Crazy Frog facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Crazy Frog
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Crazy Frog at the Australian tour in 2005
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Genres | Techno |
| Years active | 2003–2012 |
| Labels | |
The Crazy Frog is a 3D animated creature, featured on music albums.
Contents
History
In 1997, 17-year-old Gothenburg student Daniel Malmedahl recorded himself imitating the noises produced by a two stroke engine. He posted this on a website and caught the attention of a Swedish television researcher, who convinced Daniel to perform the sound live on air. After it debuted on television, recordings of his performance began appearing on file sharing networks and various websites.
The sound was adopted as the sound of a Formula One car as early as 2001 in the form of "Deng Deng Form" and later "The Insanity Test" both of which were a static background of a Ferrari Formula One car accompanied by the sound.
In late 2003, another Swede, Erik Wernquist, encountered the sound effect and, not knowing about the previous incarnations of the sound, was inspired to create the 3D animated character he named "The Annoying Thing" to accompany it. Wernquist worked on the first animation in his spare time using the LightWave 3D modeling application, and the whole process took between six and eight weeks. On 7 October 2003 he posted it on his website and on the CGTalk forum.
The animation was a popular attraction at Wernquist's website, but the sound was credited to "Anonymous". Eventually, word reached Malmedahl that his impressions had been used in a now well-known animation studio. He contacted Wernquist, apparently giving an impromptu performance to confirm his claims. Wernquist was convinced, and gave credit to Malmedahl for his creation.
The animation received attention through filesharing and word of mouth and, when Ringtone Europe and Jamster België (now both merged into Jamba!) got wind of this, realizing the monetary possibilities through capitalizing on the underground cult-status, they licensed the rights to the creation, renaming it "Crazy Frog" and starting to market it in mid-2004.
In an interview with HitQuarters, Wernquist expressed his displeasure at the choice of name:
If I had known that this was going to be such a big thing I would not have allowed them to use that stupid name. It has nothing to do with the character. It's not a frog and it's not particularly crazy either.
Following 2009, the character went on hiatus. In 2018, a trademark claim by Kaktus Films, the original owners alongside Erik Wernquist, had music listed as one of many rights. On 22 April 2020, an official Twitter account for the character was created, and later that day it was announced that a new album was in development.
Music remixes
Members of Bass Bumpers had a dance remix of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel-F” the Beverly Hills Cop theme, adding Daniel Maldemahl’s impression of a moped engine (Ring-a-ding-dong) and a Max Headroom, “What’s going on?” (among other dubbed words). In the music video for that remix the “Thing” says featured bites from Daniel’s bit (Ding, ding.) and zooms around on a mimed bike to escape a robot minion on a hover bike.
Sales and revenue
The company that sells Crazy Frog ringtones (Jamba!) has made £14 million from it.
See also
In Spanish: Crazy Frog para niños
