BuzzFeed sat down and interviewed sock puppets. Because sock puppets are people too.
Over a decade ago, MTV Europe premiered an odd low-budget show starring three socket puppets in-between music videos. The clips were so popular, MTV America took notice, green-lighting the half-hour program The Sifl & Olly Show in 1998.
Despite gaining a cult following, the show was cancelled after two seasons, though a third was filmed and eventually released on DVD. However, cult followings never really die and now Machinima is bringing Sifl & Olly back. Buzzfeed sat down with the two stars to talk about what's changed for them in the last 10 years.
Sifl
You guys are childhood friends, but how exactly did you meet?
Olly: In 4th grade, some jackasses locked me in a locker at school and Sifl let me out. I was new at school. Sifl was a student but I found he was also teaching advanced chimes in the music course and so I took his class. We started hanging out after school and hit it off. Then, after the great fire of '84, we knew since the city had burnt down, that the cops were really busy and overwhelmed so we opened a club together in the ruins of the subways. We had to close it down when the subways were back online but that was funnest summer ever. We were going to start our own breakfast cereal company after that, then Sifl actually met Chester while touring a cereal factory and one thing led to another and years later we had our own TV show.
When Sifl & Olly wend off the air ten years ago, what happened? Obviously Sifl was frozen in a perpetual state but, Olly, how did you cope?
Olly: Yeah, he went totally comatose. I'm stuck trying to keep the rent up on the studio and keeping Chester out of trouble. I've heard of monks and shaman going into long weird meditations but what the crap? I tried shooting some shows since he was standing at the mic but I scrapped them. You could tell he was just gone and I didn't want to deal with the rumors and press. So I played a lot of video games out of boredom and to get rid of the frustration. Seriously, he didn't eat for 10 years. He's fine now. I have no idea how he is even alive.
Sifl, after being unconscious for a decade, how are you reintegrating into modern life? What's the biggest thing that's changed?
Sifl: Yeah, I'm not sure. My toe nails are super long now. I can also see ghosts for like 3 seconds after I sneeze. I'm not sure what else has changed, I haven't really been out yet and looked around.
Your new show on Machinima is going to be real reviews of fake video games. What made you decide on this format as opposed to the classic version?
Olly: I don't know dude, video games are pretty classic. I didn't think Sifl would go for it but I just felt like it would be fun and honestly, I thought he would be comatosing through all the episodes. He doesn't even like video games, maybe we'll have to change the format in the future. I have no idea. I'm just glad he's talking. We did do several video game themed things on the old show too but this is fun and something new, plus I get to share a lot of great games with the world thanks to Old Man Internet.
How do you plan to play these games without opposable thumbs?
Sifl: We have opposable thumbs so it's no problem at all.
Touché.
Chester
