Meet Cheburashka

Cheburashka

Ever heard of Chebrushka? I’d seen this character around but didn’t know much about him until I randonly stumbled on this post at orangeyoulucky.blogspot.com.

A trip to the Wikipedia revealed even more information. Turns out he’s dates back to a Russian children’s book from 1966. Here’s what he originally looked like:

Cheburashka

Then in 1969 his look was expanded upon and he was launched into popularity via these Russian stop-motion animation cartoons:

So if you’ve seen this little guy around and you’ve wondered who he was, now you know!

Mah Na Mah Na – Classic Muppets Awesomeness [video]

This reminds me what a great show the Muppet Show was. I was just a kid but it does seem like they successfully created a show that adults could enjoy watching with their kids.

I’m pretty positive the clip above is from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1969. (Before my time. And even before the Muppet Show itself.)

Want to know the origins of this song? In the late 1960’s Italian composer Piero Umiliani wrote the song “Mah Nà Mah Nà” for a controversial mondo film about the seedy underbelly of Sweden called Svezia, inferno e paradiso (Sweden: Heaven and Hell). You can listen to the original version of Mah Nà Mah Nà here. (Thank you Wikipedia!)

P.S. My favorite memory of this song is that when I was a really little kid, my dance teacher picked this song as our tap dance recital number. (Hmmmm, there must be a betamax video of that floating around somewhere!)