Crazy Frog, originally known as
The
Annoying Thing, is a computer animated character created
by
Erik Wernquist. Marketed by the
ringtone provider
Jamba!, the animation was originally created to
accompany a sound effect produced by
Daniel Malmedahl while attempting to
imitate the sound of a
two-stroke moped
engine.
The Crazy Frog spawned a worldwide hit single with a remix of
"
Axel F", which reached the
number one spot in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Turkey, New
Zealand, Australia and most of Europe. The subsequent album
Crazy Frog Presents
Crazy Hits and second single "
Popcorn" also enjoyed worldwide
chart success, and a second album entitled
Crazy Frog Presents More
Crazy Hits was released in 2006. The Crazy Frog has also
spawned a range of merchandise and toys, and two video games.
History
In 1997, 17-year-old student
Daniel
Malmedahl recorded himself impersonating the noises produced by
internal combustion engines. He posted this on a website and caught
the attention of a Swedish television researcher, who convinced
Daniel to perform the sound live on air. After it debuted on
television, recordings of his performance began appearing on
peer to peer file sharing networks and
various websites under the filename "2TAKTARE.MP3" ("Tvåtaktare" is
Swedish for "Two stroker").
The sound was adopted as the sound of a formula one car as early as
2001 in the form of "Deng Deng Form" and later "The Insanity Test"
both of which were a static background of a Ferrari Formula One car
accompanied by the sound . However the sound was later adopted as
that of a motorcycle for its most well known format.
In late 2003, Malmedahl's fellow Swede
Erik Wernquist encountered the sound effect
and, not knowing about the previous incarnations of the sound, was
inspired to create the 3D animation "
The Annoying
Thing" to accompany it. Erik used the
LightWave 3D modeling application to
produce the animation and posted it on his website. The animation
was a popular attraction at Erik's website, but the sound was
credited to "Anonymous". Eventually, word reached Daniel that his
impressions had been used in a now well-known animation. He
contacted Erik, apparently giving an impromptu performance to
confirm his claims. Erik was convinced, and gave credit to Daniel
for his creation. It was broadcast for the first time on two
Belgian commercials for
Ringtone Europe and
Jamster België (now both merged into Jamba!) in mid-2004. They soon
created Crazy Frog.
Controversy
The Crazy Frog was broadcast for the first time on Belgian
Television in mid-2004.
In
February 2005, viewers submitted a number of complaints to the
United
Kingdom
's Advertising
Standards Authority (ASA) regarding Jamster!'s advertising campaign, complaining that
Crazy Frog appeared to have a visible penis. Some parents
complained that this made inappropriate viewing for children,
claiming that the commercial had prompted embarrassing questions.
There were also complaints regarding the frequency with which the
advertisement appeared on television, reportedly up to twice an
hour across most of the day, with some channels showing it more
than once per commercial break.
The ASA did not uphold the complaints, pointing out that the advert
was already classified as inappropriate for airing during
children's television programmes as it contained a
premium rate telephone number,
and that it was the broadcasters' decision how often an
advertisement should be shown. Jamster! voluntarily
censored the character's genital area (via
pixelization) in later broadcasts of its
advertisements. Similar action occurred in Australia, with similar
results.
In April 2005, television viewers complained about misleading
advertisements produced by Jamba!, trading as
Jamster! and RingtoneKing. Viewers felt that it was
not made sufficiently clear that they were subscribing to a
service, rather than paying a one-time fee for their ringtone. The
complaints were upheld; the full adjudication (PDF) is available
online. It costs £3 a week to subscribe to Jamster!'s service. The
complaints consisted mainly of parents, who felt their
children were being misled. They felt that Jamster!
was exploiting their children in order for them to make greater
profits.
