Mahna Mahna Videos

A Brief Timeline of The Muppets Performances of the "Mahna Mahna" Sketch

1. November 27, 1969: A character who would later come to be named Bip Bippadotta--and who himself went on to perform several other musical numbers on "Sesame Street" and to further evolve to look very much like Mahna Mahna (but to maintain his identity as a separate character)--performs "Ma Nah Ma Nah" with backing vocals by two female Anything Muppets (as shown in the version #1 video above).
2. November 30, 1969: The Mahna Mahna character (as we currently recognize him, both voiced and puppeteered by Jim Henson), appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show", performing the "Mahna Mahna" song backed by two pink, female cow/goat-like creatures and singers called the Snowths (performed by Frank Oz), who were also making their debut appearances. (This performance is shown in the version #2 video above.)
3. 1971: Mahna Mahna and the Snowths perform the "Mahna Mahna" song on "The Dick Cavett Show" and on "This Is Tom Jones".
4. April 25, 1977: The "Mahna Mahna" sketch with Mahna and the two Snowths is restaged on the U.S. airing of the first episode of "The Muppet Show" (as shown in the version #3 video above).
5. June 23, 1996: Kermit the Frog and movie actress Sandra Bullock appear in a sketch called "The Psychiatrist's Office" on Episode 107 of "The Muppets Tonight". The Snowths appear and sing their "doo doo doo doo doo" musical parts each time that Kermit or Ms. Bullock say the word "phenomena" (as shown in the video above).
6. December 9, 2001: Mahna Mahna and the Snowths perform the "Mahna Mahna" song during a stage show called "The Muppet Show Live" at the MuppetFest convention in Santa Monica, California with the character of Mahna Mahna being performed by the recorded voice of the late Jim Henson and with puppeteer Bill Barretta providing his movements. This is also included additional recorded video footage of Mahna Mahna riding around Hollywood, California in a limousine.
7. September 2, 2002: Kermit the Frog and the Snowths perform "Manah Mahna" on the "Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon".
8. 2005: A commercial featuring the latest incarnation of the Manah Manah character(as voiced and puppeteered by Bill Barretta) and the Snowths airs. The commercial is for CanTeen, a New Zealand-based support group organization for teenage cancer patients. In this version of the song (as shown in the video above), Manah Manah says "Bandannana" instead of his most famous line because the commercial supports CanTeen's annual Bandanna Week, which includes the sales and wearing of bandanna scarves for this charity.