''Badgers'', also known informally as ''Badger Badger Badger'' or ''The Badger Song'', is a Flash animated meme by British animator

Jonti Picking Jonathan "Jonti" Picking (born 17 May 1975), also known as Weebl and Mr Weebl, is a British Internet personality and Flash animator and is the creator of ''Weebl's Stuff''. His animations are known for repetitive melodies and surreal dialogue ...

. It consists of 12 animated cartoon

badgers Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by the ...

doing

calisthenics Calisthenics (American English) or callisthenics (British English) ( /ˌkælɪsˈθɛnɪks/) is a form of strength training consisting of a variety of movements that exercise large muscle groups (gross motor movements), such as standing, graspi ...

, a

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

in front of a tree, and a

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

in the desert. The Flash cartoon is accompanied by a bass line, above which a

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

sings the names of what's shown on

screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...

. This Flash cartoon was published on 1 September 2003. The cartoon loops indefinitely.

Critical reception

The cartoon brought Picking to the attention of

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serve ...

, for whom Picking produced ''

Weebl and Bob ''The everyday happenings of Weebl and sometimes Weebl's friend, Bob'' (best known as ''Weebl and Bob'', and renamed ''Wobbl and Bob'' for its DVD release) is a Flash cartoon series created by Jonti Picking and co-scripted by Chris Vick. About ...

''. That cartoon series, together with the dancing badgers, helped Picking's website

Weebl's Stuff Jonathan "Jonti" Picking (born 17 May 1975), also known as Weebl and Mr Weebl, is a British Internet personality and Flash animator and is the creator of ''Weebl's Stuff''. His animations are known for repetitive melodies and surreal dialogue ...

win a People's Choice award from users of

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

in the UK. "Badger Badger Badger" was also listed as one of the top five internet fads of all time by ''PC World'' in 2009.

Follow-up versions

There have been several follow ups to the "Badger Badger Badger" cartoon posted to the Weebl's Stuff website. "Badgers 2" was created in 2003, and features

zombie A zombie ( Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in w ...

badgers on a black background with a scratching sound added to the music. A Christmas-themed version, with the badgers dressed in Santa Claus suits, the mushroom replaced with a present, and the snake replaced with baby Jesus in a nativity scene, is also available, and was made in 2005. ''Badgers On a Plane'' consists of a scene from a ''

Snakes On a Plane ''Snakes on a Plane'' is a 2006 American action film directed by David R. Ellis and starring Samuel L. Jackson. It was released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006, in North America. The film was written by David Dalessandro, John Heffernan ...

'' 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. In 2007, ''Big Ass Badgers'' was released to spoof the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'' film. Also in 2007, a live action version of the cartoon called ''Baby Badgers'' was released to promote the new Badger toys. A "Euro 2004 Edition" was also created during the

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

football championship, where the badgers wore

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

football jerseys to " footy, footy, footy" and "England! England! Goal! A goal! Oh, it's a goal, scored by England, England..." A new version titled ''Footy 2010'' was created for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

with

vuvuzela The vuvuzela is a horn, with an inexpensive injection-molded plastic shell about long, which produces a loud monotone note, typically around B♭ 3 (the first B♭ below middle C). Some models are made in two parts to facilitate storage, a ...

s drowning out the audio. Another version, titled "Realistic Football Badgers", was created in response to England's loss in the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The song is referenced in the January 2004 comic strips of JD Fraser's

User Friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...

. A few of the characters interpreted "the song goes on about badgers, mushrooms and a snake" and that the song does not make sense. A parody by a group called Fifth District, titled "Potter Potter Potter," depicts several images of Harry Potter dancing on the

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...

Campus, one image of

Ron Weasley Ronald Bilius Weasley is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' fantasy novel series. His first appearance was in the first book of the series, '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', as the best friend of Harry Pott ...

dancing in another area of the campus, and

Severus Snape Severus Snape is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. He is an exceptionally skilled wizard whose sarcastic, controlled exterior conceals deep emotions and anguish. A Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraf ...

advancing menacingly toward the figures of the bespectacled wizarding teen, with a

Whomping Willow This list of fictional plants describes invented plants that appear in works of fiction. In fiction *Audrey Jr.: a man-eating plant in the 1960 film ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' **Audrey II: a singing, fast-talking alien plant with a taste for ...

tree and flying

hippogriff The hippogriff, or sometimes spelled hippogryph ( el, Ἱππόγρυπας), is a legendary creature with the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse. It was invented by Ludovico Ariosto in his ''Orlando Furioso'', at the beginning o ...

s in the background. The chant is "Potter Potter Potter Potter" and "Weasley! Weasley!" and "Snape! Snape! Oh, it's a Snape!". In 2011, a

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

version called "Guess I got My Badger Back" was released based on "Swagga" by Excision & Datsik. On 6 April 2011 he uploaded a 3D version. A new version of the song was launched on the

Moshi Monsters ''Moshi Monsters'' was a British web browser massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) aimed at children aged 6–12, with over 80 million registered users in 150 territories worldwide. Users could choose from one of six virtual p ...

website, where the Monsters appear on the screen as, "Moshi Moshi" is sung instead. Every now and then, there is a break where "Monster", or even rarer, "Moshling", is said instead. On 6 March 2013, Canadian musician

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

released a previously unreleased cover of the song while recording the album '' Deconstruction''. Another adaptation of the song, " Save the Badger Badger Badger", was released on 19 May 2013, in response to proposed badger culling in the United Kingdom. The song features vocals and guitar from

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Freddie Mercury and ...

and visuals reminiscent to the 1980 film '' Flash Gordon'', in addition to vocals from

Weebl Weebl may refer to: * Jonti "Weebl" Picking, a Flash cartoonist * Weebl (also known as Wobbl), a fictional character in Picking's ''Weebl and Bob'' cartoon series See also * Weeble Weebles is a range of children's roly-poly toys originating ...

and

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer. Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of '' I, Claudius'', King Richard I ...

. Some of the song's lyrics are changed.

References

External links

The original Badger animation
{{Authority control 2003 works Flash cartoons Fictional badgers Internet memes introduced in 2003 Novelty songs Songs about mammals Viral videos