| Alt Name: | PPP |
| Genre: | Comedy, puppetry, variety, parody |
| Creator: | Neil Cicierega, Emmy Cicierega, Alora Lanzillotta |
| Voices: | Neil Cicierega |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Network: | Newgrounds |
| Network2: | YouTube |
Potter Puppet Pals is a puppet show web series parodying the Harry Potter novel series by J. K. Rowling, created by Neil Cicierega.[1]
The series was initially posted on Newgrounds, and featured Flash animated characters, but it eventually began being uploaded to YouTube, with real-life puppetry. The YouTube videos were initially posted on Cicierega's personal channel, then moved to a channel called "Potter Puppet Pals", exclusively made for the purpose of uploading the series.[2] Both the original animated episodes, as well as the first seven live-action episodes, have been published to the official Potter Puppet Pals webpage.[3]
Much of the humor derived from the series originates from Cicierega's unique interpretation of the principal Harry Potter characters. Some characters are given personalities designed to contrast completely with their attitudes in the Harry Potter books. Cicierega's Harry is portrayed as an extremely brash, arrogant and vain teenager who is "rife with boyish attitude", while Dumbledore is a nudist, and Ron is depicted as a kind naive boy who is frequently taken advantage of by Harry. Other times, an aspect of the original stories is blown out of proportion for comedic effect, such as Hermione Granger's love of reading and matter-of-fact approach to problems. Throughout the course of the series, multiple characters are seemingly killed off, such as Neville in "Neville's Birthday" and Voldemort in "Harryween"; neither have made appearances since.
"The Mysterious Ticking Noise", released March 23, 2007, was the 22nd most-viewed video on YouTube as of January 1, 2013, with over 137.5 million views.[1] [4] The video was nominated and won[5] in the Comedy category in the 2008 YouTube Awards with 61.6% of the votes in that category.[6]
In the video, Severus Snape hears a strange ticking and, noticing it has a catchy rhythm, begins singing his name to it, followed by Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter. Towards the end, Ron discovers that the source of the ticking is a pipe bomb that explodes as they celebrate, letting Lord Voldemort sing his name by himself to the tune of "Lollipop".[4] At the New York premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Alan Rickman was interviewed by MTV and quoted as saying "[''Potter Puppet Pals''] is very beautifully done, that little piece of work. Can you get rich from that? I hope they did."[7] Daniel Radcliffe also mentioned in an interview by MTV that the cast of the Harry Potter film series should do a live-action version of "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" for a charity.[8] On 23 March 2017, a 4K remake of the original video was posted to the Potter Puppet Pals channel to mark the 10th anniversary of the original.[9]