Computer Taste Goood!

April 26, 2007 8:58 PM

The Computer Monster (YouTube, approx. 4 minutes). Also known as "The Coffee Break Machine," the original version was created for IBM, in 1967, by Jim Henson and Frank Oz, as part of the Muppet Meeting Films series. The posted version is a remake that was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Via The Presurfer.
posted by amyms (13 comments total)

That's hilarious! Thanks!
posted by brundlefly at 9:33 PM on April 26, 2007

Not a great leap to suggest that this is the prototype for Cookie Monster. (In fact, just before Sesame Street's debut, an even more Cookie-like monster appeared in some commercials for Munchos chips.)
posted by evilcolonel at 9:35 PM on April 26, 2007

The primary purpose of -beep- Jim Henson and his collegues is to inspire profound creative insecurity in the minds of all other comedy -beep- writers and performers.
posted by JHarris at 9:49 PM on April 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Well, lets not forget the original computerized cookie monster, while we're at it.
posted by IronLizard at 9:55 PM on April 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Prototype? Hell, Computer Monster was Cookie Monster's DAD! His mom is Shopping Mall Monster.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:06 PM on April 26, 2007

The best part of this video is the technological-sounding descriptions. My favorite - "data existentialism."
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:40 PM on April 26, 2007

The primary purpose of -beep- Jim Henson and his collegues is to inspire profound creative insecurity in the minds of all other comedy -beep- writers and performers.

I don't know...my kids recently brought home The Best of the Muppet Show from the library and one of the episodes had a version of this sketch on it, with that one big fluffy monster. I wonder how many times they recycled it?

Of course, it did make the kids laugh like lunatics.
posted by not that girl at 11:32 PM on April 26, 2007

Actually the Muppet Wiki makes it clear that they recycled many sketches, but they had so many sketches built up over the years that it is still quite impressive. Even Mahna Mahna, which everyone remembers and made the rounds three or four times, didn't get spoiled by overplay.

And the primary advantage of kidhood is being able to laugh like a lunatic.
posted by JHarris at 11:36 PM on April 26, 2007

My favorite IBM training film was Bob Newhart interviewing Herman Hollerith about his new punch card system. Bob is a patent clerk and is trying to tell Herman how punch cards will never catch on.
posted by MtDewd at 5:35 AM on April 27, 2007

#12 in my link.
posted by MtDewd at 5:38 AM on April 27, 2007

JHarris: "Even Mahna Mahna, which everyone remembers and made the rounds three or four times, didn't get spoiled by overplay."

No, but Mahna Mahna is either spoiled or even better when you find out it (according to Wikipedia) "debuted as part of Umiliani's soundtrack for the Italian softcore pornography movie Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso (Sweden, Heaven and Hell) (1968), a pseudo-documentary film about wild sexual activity and other behavior in Sweden."
posted by revgeorge at 8:05 AM on April 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

revgeorge, my vote is for "even better."
posted by JHarris at 8:26 AM on April 27, 2007

C for Cookie
posted by homunculus at 7:11 PM on May 1, 2007