EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: We Talk to Mylo the Cat About His New Muppet Mash-Up Video for ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’

Dr. Teeth

There’s a new Muppet mash-up video spreading across the web like wildfire, and this one features a rendition of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.” Courtesy of Mylo the Cat, this video is the fifth in his ‘90s hip-hop collection, after Digital Underground’s “The Humpty Dance,” Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend,” Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray,” and the original: the Beastie Boys’ “So What’cha Want.”

Mylo took a moment to chat with BubbleBlabber about his latest installment, which earned a mention on last night’s episode of @midnight on Comedy Central. (The news of which was delivered to him first by yours truly, because I just happened to be watching.)

“The @midnight mention was awesome,” Mylo said. “Even though they were kind of hating on it!” That may be true to some extent (it was mentioned as the butt of a joke, but wasn’t the main target), but it’s worth mentioning that the show’s host, Chris Hardwick, recently admitted that he watched a Harry Potter-themed “Uptown Funk” spoof video repeatedly, so I’m sure he’s down with the silliness of “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” as well.

Especially since this might be the best effort by Mylo yet, as far as syncing quality goes. However, the best decision of the clip was using The Electric Mayhem’s Muppet frontman, Dr. Teeth, as the star. He’s an ideal choice for this tune, and it showed in the final product.

“I think the song fit perfectly for Dr. Teeth,” Mylo said. “I put a ton of time and thought into song selection, and then even more into which character really fits. I think that’s what separates me from other mash-up artists out there… There’s more to these than syncing-up clips; the character has to be right. Of course that’s only part of the battle, as I go out of my way to find clips that really match the style and energy of the song.”

Of course, the high quality could also be attributed to the fact that Mylo learns and sharpens his skills a bit more with every try. “I’m figuring out little ways to make these better and better each time,” he explained. “Which is huge to me, because I feel like there’s no way these things would take off if I didn’t advance.”

And take off they have. At the time of this article’s publication, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” has amassed 417,000 hits in less than two days. It’s already broken one of his previous Muppet mash-up’s total, and may surpass another one by the end of today. “So What’cha Want” is still the leader with almost 1.3 million views, but that was released nine months ago, and could be dethroned in no time.

We at BubbleBlabber were delighted to see an appearance by Rick and Morty in the video, and had to ask about the clip’s inclusion. “It’s at 417,000 views now, and not one single person got the Rick and Morty cameo,” he said. “Basically, I’m following the classic hip-hop model of subliminally dissing my competition. When ODB raps that he’ll burn ‘any MC in any 52 states,’ he’s basically saying he’s better than anyone out there, which is why I used that portion to show Rick and Morty, Earl the Dinosaur [from Dinosaurs], and Big Bird, as those were all characters used in recent mash-ups.” Well played, sir.

As for Mylo’s next move? He’s going to take it easy and enjoy the attention for a moment, considering the amount of effort that went into his latest foray.

“This one took months of planning, finding clips, and selecting the right song,” he said. “Editing wasn’t too terrible this time around, because I had a solid plan laid out, and a good idea of the majority of the scenes in place. I spent pretty much all Saturday and Sunday locked in my apartment for the editing phase. I had my friends stopping by telling me I was wasting the weekend away, until I showed them the piano intro, and they were like, ‘Oh shit. Okay, carry on!’”

“So I haven’t thought about what I’m doing next yet,” Mylo told us. “I’ve been sitting here for two days straight watching the Facebook live feed, searching Google and Twitter, and refreshing YouTube, so I need a little bit of a break! I do have a running list of potential songs though, and there may or may not be some other genres on there. I’m a huge old school hip-hop fan, but I’m also a big rock, metal, and punk fan too, so it might be time for something new!”

I think I speak for everyone at BubbleBlabber (and hopefully the rest of the world) when I say, “For the love of Jim Henson’s ghost: METAL PLEASE!”

https://youtu.be/4rigqVF_Fsg