In May 2005, viewers inundated the ASA with new complaints
regarding the continuous airing of the latest Crazy Frog
advertisements. The intensity of the advertising was unprecedented
in British television history. According to
The Guardian, Jamster bought 73,716 spots
across all TV channels in May alone — an average of nearly 2,378
slots daily — at a cost of about £8 million, just under half of
which was spent on
ITV. 87% of the population
saw the Crazy Frog adverts an average of 26 times, 15% of the
adverts appeared twice during the same advertising break and 66%
were in consecutive ad breaks. An estimated 10% of the population
saw the advert more than 60 times. This led to many members of the
population finding the crazy frog, as its original name suggests,
immensely irritating.
As the
authority had already adjudicated on the matter and confirmed the
matter was not within its remit, the unusual step was taken of
adding a notice to their online and telephone complaints system
informing viewers that Jamster!-related complaints should be
directed towards the broadcaster or the regulator, Ofcom
.
On 21 September 2005, the ASA ruled that the Crazy Frog, along with
other Jamba ringtone advertisements, must be shown after 9pm. This
adjudication was revised on 25 January 2006, maintaining the
'upheld' decision but revising the wording of one of the
points.
In March 2005,
anti-virus vendors
discovered the
W32/Crog.worm computer virus (a
contraction of Crazy Frog), which
spreads through
file-sharing networks
and
MSN Messenger, exploiting the
Crazy Frog's notoriety with a promise of an
animation depicting his demise.
Musical history
Crazy Frog Presents
Crazy Hits.
Crazy Christmas Edition
Crazy Frog Presents more Crazy
Hits
"
Axel F" (a remix of the
1980s
Harold Faltermeyer song), was released
on May 23, 2005 and became one of the most successful singles of
the year 2005. "Axel F" debuted at number one in the UK, remaining
there for four weeks. The song was then knocked off the charts by
rapper
2Pac's single 'Ghetto Gospel'. Similar
success took place in Australia and many parts of Europe, and the
song remained on the charts for many months in various countries
worldwide. However, the song apparently failed to catch on as well
in the US and Japan, where it reached #50 and #48 respectively. The
"
Axel F"
music
video was produced by Kaktus Film and Erik Wernquist, and
centers on the pursuit of the Crazy Frog by a
bounty hunter. He reprises his role as pursuer
of the Crazy Frog in all subsequent videos.
Popcorn (a remix of the
Hot Butter song) was released on
August 22 and premiered with a choreographed
cheerleader performance on
Top of the Pops. It also reached #16 in
Australia and Top 20 in much of Europe, in many cases while "Axel
F" was still charting.
Riding on the popularity of these initial single releases, an album
entitled
Crazy Frog
Presents Crazy Hits was released on July 25. It contained
several Frog remixes of existing songs like "Pump Up the Jam" and
the
Pink Panther theme, as
well as several original tracks such as "In the 80's" and "Dirty
Frog". It reached #5 in the UK, #8 in Australia and topped the
charts in New Zealand. Surprisingly the album performed much better
in the US than the "Axel F" single, reaching #19.
A special
Christmas edition of
Crazy
Hits with numerous holiday-themed bonus tracks was released in
November, backed with a double A-side single release of "
Jingle Bells/U Can't Touch
This". The single peaked at #4 in Australia and #5 in the
UK.
In May 2006 the Crazy Frog contributed two tracks to a British
compilation album entitled
Football Crazy released to
coincide with the
2006 World Cup
— "Ole Ole Ole (Do the Froggy Wave)" and "Na Na Na, Hey Hey". A
second album entitled
Crazy Frog Presents More
Crazy Hits was released in June 2006, continuing in the
musical vein of the first release with Frog versions of songs such
as "
I Will Survive", "
Ice Ice Baby", and "
I'm
Too Sexy". The second single release is "
We Are the Champions
", again a World Cup-oriented track perhaps drawing inspiration
from the earlier
Football Crazy songs.
Third album, titled
Everybody Dance
Now is released on 13 July, 2009 and first single, a new
version of
Daddy DJ on August 2009.
Unofficial releases
On February 17, 2005, a group of producers naming themselves
Pondlife announced the release of an unofficial single featuring
the Crazy Frog sound entitled "Ring Ding Ding". This release was
backed by DJs
Wes Butters, Trevor Jordan
and
Daryl Denham along with
studio-owner Maurice Cheetham.
