate.com (owned by Washington Post Company not MSNBC). Unfortunately, there's no more journalism anymore anywhere. What we get now is news filtered by our favorite pundit personality or summaries of someone else's article. This is a case of the latter. Go to the Slate article, linked in the MSNBC article, for a more thorough look at the origin of the song. This article is the equivalent of a Facebook status update "OMG! I can't believe this!"
That being said, just because this article is light on facts and sensationalist doesn't mean you have to stop here. You can research it yourself to get the whole picture. But who wants to do that these days?
Red Skelton, used it later, around 1969
bremertonman,
If you are correct, then the headline is even more false and inappropriate and MSNBC and Cooper are not only guilty of lousy research and reporting, but in allowing the headline on the MSNBC browser page to sully the movie and the Henson group even more than I thought they had.
Headlines on MSNBC rarely match reality, they simply do not care. Take a look at any MSNBC "article" on the economy or politics and you will see.
An Italian film "that some consider to be softcore porn"? In 1968? What does that even mean? I think the headline is misleading at best ...
I don't know if Jim Henson was [part] Swedish and whether he was close to his ancestral roots [in Sweden], but one of his Muppet characters is one named "Swedish Chef," which I thought was an interesting reference. I think the Swedish are known to be relatively sexually liberal, compared to the U.S. Public nudity, for example, is not taboo in Sweden.
Kind of a so-what? One of my favorite Mupput Show sketches was Sandra Bullock and "Phenomena".
Slow news day much?
Way more than we needed to know !!! Give it a rest !!!
Besides the grossly misleading and sensationalist headline, that's not even how you spell it.
Is it? (I would spell it thusly: Manama Na.)
I'm sure it was originally titled & spelled "Manamana".
Benny Hill used it a lot too, but I think MSNBC & GFC is just trying to stir up some controversy and outrage where there really is none.
Huh. Turns out it's sort of spelled Mah Na Mah Na - except with accent marks that I don't have on my keyboard! (But, with a space between the h's and n's.)
If the film that the song came from has no nudity, how can it be porn? Granted that all films containing nudity aren't necessarily porn. But isn't nudity, by definition, a prerequsite in order to be considered "porn?"
Nudity is art. Porn is what two or more people do after they get naked.
The article states that the scene in which the song was used has no nudity - not that the entire movie has no nudity.
And, actually, NO. Nudity is NOT required for something to be considered pornographic.
Another comic routine based on Mana Mana was performed by Soviet/Ukrainian troupe "Maski":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjMRM0GQV94
No one linking this to Obama? Or the Tea Party? Not even the NRA? Are all the paranoids oversleeping from too much turkey? Not a word from Michelle Bachmann about perfidious liberal felt? C'mon, folks, wake up...I'm missing my daily entertainment.
Mahana Mahana?
I thought the only noise Muppets made when haveing sex was "Thats right, squell like a pig"!
Are you kidding me!? I would like to know the purpose of this article. The song came from a 'porn film'? and some women in a sauna is porn? where? Saudia Arabia, where the women all wear Burkas? This article is nothing but a load of misleading cra* - if I were the producers of the Muppets, I would get my lawyer and think about suing. This author has a future with FoxNews...
Thinkagain:
THIS is the stuff MSNBC prints daily!! The author is right at home here where bashing people a way of life.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! How could I be so dense all these years... "Mahna mahna" indeed sounds like the music in those 70's softcore films that changed scenes just before getting to third base.
No. The writer of the article is correct. It's from the movie, "Sweden Heaven and Hell." I've seen the X-rated movie and have the 45 rpm single of the tune from the movie soundtrack. To be fair, I also bought a Muppets CD that also has the song on it.
How disgusting! I'll never allow my children to watch all that filth and sex and naked people on Sesame Street again!!
MSNBC should be ashamed to print such a misleading headline!!
mikef1435
Just out of curiosity, you don't happen to be in court today for watching child porn on an airplane, do you?
Sorry. A poor attempt at droll humor.
And the news here is what? That The Muppets use more in jokes that adults could enjoy? I've heard people say that there is humor in the Muppets TV shows and movies that go right over the heads of adults. The kids see the Muppets playing this song and laugh. Dad, who may have seen the movie, laughs at it for a different reason. Nothing insidious here, folks. Nothing dire or damaging to the psyches of young children.
I, for one, APPPRECIATE that The Muppets took comedy refrences from such obscure sources and put them in their show. It makes me value the show for what it was all the more. I WISH there was more entertainment like it on the air, but sadly, there is not.
The new Muppet movie soundtrack has the chickens singing Forget You which the unedited original version of this song is F*** You. Such wholesome music.
I haven't laughed so hard since I found out that church steeples are actually reverence paid to phalluses.
Good article; better than the one on Bouncy's baby bump.