Funday PawPet Show

Funday PawPet Show logo. The characters displayed are (L-R) Mutt, Tod Ferret, Arthur, Poink, and Rummage.

The Funday PawPet Show is an Internet broadcast featuring the puppetry talents of several Florida Furs, including show founder Randy "Yappy" Fox. While various changes have come and gone in terms of equipment, location, and performers alike since the show began in 1999, it continues to this day with only an occasional week off due to convention activity or circumstances beyond their control, such as illness. The show encompasses Puppets, Fursuits, Interacting with Twitch audience and interacting visually with VRChat users in a world nicknamed "The Chaos Lounge" where interactive games are played, as well as interviews. With the outbreak of Covid, Zoom calls became integrated into the show, which allowed social distancing during the pandemic, but also now allows for international cast members as well as guests unable to travel to the live studio.

History

Original Show (1999-2017)

The Funday PawPet Show originated in November of 1999; Yappy and friends were working on their puppetry at his home when they came up with the idea of streaming a puppet show on the Internet. The show's 400th episode aired on December 21, 2008 and held its 10-year anniversary on November 29, 2009.

The original show's last live broadcast, episode 756, was on September 3, 2017. The following week, no live show was broadcast due to the arrival in Florida of Hurricane Irma.

Unexpectedly, on September 12, 2017, it was announced that the show would no longer be running. Reasons included the end of Furstre.am and the music industry making it too difficult to legally use songs:

We have come to a cross roads. Streaming video and music copyrights and licensing have become such a tangled mess of pain in the butt. The music industry has made it impossible for the little guy to do anything online. The costs, the bookeeping, the constant upkeep of trying to keep from getting flagged… It is no longer a labor of love. We thank you all for nearly 18 years of puppet broadcasting support. There has been a lot of history packed into those weekly 4 hour nuggets. We have learned so much from our fan base. You truly were like a large family to us, spending Sunday night in my living room. The cheers, laughs, tears and fears shall all be cherished, and we have left our mark on the Furry fandom. Some may still have never heard of us, but those that have, I hope will remember us as a positive impact. With the end of Furstre.am, we are going to take this time to make our break.. Since finding a new hosting fit would be too much of a challenge. Hopefully we will see you all in passings on future meets or endeavors. So for one last time: Good night, good night, until we meet again Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehn 'til then. And though it's always sweet sorrow to part You know you'll always remain in my heart. Good night, sleep tight, and pleasant dreams to you. Here's a wish and a prayer that every dream comes true. And now 'til we, meet again, Adios, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehn. Goodnight!!!

It was decided that ending abruptly would be easier for the cast than doing an emotional last show.

Revived Version (2018-Present)

After a year of being on hiatus, it was announced on September 2, 2018 through the Funday PawPet Twitter that the show would be revived with new episodes coming out again on September 9, 2018 through different platforms by means of streaming, primarily YouTube. This was after rumors were confirmed about the series' making a comeback as the series resulted in a year hiatus.

Licensed content such as copyrighted music are no longer used in the show due to royalty issues, so they must use entirely fan-created pieces or public domain music. Copyrighted videos are also no longer used in the series' run as well.

On November 10, 2019 the show moved to Twitch after many difficulties involving YouTube. On November 22, 2019 it was announced all future episodes would be streamed live on Twitch instead of YouTube. The YouTube Channel which hosted the livestreams and archives of those episodes has since been deleted but all archives of the show can still be found on the Funday PawPet Show website. The Funday PawPet Show held it's 20-year anniversary on November 24, 2019.

Characters

Main article: List of Funday PawPet Show characters

The show is hosted by a cast of animal puppets, all mostly made by Folkmanis. The primary roles are played by the main Master of ceremonies sheepdog, Mutt, along with his sheepdog stand-in, Ezra. There are supporting cast members that assist with world building, maintaining wikis, and chat moderations: Campion_Lapine Chat moderations, FurYetUnNamed Episode wiki editing, Fooma VrChat world builder.

Format

As the show is four hours long, its content is open-ended and nearly all of it is completely improvised. Aside from the opening and closing sequences, other fixed content includes:

• ArtJam, in which viewers are encouraged to send in original artwork.
• VRChat Games, Games played with the VRChat audience, such as Never Have I Ever, or Would You Rather.

Any themes or topics for the evening are either brought up during conversation or are planned out in advance, as in the case of a cast member leaving or a statutory holiday, for example:

Guests who visit the show often participate by being interviewed by the PawPets and the viewing audience.

