The cable network, which has consciously sought programming that is offbeat and low-tech, offered to develop the idea into a half-hour series. When he did, however, it proved worth the wait. But it was 18 months before Brian Graden, an executive vice president of programming for MTV, returned any of Lynch’s several dozen phone calls about using the video clips here. The Europeans loved the puppets and quickly began using the video clips as buffers between shows. Before Lynch sent the original videos off to Crocco, he made copies of 10 short skits and sent those tapes to MTV and its European counterpart, MTV Europe. I’m not sure if I’d say it was “before its time,” because it was probably squarely of its time, but I wish there were more of it.It’s that quirky unpredictability that sold MTV on the show-although it was anything but an easy sell in the States. Sifl and Olly was unstructured and bizarre, but not the same kind of empty/mindless as, say, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I could continue describing it but the appeal of the show is its weirdness and its effect can only really be experienced by watching it. One example: “Okay, not that I care, but here’s Sifl and Olly.”
Sifl and Olly did most of the pitching for Roy’s products, and then they cut it over to him to remind you to buy his stuff.
Watch sifl and olly tv#
The stars of the recurring supporting cast were Chester (lovable stoner friend of Sifl and Olly) and Precious Roy, a TV pitchman for products like pirate cripplers (“to render any pirate helpless,” of course). Here’s one representative exchange between Sifl and Olly and a caller:ĬALLER: “Uhh, yeah, I’m having a little bit of a problem in the bathroom.”ĬALLER: “Don’t make me say it, it’s so embarrassing… shaving.”
Here’s an interview segment from one episode: Olly says it’s time for interviews, and he says, “Sifl, I have no idea what you booked.” Sifl says, hesitatingly, “I got some… characters that are going to do nursery rhymes.” Olly asks if it will be Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and Sifl says, “No, these guys were blacklisted by Mother Goose.” And then it’s what you’d think: a parade of bizarre characters (also all socks) reading weird, bad poems in different voices.
Watch sifl and olly series#
The structure was a series of segments: interviews, music videos, poetry, jokes. The show was created by musicians Liam Lynch (who later directed the Tenacious D movie) and Matt Crocco, and they voiced almost all of the characters. (I hope that drawing attention to them doesn’t lead to a cease-and-desist from MTV, which would be very un-chill.) The athropos videos are the ones you want-at some point, video game content company Machinima (I assume after buying the rights) started producing Sifl and Olly video game review videos, and those videos have a different (newer) look and are bad and not cool. Thank you, athropos! And another user, Vegetarianrage, also uploaded a bunch of episodes.
Watch sifl and olly full#
There is no DVD set of the show, which is offensive and sad, but some enterprising and godly YouTube user, athropos, has uploaded 41 of them (I believe that may be the full set). I watch YouTube clips of it more than is healthy. It’s that kind of humor-deceptively simple, usually eliciting giggles more than guffaws, but extremely likeable. And about one year ago, I rediscovered it in YouTube clips and, man, it has aged well.Įach 20-minute-episode opens with the very catchy theme song: “Sifl / and / Ol-ly / Sifl / and Olly / show!” (Now repeat 4x.) Midway through the song, they yell “rock!” and show a rock on the screen.Īnother recurring song, equally delightful, is when they take calls from the public the song goes: “Calls calls calls / calls from the public / calls calls calls, calls” and then a phone hits the operator in the head with a satisfying coconut thwack. I was 10 years old in 1997 and we didn’t have “cable” anyway (just the basic channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, UPN, WB), so it’s hazy to me how or why I even remember the show, but I recall being a big fan. Yes, a sock puppet show, but what a sock puppet show it was! As charming as it was low-budget. If you have no idea what Sifl and Olly was, the briefest and most succinct description would be: a sock-puppet show. I guess it was originally a TV thing, but now it’s definitely an internet thing. Mine has to be The Sifl and Olly Show, which was on MTV from 1997 to 1999-the days when MTV was “music television” and was funky and, often, weird (in the best sense). content aggregator/curator, before those were dirty words), this week asked people for their favorite under-the-radar internet things.
The good folks at, site of Jason Kottke (basically the O.G.
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