Crazy Frog

"Crazy Frog" in Sydney

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Crazy hits   DE 6th 08/15/2005 (18 weeks)   AT 2 08/14/2005 (13 weeks)   CH 4th  gold 08/21/2005 (26 weeks)   UK 5  gold 08/06/2005 (8 weeks)   US 19th 09/10/2005 (12 weeks) Crazy Hits - Crazy Christmas Edition   UK 75 12/24/2005 (2 weeks) More crazy hits   DE 17th 07/28/2006 (9 weeks)   AT 6th 07/28/2006 (9 weeks)   CH 14th 07/30/2006 (11 weeks)   UK 64 07/08/2006 (1 week)   US 40 09/09/2006 (7 weeks)

Singles

Axel F.   DE 3 05/30/2005 (23 weeks)   AT 2 06/12/2005 (23 weeks)   CH 1  platinum 05/29/2005 (42 weeks)   UK 1  platinum 06/04/2005 (17 weeks)   US 50  gold 08/20/2005 (7 weeks) Popcorn   DE 35 12/09/2005 (9 weeks)   AT 19th 12/11/2005 (13 weeks)   CH 6th 11/13/2005 (23 weeks)   UK 12 09/03/2005 (8 weeks) Jingle Bells / U Can't Touch This   UK 5 12/24/2005 (5 weeks) We Are the Champions (Ding A Dang Dong)   DE 10 06/30/2006 (11 weeks)   AT 4th 06/30/2006 (14 weeks)   CH 5 07/02/2006 (20 weeks)   UK 11 06/10/2006 (6 weeks) Last Christmas   UK 16 12/23/2006 (3 weeks) Crazy Frog in the House   DE 22nd 01/19/2007 (9 weeks)   AT 17th 01/19/2007 (9 weeks)   CH 19th 01/21/2007 (10 weeks)

Crazy Frog (German: "Verrückter Frosch") is an animated character that appeared in the commercial of the same name for a ringtone from the company Jamba! Occurred in the early 2000s. The promotional video was based on the computer animation The Annoying Thing (German: "The annoying thing") by the Swede Erik Wernquist . The animation accompanied the imitation of the sound of a moped two-stroke engine by Daniel Malmedahl. The associated jingle and connecting songs reached chart positions in many countries; The Crazy Frog YouTube channel was still one of the most subscribed German YouTube channels in early 2020 .

description

The Crazy Frog is an anthropomorphic frog who wears an open white motorcycle helmet, leather jacket, and windbreaker glasses. The frog also has webbed feet and asymmetrical large eyes, as well as an ambiguous but debated genital area that has been censored since 2006.

The figure imitates the driving and the sounds of a motorcycle. When the non-existent vehicle “drives off”, the frog floats away, leaving behind exhaust gases. The figure then disappears into the distance at great speed.

origin

In 1997, the 17-year-old Swede Daniel Malmedahl tried to imitate various engine noises. His friends recognized his talent and posted a version of the imitation on a website. The media soon became aware of this talent, so that Daniel Malmedahl presented his skills on a television show.

From then on, the piece spread in peer-to-peer networks under the name "2taktare", which is the Swedish expression for "two-stroke" and was quickly incorporated into various Flash animations, which made it increasingly popular over the Internet. The most famous animation called "Insanity test" required the viewer - who was looking at a Formula 1 car - not to laugh while the play was being played; otherwise the viewer is considered crazy.

In 2003, Erik Wernquist decided to create a 3D animation ("The Annoying Thing") for the ringtone, which he presented on his website and stated the source of the ringtone as "anonymous". When Daniel Malmedahl found out about this, he contacted Erik Wernquist, who then had to pay him compensation for the use of his piece.

Ringtone

Jamba! acquired the license to distribute the animation as a ringtone from previous owner VeriSign in 2004 . The associated ringtone “ Axel F ” was advertised in various media based on the animation under the new title “The Crazy Frog” . It is estimated that the company made € 15 million in profit on this ringtone alone.

Based on this campaign, numerous similar animated campaigns were launched.

After the first version, in which it disappears with exhaust gases after two-stroke engine noises, and the second version ("Axel F." with noises), the next frog animation followed in July 2005, the "Popcorn Mix", in which the Crazy Frog in one Puts disco records and ends up having one in my mouth. There are two versions of the third Crazy Frog video: the “Popcorn Mix” described above and the “ Madagascar ” movie song “I Like to Move It”. The video is the same for both, but "Crazy Frog" sings two different tracks.

controversy

Numerous complaints were raised against the “Crazy Frog” advertising campaign and against other campaigns to advertise ring tones - preferably on music channels. At the end of 2005, 338 customers in Great Britain were awarded damages because references to ringtone subscriptions were too short and only appeared in small print in the provider's television advertising. The service provider has to cede the sum to mBlox. Nevertheless, processing of the topic (see section publications ) did not achieve low sales figures. The members of the British band Coldplay said they would rather cut off the frog's thigh and eat it, as the Crazy Frogs single prevented Coldplay from reaching number 1 on the British charts.

