To Irish peopleĀ of a certain generation, alien puppets Zig and Zag were basically like family. We’d see them as soon as we got home from school, they taught all we know about the big bad world and most of the time they had us in stitches while doing it.Ā
The stars of The Den on RTĆ, the brothers from the planet Zog were the brainchildren ofĀ
CiarĆ”n Morrison and Mick O’HaraĀ who also brough the nightmarish Podge and Rodge into our lives. Now, all these years later, the lads, who can be found on Twitter under the username @DoubleZCreative, have gone out of their way to share a story about the original Podge puppet which wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of A Scare At Bedtime.Ā
Firstly, readers are warned that the story could be a bit too much on the scary side for some…
1/ FLASHBACK! The true scary story about the āoriginalā Podge from #TheDen
Warning: Not for the faint hearted!
First a little history… pic.twitter.com/Cz9OUzNmtvā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
Before the whole creepy tale unravels, culminating in the discovery of a mysterious note in Podge’s pocket. Read on…
2/ Podge first appeared on The Den in 1990 as a ventriloquist dummy that Zag found. Zag used to perform the Podge & Zag show ā a sickly sweet double act. But the true Podge came to life and talked to Zig when he was alone, trying to influence him to do naughty shenanigans… pic.twitter.com/dXWjdGFfh1
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
3/ Eventually Ray managed to catch Podge and get rid of him. Only to return occasionally and cause chaos (often implying he ate dogs!) on The Den. At that stage he had become a master of disguise; calling himself Roger Egdop, Postman Padraig etc. pic.twitter.com/QgF7o7LkKI
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
4/ Podge did a fine turn in The Den Christmas Special āChristmas Crisisā (1992) in multiple guises attempting to ruin Christmas. Shortly after this the ‘original Podge’ puppet was retired and placed in storage. pic.twitter.com/AiyJGgXbzV
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
Christmas Crisis clip (1992) pic.twitter.com/JJqqiYDLFn
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
5/ In 1996 we created #PodgeAndRodge (of āA Scare At Bedtimeā and later The Podge and Rodge Showā fame) for the Den Christmas special āChristmas Crisis 2ā ā they were to be modelled on the āoriginal Podgeā. So we got him out of storage… pic.twitter.com/yRVfvJWXFi
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
6/ NOW THIS IS WHERE THE STORY GETS CREEPY: The āoriginal Podgeā puppet had been stored in a crate for the intervening four years, but when we took him out of his box, we discovered a yellow note in his pocketā¦ pic.twitter.com/O7h7qLQ5eA
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
7/ None of us had put it there and no-one could ever explain how this strange piece of paper, which turned out to be a Christmas cracker joke list got into his pocket. And stranger still are the particularly creepy jokes ā check them out! pic.twitter.com/Y7eZEflvQI
ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
Who put the noteĀ there? Why are the jokesĀ so creepy? And how come no one has discovered it until now? There be no sleep tonight, that’s for sure.Ā
‘A man and his young son went on a camping trip without mother. After one night in the woods, the father asked his son how he was enjoying himself, “Fine, Dad'” said the boy “But next time let’s bring mother and the tomato sauce.”
What??! Are they planning on eating mother?!!ā Double Z (@DoubleZCreative) May 17, 2018
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