Mah Na Mah Na

Music & Lyrics: Piero Umiliani (1926-1991)

Originally titled Mah-Na Mah-Na, this song was written by Italian composer Piero Umiliani for a Swedish soft-core documentary called Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell). It is a nonsense song that achieved widespread fame when The Muppets performed it.

Performed on The Muppet Show by: Mahna Mahna & the Snowths

Performed on Sesame Street by: Bip Bipadotta & two Anything Muppets

Mahna Mahna debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he and his back-up singers, The Snowths, sang the song after which he is named. That skit was later used in The Muppet Show Episode 101: Juliet Prowse.

On Sesame Street in 1969, a version of Bip Bipadotta made from the Small Purple Anything Muppet sang Mahna Mahna backed by two AM girls. Later, Jim Henson created a Sesame-specific character named Bip Bipadotta who was very similar to the original Mahna Mahna.

The Mahna Mahna sketch was parodied in the Muppets Tonight episode with Sandra Bullock, where Kermit said that he sees strange pink creatures (the Snowths) every time he says the word "phenomena", to which they sing the classic ""doo doo doo doo doo" line.

This act opened The Muppet Show Live event at Muppetfest in 2001. Bill Barretta performed Mahna Mahna to a pre-recorded track of the original song. New video footage of Mahna Mahna riding in a limo was also tapped for this act and shown on a video monitor.

Mahna Mahna was re-released as an advert for a charity called 'Canteen' which was aired in New Zealand in 2005. In the ad, Mahna Mahna was performed by Bill Barretta.

On The Ed Sullivan Show and The Muppet Show, the back-up singers sang "Doo doo doo doo doo", but on the Sesame Street version, they sang "Ba tee pa tee pee".