Muppet Danny Boy performed by Beaker, Swedish Chef and Animal

In honor of St Paddy's day, here's a classic Muppet sketch -- a rendition of "Danny Boy," performed by Animal, the Swedish Chef, and Beaker on the high notes. I nearly wept. Link (via Making Light)

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winstonsmith85

“Danny Boy” is a song whose lyrics are set to the Irish tune “The Londonderry Air”. The lyrics were originally written for a different tune in 1910 by Frederick Weatherly, an English lawyer who never actually visited Ireland, and modified to fit the Londonderry Air in 1913.

In March 2008, Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley’s New York Pub and Restaurant, banned the song from his establishment’s St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in an effort to promote the singing of other Irish tradition songs. The ban sparked international interest and even debate about Danny Boy’s place in Irish American culture and the relationship between the U.S. and Ireland.

(From Wikipedia)

Great video! Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!
jamie

Jim Henson should be, umm, sainted one day for being totally awesome.

This memorial statue for him gets me every time:

http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/images/Dedication/pages/16.Close%20up.htm
MrsBug

We have Season 1 and 2 on DVD and it’s worth every penny.
Ben

There are many, many songs that the Muppets can add to. I love me some muppets.

Beannachtam na Femle Padraig
jrtom

TJarrett@2: You beat me to it, dang you. :)

JuniorMadScientist@4: What’s your point? The sketch itself came out a number of years before anyone blogged it, I’m sure. Cory posted it today in particular for reasons that are left as an exercise for the reader. Were you just looking for an excuse to post a link to that blog?

(I’ve sung and played this in at least a couple of different ensembles; it’s a beautiful piece and done right it can bring tears to the eyes…but done the way the Muppets do it can bring tears of a rather different kind. Bravo, Mr. Henson.)
JDspeeder1

In the criminally under-appreciated PC game ”The Muppet CD-ROM: Muppets Inside”, the mini-game Scope That Song ends each level with the final song sung by The Leprechaun Brothers. I DARE anyone to listen to their rendition of ”Hava Nagilah” without shooting liquid out at least one orifice.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Junior Mad Scientist (4), how tragically unhip and last-year of you to omit to mention that today isn’t even St. Patrick’s Day, technically speaking, since the celebration of the saint’s feast day was relocated to Saturday the 15th for liturgical reasons. … Not that it makes a damned bit of difference.
Miss Cellania

My three favorite muppets, probably BECAUSE you can’t understand a thing they say!
arkizzle

Brilliant!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’S DAY!
Chocolatey Shatner

The Swedish Chef has people hands: I’m sorry, but that just really creeps me out. I love the other non-human hybrid Muppets, though.
ediew

Beaker and the Swedish Chef, with his sleecy slicy kneefy knifey were always my favorites. I just noticed that the Swedish Chef has 5 fingers, but I see just above someone else mentioned that. Is he the only muppet with 5 fingers? Does that mean he’s further evolved.

I always hated this song, but this version gives me a new appreciation.
tjarrett

And as the very Irish Animal once said, “Danny boy: Oh boy, oh boy.”

SlÃ inte!
lava

Wow, that ranks up there with Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein singing xmas carols on SNL…
Junior Mad Scientist

yawwwwwn.

Caught this a while back at comic maestro Eddie Campbell’s blog.

Better late than never, though.
franko

“well, THERE goes another popular expression down the drain…”

LOL — the muppets were pure gold.
Earth Man

Thank you for this! Made my morning.

@ #4: Are you Comic Book Guy? The resemblance is uncanny…
Crunchbird

Actually, EdieW, I’d guess that the “sleecy slicy kneefy knifey” you mention is the main reason that they used real people hands instead of stuffed muppet hands for the Chef. He not only had to pick up and put down a lot of different-sized items in his segments, some of them were actually dangerous and the sort of things one shouldn’t try to get a fumbly, felt-covered, four-fingered grip on.

As a kid with Norwegian roots, I always had a special fondness for my fellow Scandinavian and his antics … I’m sure his theme song is burned onto my brain forever. Did anyone else try the Chef-themed cereal they came out with back in the late ’80s, Croonchy Stars? That stuff was so loud to chew it was genuinely disturbing.