Badger Badger Badger

"Badger Badger Badger" or "Badgers" is a Flash cartoon by British animator Jonti Picking. It consists of images of badgers doing calisthenics, a toadstool in front of a tree, and a snake in the desert. Accompanied by electronic music, a voice repeats the word "badger" over the animation, breaking off to say either "mushroom" or "a snake" at the appropriate moments.cite news
url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-17938496_ITM
title=Computing Column
author=Dwight Silverman
date=February 14 2004
publisher=Houston Chronicle
accessdate=2008-04-16]

The cartoon, published 2 September 2003, loops indefinitely. The first two badger scenes contain twelve badgers; subsequent badger scenes contain eleven badgers. After a long running time, the song becomes out of sync with the animation.

The cartoon brought Picking to the attention of MTV Europe, for whom Picking produced "Weebl and Bob". That cartoon series, together with the dancing badgers, helped Picking's website Weebl's Stuff win a People's Choice award from users of Yahoo! in the UK.cite news
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/jan/21/uknews.onlinesupplement
title=Dancing badgers help Weebl's website win award
author=Jon Dennis
date=January 21 2005
publisher=The Guardian
accessdate=2008-04-16] "Badger Badger Badger" was also listed as one of the top five internet fads of all time by PC World. [ [http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/fp;2;fpid;10004;o;0;id;1510015981 PC World - Shortlist - Internet fads ] ]

Follow-up versions

There have been several follow ups to the "Badger Badger Badger" cartoon posted to the Weebl's stuff website.

A Halloween version of the cartoon, "Badgers 2" was created in 2003 and features zombie badgers on a black background with a scratching sound added to the music. [ [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/badgers2/ Badgers 2 - a Halloween version] ] "Badgers On A Plane" consists of a scene from a "Snakes On a Plane" trailer that includes badgers and a mushroom, which have been digitally edited into the scene, tumbling from their seats while a bit of the song plays in the background. [ [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/trailer/ trailer - Weebl's Stuff ] ] In 2007, "Big Ass Badgers" was released to spoof the "Transformers" film. [ [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Big+Ass+Badgers/ Big Ass Badgers - Weebl's Stuff ] ] Also in 2007, a live action version of the cartoon called "Baby Badgers" was released to promote the new Badger toys. [ [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Baby+Badgers/ Baby Badgers] ]

A "Euro 2004 Edition" was also created during the UEFA Euro 2004 football championship, where the badgers wore England football jerseys to "footy, footy, footy" and "England! England! Goal! A goal! Oh, it's a goal, scored by England, England..." [ [http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/footy/ footy - Weebl's Stuff ] ]

An unofficial Harry Potter edition was also made in 2007. The badgers were replaced by characters from the Harry Potter series and the lyrics were changed to "Potter, Potter, Potter", "Weasley!, Weasley!" and "Snape! Oh, it's a Snape!" [ [http://thefifthdistrict.com/potter/ Potter!Potter! Movie] ]

In popular culture

On television

*On the CBBC television show "Chute!" the "Badger Badger Badger" song was shown in the episode with Ian McNeice. It was described as "something soothing and calm".
*On RTE2's Après Match, the panel use the song in response to Ryle Nugent's demand for more "pazazz" on the show
*A parody of the song was used on the UK Disney Channel advertising "The Emperor's New School".

Parody animations

*Andrew Kepple released a spoof of "Badger Badger Badger" called "Badger Badger Polka" with polka music in the background and the head of the badgers superimposed over the head of men wearing lederhosen doing calisthenics with a circus tent in background. [ [http://newgrounds.com/portal/view/160600 Badger Badger Polka ] ]
*The Free State Project released "Porcupine Run", a cartoon featuring porcupines running for New Hampshire, which is based on the "Euro 2004 Edition". [ [http://www.porcupinerun.com/ Porcupine Run ] ]
*A very similar cartoon was used by PETA, [ [http://revver.com/video/167749/weebl-vs-peta/ Revver - PETA steals "badger badger badger" concept ] ] but it was later withdrawn after controversy aroused due to the striking similarities becoming widely known.

Allusions in the media

*In Nickelodeon's "Drake and Josh", Drake and Josh's school football team is called the Badgers, and a poster repeats the word badger numerous times.
*The animation has been referenced in the "User Friendly" comic several times in January 2004. [ [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040119 19th] ] [ [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040120 20th] ] [ [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040121 21st] ] [ [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20040125 25th] ]
*Musician Tom Smith performs a version of the music entitled "Badger Pajamas". [ [http://www.tomsmithonline.com/lyrics/badger_pajama.htm Badger Pajamas] ]
*In the online community Gaia Online, if you examine one of the police badges in the shop, it has the description, "Badge badge badge badge mushroom mushroom..." [ [http://gaiaonline.com/gaia/shopping.php?key=ggcmjiwqlqkpvbos H.R. Wesley | Shopping | Gaia Online ] ]

ee also

*Weebl's Stuff, the website of the creators of the badger cartoon.
*List of Internet phenomena

References

External links

* [http://weebls-stuff.com/toons/badgers/ The original Badger animation]