On March 19, 2005, Pondlife held
open auditions to find a
live action Crazy Frog to star in their
accompanying
music video. "Ring Ding
Ding" was released on 6 June 2005 and reached #11 on the
UK Singles Chart, two weeks after the Axel
F version had charted.
An anti-Crazy Frog single named "Kill The Frog" by Frog Must Die
was released in the UK on June 20. Since the song did not appear in
the top 250 of the UK Singles Chart, it is unclear whether the
single was postponed, or simply failed to sell enough copies. As
the name explains, this CD is about killing the Crazy Frog.
On June 27, 2005, a dancehall
reggae song by
L.O.C. sampling the Crazy Frog sound titled
"Ring Ding Ding (Frog)" was released in the UK. It reached #58 on
the UK pop charts, and higher on reggae charts.
Other incarnations
On July 1, 2005, UK-based
publishers Digital Jesters announced that they had
acquired the rights to the
video game
licence for the Crazy Frog.
Crazy Frog Racer (featuring The
Annoying Thing), released in December 2005, is a
racing game.
A string of Crazy Frog merchandise was released in the UK, under
the name "The Annoying Thing" due to copyright and licensing
restrictions. These items were picked as big sellers for Christmas
2005, particularly the Annoying Thing Singing Plush which plays the
ringtone when squeezed. Other products available include an
electronic game, a desktop nodder,
keyring,
backpack,
lunchbox and
air freshener. However,
there are bootlegged versions of the Crazy Frog plush. The only way
to tell the difference is the goggles; the imitations have big
padded goggles whereas the originals have small, rounded open
goggles. The crazy frog also has a "
Whac-A-Mole" style arcade game, in which you get
points for whacking "The Annoying Thing" and lose points for
whacking the red robot thing.
The German production company The League of Good People is in talks
with broadcasters about a TV series based on Crazy Frog,and video
clips of Crazy Frog can be seen on. The second version of Crazy
Frog games is now out on PlayStation2 and PC and is called 'Crazy
Frog Racer 2'. However, it was extremely negatively received by
critics.
The Crazy Frog toured Australia in late 2005, beginning in Perth on
December 4 and continuing through other major capital cities. He
made appearances at numerous shopping centres and major hospitals
around the country.
Currently, there are plans to make
The Annoying Thing into
an animated feature film.
Discography
Albums
Singles
DVD
Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Video Hits is a
DVD that includes all the character's music videos. The
North American version of the DVD includes an altered version of
the Axel F video with the Frog's genitalia—visible in the original
version—removed.
Track listing:
- "Axel F"
- "Popcorn"
- "We Are The
Champions "
- "Crazy Frog In The House
"
- "Pump Up the Jam"
- "Copa Banana"
- "Jingle Bells" / "Last Christmas"
- The Making of the Crazy Frog Videos
See also
References
- The Evolution of Crazy Frog - from Deng Deng to
Ringtone
- Crazy Frog can keep his ding-ding di-di-ding ASA
says - Brand Republic Login - Brand Republic
- Scotsman.com News
-
http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/ECE03B9D-119D-4150-8F22-48ADADD9AC09/0/ASA_Broadcast_Rulings_2Feb05.pdf
- [1]
- "Broadcast rulings 6 April 05.doc"
- (source: Media Guardian, 20 June 2005)
- Frog drives viewers crazy | The Sun
|HomePage|News
- [2](pdf)]
- ASA stamps on Crazy Frog TV ads | The
Register
- W32/Crog.worm
- W32.Serflog.A - Symantec.com
- Crazy Frog ringtone outsells Coldplay | Technology
| The Guardian
- Home
| Gusto
- Crazy
Frog - Ringtones, Music, Posters, Games, T-Shirts and more! -
www.crazyfrog.co.uk
- C21Media:
- [3]
- Animation World Magazine
- Oddworld Wikia - Citizen Siege
-
http://www.amazon.fr/Everybody-Dance-Now-Crazy-Frog/dp/B0029XIWDS/
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