A segment entitled Subservient Fursuit is broadcast on an infrequent basis. It is based on the Subservient Chicken viral marketing campaign by Burger King and featured a fursuiter having their actions directed by the viewing audience. The word "Fursuit" in the title was replaced by the fursuit's name at the time of the broadcast. While the show was not intended to be rebroadcast or redistributed at any point, many of the Subservient Fursuit segments wound up on YouTube.

Contributors

The Funday PawPet Show also features videos submitted from its viewers, ranging from homemade films to professional animated shorts to humorous commercials. Several PawPet groups across the United States also sent in their own videos; these outside contributors included:

• Fluff & Such Pawpet Productions
• PawPets West
• PawPet Rocky Mountain
• PawPet Monterey Bay
• PawPet North Coast
• PawPet South West
• Southpaw Video Productions
• Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends
• Rocket T Coyote

Notable broadcasts

9/11 Special

On the night of September 11, 2001 the cast quickly assembled for an impromptu show to help calm people and find out who in the community was directly affected by the 9/11 attacks. This is the only show that was intentionally never made available for the weekly download. As such, it has not yet resurfaced online. Viewers sent the cast thank-you letters and awards for their efforts.

The Arthur Awards Show

The Arthur Awards are the Funday Pawpet Show's version of the Oscars which was named after Arthur Braunschweiger, one of the characters in the show. Votes are cast for various categories such as “BEST ART JAM”, “PAWPET OF THE YEAR”, and “WORST POOT EVER”.

The first Arthur Awards originally aired on March 25, 2001 and have produced several subsequent awards shows since.

These are no longer done.

It Ends

On September 3, 2017, the final episode of the original run of the Funday PawPet Show aired as the following week was a vacation due to Hurricane Irma and the announcement of the show's ending on September 12, 2017.

It Restarts!

On September 9, 2018, the series has officially came back with a new episode resulting in a revival run, with many of its' cast returning after a year long hiatus.

Lyrics

The closing theme was "Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen" from The Lawrence Welk Show from 2000 until 2017, and the lyrics are as follows:

Good night, Good night, until we meet again,
Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen 'til then.
And though it's always sweet sorrow to part
You'll know you'll always remain in my heart.

Good night, sleep tight and pleasant dreams to you.
Here's a wish, and a prayer, that every dream comes true.
And now 'til we meet again,
Adios, Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen.

Good night!

Trivia

Furs watching the Funday PawPet Show in Second Life

• The show cost around $2,400 (excluding equipment costs) for a year of broadcasting; costs include licensing for the music played on the show, as well as the bandwidth needed for broadcast.
  • Increasingly, the majority of the funding for this was provided by donations, and the show ran a number of "telethons" during their history to raise funds. During the telethon of November 23, 2013, $7,248 was raised. The highest ever raised was $10,052 in 2007.
• 2 recorded The Pawpet Song about his friends on the Funday PawPet Show. Lyrics
• 2 was also the inspiration for what was to become Strawberry. When visiting the show after Megaplex 2003, he puppeted along to The PawPet Song with the pink Pecker, and then in a high, skwawky voice, began to complain about arm burn as he was pressed into doing a second song. Almost two years later in 2005, after using the pink Pecker in homage to 2 to puppet to The PawPet Song, Jess used a similar voice to interact with another character afterward — and Liesl followed shortly using a similar voice with the blue Pecker — and Strawberry and Blueberry were born.
• The title animation and logo was the work of numerous people, including:
  • Herbie Bearclaw (original logo)
  • Rikki-Tik (flash version with singing pawpets)
  • Nonsanity_Cat (After Effects version with fireworks)
  • Future versions may include elements of this flash animation by Brian Reynolds
• Shawn Keller recognized the show's popularity with a half-page ad parody (as The Sundae Sock-Monkey Show) in Horrifying Look at the Furries
• The show appeared in Jim Groat's West Corner Of the Park strip on 11 April 2003.
• Many of the puppets appearing on the show were made by Folkmanis.
• Once, on a Sunday when no show was playing, Liesel tried to take roll-call in-channel and was kicked by the IRC bot for flooding.
• The Funday PawPet Show is referred to in the Jack comic arc Those That Run ([1] [2]).
• The word "pawpet" was coined (or possibly popularized) by Snoopy's "Pawpet Theater" in Peanuts.

See also

WikiFur News has a related story:

Funday PawPet Show fundraiser breaks $10,000

• Funday PawPet Show on Wikipedia
• Wikifurries who watch the Funday Pawpet Show

External Links

• Funday PawPet Show Website
• Funday PawPet Twitter
• Funday PawPet Twitch
• Episode Archive