The Amazing Marvin Suggs And His Muppaphone

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Marvin Suggs And His Muppaphone

The Muppaphone is a musical instrument comprised of living pink and orange creatures resembling balls of fluff who cry out in tune when struck by Marvin Suggs with a mallet. Before preforming, the Amazing Marvin Suggs generally tunes the muppaphone by running through a scale. Each creature is tuned to make one single note, much like a xylophone.
Marvin Suggs & His Muppaphone

Marvin Suggs & His Muppaphone

The Muppet Show - Season One 

The Muppet Show - Season One (Special Edition)

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This season included the first appearance of Marvin Suggs and the Muppaphone in episode 105, playing "Lady of Spain."

Cruelty to Fluff Balls? 

In Episode 315, guest star Lesley Ann Warren accused Marvin Suggs of being cruel to the fluff balls in striking them to make music because they are living creatures. "Of course they're alive!" he answered. "You can't make music by hitting dead creatures!"

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Witch Doctor 

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The Muppet Show: Music, Mayhem, and More! - The 25th Anniversary Collection  

The Muppet Show: Music, Mayhem, and More! - The 25th Anniversary Collection

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Track 4 of this absolutely extraordinary cd is, in fact, Lady of Spain preformed by The Amazing Marvin Suggs And His Muppaphone.

Marvin Suggs & The Muppaphone Sites 

The Muppaphone - Muppet Wiki
The Muppaphone is a musical instrument made up of pink and orange balls of fluff. These creatures, members of an as yet unnamed species, are played by Marvin Suggs, who strikes them with mallets in order to elicit the cries of pain that form the Muppaphone's music.

Marvin Suggs and the Muppaphone Action Figure 

Palisades Toys - Jim Henson's Muppet Action Fgure

The Muppets Series 8 Marvin Suggs Action Figure

Amazon Price: $39.95 (as of 12/28/2009)Buy Now

Marvin Suggs and his Muppaphones were featured in series 8 of the Jim Henson's Muppets action figure line made by Palisades Toys. It was the first piece of Marvin Suggs merchandise, based on his rendition of "Lady of Spain" from Episode 105 and The Muppet Show (album). Two different Marvins were produced: one regular with a colorful outfit, and a Repaint in silver and black. The regular Marvin comes with a red wall, the repaint with a black wall. The mallets fit in his hands. Three pink Muppaphones and three orange Muppaphones are included with each figure: for the repaint, the pink ones have been painted orange and vice versa. Each Muppaphone is different.

Veterinarian's Hospital: Conga 

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Muppaphone Tweets 

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The Muppet Show - Season Two 

The Complete Season

The Muppet Show - Season Two

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Marvin Suggs appears without the Muppaphone in episode 208.

About Marvin Suggs 

Marvin Suggs is a puppet musician in the world of Jim Henson's The Muppets, voiced by Frank Oz.

Marvin Suggs is a blue "whatnot" Muppet that wears a frilly, multicolored shirt. He is best known for "playing" an instrument known as a muppaphone, a group of small, round, furry pink and orange Muppets that emit a tonal "ow" when Marvin strikes them on the head with his mallet.

Although Marvin is not one of the more commonly seen Muppets, his rendition of "Lady of Spain" from his first appearance was included on the Muppet-released CD The Best of the Muppets as well as The Muppet Show: 25th Anniversary CD.

Suggs appeared in episode 3.11 for an interview, in which the following conversation took place:

:Marvin: Ah, yes, but I have to replace them every month or so. They go flat.

:Kermit: Flat? You mean, out of tune?

:Marvin: No. Flat. Like teeny pancakes.

:Kermit: What happens to them then?

:Marvin: That is something you don't want to know.

Suggs was also featured in episode 2.08, where he conducted the "All-Food Glee Club" in singing "Yes, We Have No Bananas", and in episode 3.04 for a performance of "Witch Doctor", with Suggs voicing the solo parts, and the Muppaphone providing the "Ooh-Ee-Ooh-Ah-Ah!" in the chorus. Then the Witch Doctor appears and turns Marvin into a giant Mappaphone.

Frank Oz on Marvin Suggs, from The Muppet Show 25th Anniversary Collection:

:"I don't recall where Marvin Suggs came from... probably from one of the writer's meetings. But the accent came from my French friend Phillippe Gentry - I just exaggerated it and made it really annoying. I've always felt Marvin lived in a scuzzy trailer park with his put-upon wife, and he kept the Muppaphones in a cage and would beat them regularly."

The Muppet Show - The Complete Third Season 

The Muppet Show - The Complete Third Season

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This season included the another appearance of Marvin Suggs and the Muppaphone in episode 304, playing "The Witch Doctor." Episode 311 features Kermit doing an interview with Marvin Suggs.

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by kab

I like a bit of everything.  I'm a jack of all trades - ace of only ten or eleven.

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