Part of the legacy of Spitting Image is that it inspired a series of similar (some would say copycat) shows in other countries around the world. One of the better known examples is Les Guignols de l’info (News Puppets) in France, but there have been many others in countries ranging from Russia (Kukly) to Kenya (The XYZ Show). A fairly recent production is ZA News, a web series that pokes fun at politics in South Africa, a country that has a tradition of politically minded puppetry.

Here’s a look behind the scenes at the making of ZA News:

ZA News is currently in its fourth season online and now appears weekly on South Africa’s TopTV on Sundays nights as well.

Every Bomb You Drop is probably the most famous of the Spitting Image musical parodies and was one of the most poingent segments that the show ever produced. A parody of Every Breath You Take, Sting agreed to rerecord the song with new lyrics for the show. We tend to take videos like this for granted today, but when this was produced during the era of Thatcher, Regan, the Cold War and emerging international terrorism it was a profound (and unusual) political statement on prime time television in the UK.

Two decades after this was made almost all of the leaders spoofed in it have been (for the most part thankfully) relegated to the dustbin of history, but it’s sad to realize that even though the faces and conflicts may have changed, not an awful lot else has.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was a favourite target of Spitting Image and her puppet was one of the show’s biggest stars. This is one of the best Thatcher skits, which depicts her getting political advice from Hitler, who is alive and well and living out his days as a rooftop gardener in London.

This week I wanted to take a look at one of the best, or  (in the minds of British politicians) worst puppet shows ever produced for TV, Spitting Image.

A satirical look at world politics and entertainment, Spitting Image aired on ITV in the UK from 1984 to 1996. It was a revolutionary show that was merciless in its skewering of politicians and celebrities. Nothing was sacred to Spitting Image, including religion. A good example is My God Is Bigger Than Your God, probably one of the show’s most pitch perfect musical satires…and just as relevant today as the day it was made.

We tend to take these sorts of parodies for granted now, but twenty-five years ago Spitting Image was truly innovative – even dangerous – television. I don’t know that anyone else has ever done political puppetry quite so well.

Over the weekend I received this email from “Puppet Master” Todd Buckram:

Dear PuppetVision,

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m Todd The Puppet Master.  You should know who I am.  I’m sure you do.  If by some freak chance you do not…here is my latest video.

Enjoy, Puppetvision.  I know you will.

And you know what? I did.

You can watch all of Todd the Puppet Master’s videos on YouTube.

One of the most popular TV shows in the early days of television was The Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. Then as now, Hollywood was always looking for a way to extend a lucrative franchise and the Superman producers hit upon the idea of launching a spin-off/spoof called The Adventures of Superpup.

Essentially, the idea was to make a Superman TV show, except that all of the characters would be portrayed by animals (Clark Kent/Superman became “Bark Bent”/”Superpup”, Lois Lane became “Pamela Poodle”, and so on). A pilot was commissioned and  shot on the cheap using the same sets as the original George Reeves show with the characters portrayed by actors in full body dog suits and a puppet or two.

The series never took off (pardon the pun), but the concept was eventually recycled as the premise for a cartoon show called Krypto The Superdog on Cartoon Network in the U.S. a few years ago.

Ballography is a clever little web series on Gameslam.com that’s produced by Adam and David Rudman’s Spiffy Pictures (see previous posts). The series is a spoof of Biography, with each episode featuring a famous baseball from MLB history ranting about their past. The “Buckner Ball” in this episode was puppeteered by Frankie Cordero.

Unfortunately, these videos don’t seem to be terribly well organized or easy to find online, but if you’d like to see more episodes a quick YouTube search should find most of them for you.

Puppet shows in general – and Mister Rogers in particular – get violently sent-up in this music video for Mastodon’s Deathbound. Produced by Authority Films, this was commissioned as part of the Adult Swim Singles Program 2011.

Special thanks to Strange Kids Club for the tip!

Despite their status as semi-retired puppeteers, Jerry Nelson and Frank Oz occasionally still come back to Sesame Street to tape a few skits with their classic characters and it doesn’t get much more classic than Grover (Frank), who’s been providing lousy service to Mr. Johnson (aka “Fat Blue”, played by Jerry) since the early `70s. Their decades-long antagonistic relationship continues in this new sketch, which sends up the much-maligned Broadway musical Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.

Special thanks to everyone who sent this in!

This is a hilarious little short directed by UK director and animatronics specialist John Nolan, who’s incredible animatronics demo reel was posted here last week.