Publications

The track "Crazy Frog - Axel F.", originally produced by the production team Andreas Dohmeyer / Matthias Wagner / Mark Wippersteg / Simon Hornung alias " Off-cast Project " and later by the Mülheim producer team Reith / Kroll / Raith alias " Bass Bumpers " ( Bump Recordings ) expanded by the "two-stroke" sound, was released on May 23, 2005 in England on Gusto Records . For this, the “two-stroke” sound was combined with the theme of the film music piece “ Axel F ” ( Beverly Hills Cop ) by Harold Faltermeyer . On May 30, 2005, the "Crazy Frog" reached number 1 in the British charts. The supposed demise of Western culture was seen in the English press and called for a boycott and a ban on the amphibious. The frog ended up in the top ten across Europe and in some countries (Belgium, Ireland, etc.) at number 1. The album Crazy Hits was then released. It features both well-known and new pieces such as Pinocchio or Whoomp.

A new edition of the animation in combination with the play Axel F was produced by Kaktus Film and Erik Wernquist, the producer of the first animation "The Annoying Thing". The music video with the title "Axel Frog" that emerged from the new production contains the well-known figure who is being hunted by a bounty hunter because she is the most annoying figure in the world (based on English: "the annoying thing" - translated: "that annoying thing ").

In December 2005, the video game for the Game Boy Advance “Crazy Frog Racer feat. The Annoying Thing “on the market. The games "Crazy Frog Racer" for PC, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance and "Crazy Frog Racer 2" for PC and Playstation 2 were also released in 2006.

Discography

Albums

• 2005 - Crazy Hits
• 2006 - More Crazy Hits
• 2009 - Best of Crazy Hits
• 2009 - Everybody Dance Now

Singles

• 2005 - Axel F (Original by Harold Faltermeyer )
• 2005 - Popcorn (Original by Gershon Kingsley )
• 2005 - Jingle Bells / U Can't Touch This (Original by James Lord Pierpont / Super Freak by Rick James or U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer )
• 2006 - We Are the Champions (Ding A Dang Dong) (Original: We Are the Champions by Queen )
• 2006 - Last Christmas (Original by Wham! )
• 2007 - Crazy Frog in the House
• 2009 - Daddy DJ (Original by Daddy DJ )
• 2009 - Cha Cha Slide
• 2009 - Safety Dance
• 2010 - Ding Dong Song

Video albums

• Crazy Frog Presents Crazy Video Hits is a DVD that contains all of Crazy Frog's music and videos.
• Track list

1. " Axel F "
2. " Popcorn "
3. " We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong) "
4. "Crazy Frog in the House (Knightrider)"
5. "Pump Up the Jam"
6. "Copacabana"
7. " Jingle Bells " / " Last Christmas "
8. The Making of the Crazy Frog Videos

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Australia 2005: for the album Crazy Hits 2005: for the single Jingle Bells 2005: for the single Popcorn  Belgium 2005: for the album Crazy Hits 2006: for the single We Are the Champions (Ding A Dang Dong)  Denmark 2005: for the single Axel F  France 2005: for the album Crazy Hits 2006: for the single We Are the Champions (Ding A Dang Dong) 2007: for the album More Crazy Hits  New Zealand 2005: for the single Jingle Bells 2007: for the album More Crazy Hits Platinum record  Denmark 2005: for the album Crazy Hits  Finland 2005: for the album Crazy Hits  New Zealand 2006: for the single Popcorn  Sweden 2005: for the single Axel F 2005: for the album Crazy Hits

2 × platinum record  Australia 2005: for the single Axel F  Belgium 2005: for the single Axel F  Canada 2006: for the album Crazy Hits  New Zealand 2005: for the single Axel F  Poland 2006: for the album Crazy Hits 3 × platinum record  New Zealand 2006: for the album Crazy Hits Diamond record  France 2005: for the single Axel F 2005: for the single Popcorn

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	3 × gold3	2 × platinum2	-	245,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	2 × gold2	2 × platinum2	-	150,000	ultratop.be
Denmark (IFPI)	gold1	platinum1	-	44,000	ifpi.dk
Finland (IFPI)	-	platinum1	-	31,414	ifpi.fi
France (SNEP)	3 × gold3	-	2 × diamond2	1,375,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Canada (MC)	-	2 × platinum2	-	200,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	2 × gold2	6 × platinum6th	-	105,000	nztop40.co.nz
Poland (ZPAV)	-	2 × platinum2	-	40,000	bestsellery.zpav.pl
Sweden (IFPI)	-	2 × platinum2	-	80,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	gold1	platinum1	-	60,000	hitparade.ch
United States (RIAA)	gold1	-	-	500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold1	platinum1	-	700,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	14 × gold14th	20 × platinum20th	2 × diamond2

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
2. ↑ ^{a b} Awards for music sales: CH , UK , US
3. ↑ US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
4. ↑ Crazy Frog can keep his ding-ding di-di-ding ASA says at brandrepublic.com, accessed on February 27, 2015.
5. ↑ The Crazy Frog Sound? This is my fault on news.bbc, accessed February 27, 2015.

Web links

• Compensation for victims of the "Crazy Frog" ( Memento from March 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Netzeitung
• Insanity Test ( Memento from December 21, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
• Crazy Frog at Discogs (English)