Marvin Suggs

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Marvin Suggs and his Muppaphone

Marvin Suggs is a puppet musician in the world of Jim Henson's The Muppets.

Marvin Suggs is a blue "whatnot" Muppet that wears a frilly, multicolored shirt. He is best known for "playing" an instrument known as a muppaphone, a group of small, round, furry Muppets that emit a tonal "ow" when Marvin strikes them on the head with his mallet. Marvin Suggs is voiced by Frank Oz.

Although Marvin is not one of the more commonly seen Muppets, his famous rendition of "Lady of Spain", was included on the Muppet-released CD The Best of the Muppets as well as The Muppet Show: 25th Anniversary CD.

His main two appearances involved a "Muppet interview", in which the following conversation took place...

Marvin: Ah, yes, but I have to replace them every month or so. They go flat.

Kermit: Flat? You mean, out of tune?

Marvin: No. Flat. Like teeny pancakes.

Kermit: What happens to them then?

Marvin: That is something you don't want to know.

His second appearance, in which the Muppaphone itself played a larger part, involved a performance of the annoyingly catching Witch Doctor (song), accompanied by the "Ooh-Ee-Ooh-Ah-Ah!" of the Muppaphone. Suggs, of course, voiced the solo parts.

Frank Oz on Marvin Suggs:

I don't recall where Marvin Suggs came from... probably from one of the writer's meetings. But the accent came from my French friend Phillippe Gentry - I just exaggerated it and made it really annoying. I've always felt Marvin lived in a scuzzy trailer park with his put-upon wife, and he kept the Muppaphones in a cage and would beat them regularly. (The Muppet Show 25th Anniversary Collection)

[edit] Trivia

Muppaphones are only either purple or orange.
One of the Muppaphones sounds suspiciously like Kermit the Frog, while another one sounds like Ernie from Sesame Street.
The only song in which the Muppaphones say something other than "Ow!" is in "The Witch Doctor".
Suggs speaks like Grover of Sesame Street