Fur TV

Lore & Background

In 2009, MTV released a series of shorts, each about three minutes long, including episodes like 'How To Cook Shit With Mervin' and 'Fat Ed's Furry Fucking Guide To Metal.' The show's soundtrack features songs such as 'Nightmare' by Man Scouts of America, a parody of 'Raining Blood' called 'Raining Brown', a separate parody track titled 'Master of Puppets', and 'Not Falling' by Mudvayne. Fur TV broadcast on all MTV channels in Europe, MTV2 in Canada, and MTV in Brazil, Colombia, MTV Australia, MTV New Zealand, with localized titles in France, Latin America, Ukraine, Russia, and Taiwan.

Reader's Guide

Fur TV represents a niche in adult puppet television, pushing boundaries with explicit content using Muppet-style puppetry. Its significance lies in its transition from a award-winning short film to a full MTV series, reflecting a brief trend of adult-oriented puppet shows in the late 2000s. The show's legacy is limited, as it aired only one season of eight episodes and a set of shorts in 2009. It is notable for its international reach, airing across multiple MTV channels worldwide with localized titles. The series is remembered for its crude humor and controversial characters, particularly the three frog-like puppets whose behaviors include violence, sexual conquest, and self-abuse. While not a mainstream success, Fur TV remains a curiosity in television history for its unapologetically adult take on a format typically associated with children's entertainment.

Did You Know?

• The show's pilot aired on 28 February 2004 on BBC Two, and another pilot called Furry Avenue was made in 2004.
• In France, the show is known as Télé Poils; in Russia, as Мохнатики (Mohnatiki).
• The song 'Raining Brown' is a parody of 'Raining Blood' only; the instrumental is not 'Master of Puppets' but a separate parody track titled 'Master of Puppets'.

From Short Film to Series: The Long Road to Fur TV

Fur TV did not arrive fully formed on television screens. It began as a short film crafted by Chris Waitt and Henry Trotter, and it quickly attracted industry attention. In 2002 the project took home the BBC's Greenlight Award for Comedy, and two years later it was recognised with the Rose d'Or for Best Pilot at the Montreaux TV Festival. Despite these early accolades, the path to a full series was anything but straightforward. A television broadcast was originally slated for 2003, yet the pilot did not actually reach viewers until 28 February 2004 on BBC Two. The following year, the duo produced a second pilot titled Furry Avenue, further refining their vision. It was MTV that ultimately committed to a full series, with the show premiering in 2008. Production was handled jointly by Waitt and Trotter's own company Yummo, Warp Films, and MTV Networks Europe. By 2009, MTV had extended the franchise with a run of roughly three-minute shorts, giving the characters additional screen time beyond the half-hour episodes.

The Frog Trio: Characters and Comedic DNA

The heart of Fur TV is its trio of frog-like puppets, each a grotesque yet endearing caricature of adult excess. Fat Ed Tubbs is the loudest of the three: a foul-mouthed, violent heavy metal devotee who swills beer and punches through problems. Lapeño Enriquez occupies a different register entirely, presented as a Brazilian sex god whose charisma makes him irresistible not only to women but to some men as well. Then there is Mervin J Minky, perpetually cross-eyed and mentally challenged, whose defining trait is a chronic, self-abusing fixation on masturbation. The show's comedic engine is the collision of these wildly different personalities within a Muppet-style puppetry framework. Rather than the gentle whimsy one might associate with hand-puppet television, Fur TV deliberately pushes its characters into scenarios involving drinking, sex, and outright violence. The result is a British adult comedy that uses the visual language of children's television to deliver content that is deliberately, unapologetically crude and transgressive.

Global Reach: Fur TV Across Borders

Although Fur TV was produced as a British series for MTV One, its broadcast footprint stretched well beyond the UK. The eight-episode run, which aired weekly from 4 May to 22 June 2008, was followed in 2009 by seven approximately three-minute shorts spanning late May through early July. Internationally, the show found a home on every MTV channel across Europe, as well as on MTV2 in Canada and MTV in Brazil, Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand. Each territory received its own localised title, adding a layer of cultural specificity to the brand. In France it aired as Télé Poils, while MTV Latin America branded it TV de Ciertopelo. Ukrainian audiences met it as Волохате ТБ (Volohate TB), Russian viewers as Мохнатики (Mohnatiki), and the MTV Taiwan feed presented it as 偶們最風流, which translates roughly to 'Puppets Are Charming.' This multilingual, multi-continental distribution made Fur TV a genuinely global niche property, far outstripping what a single-channel British pilot might have achieved on its own.

Metal and Mayhem: The Show's Musical Identity

Music plays a surprisingly specific role in Fur TV's identity, particularly through its association with heavy metal. The most notable example is the track 'Raining Brown,' which functions as a parody of the classic 'Raining Blood' yet is actually instrumentally built on the foundation of 'Master of Puppets.' This double-layered musical joke encapsulates the show's sense of humour: familiar references twisted into something absurd. When Fat Ed resorts to physical violence against Mervin, the scene is underscored by 'Nightmare' from Man Scouts of America, reinforcing the character's aggressive metalhead persona. Meanwhile, 'Not Falling' by Mudvayne appears in various scenes centred on Fat Ed, further cementing the link between the puppet and the genre. The 2009 shorts continued this tradition, with titles like 'Fat Ed's Furry Fucking Guide To Metal' and 'Stinkhole: Raining Brown' explicitly tying the characters to their musical world. The soundtrack thus serves not merely as background but as a narrative and comedic tool that deepens each puppet's personality.

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